Don Wright, a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist whose edgy work breaks through duplicity and arrogance and resonates with common-sense readers, was born in Palm Beach, Florida on March 24th. died at his home. He was 90 years old.
His death was confirmed by Carolyn Wright, the wife of a fellow journalist.
During his 45-year career, Mr. Wright drew approximately 11,000 cartoons for the Miami News, which closed in 1988 and remained with the paper until his retirement in 2008. But he reached a readership far beyond Florida. His cartoons were published in newspapers across the country through syndication.
Mr. Wright's readers knew his positions, especially what he was against, whether it was the Vietnam War or not. Israel's military aid to South Africa's pro-apartheid regime (he painted a menorah with missiles instead of candles); Sexual abuse by clergy. John Birch Society, anti-communist extremist group. and racists, especially the violent Ku Klux Klan.
The morning after winning his first Pulitzer Prize in 1966, Mr. Wright received a telegram from the racist governor of Alabama, George C. Wallace. “Sometimes even the meanest cartoonists have their work praised for no reason,” the magazine said. “If the shoes fit, wear them.'' Mr. Wright kept the telegram framed in his home.
The first award-winning comic, published during the Cold War when the world was on edge over fears of nuclear Armageddon, depicts two battered men encountering each other in a wasteland cratered by bombs. was drawing. “So you were just bluffing?” one asks the other.
His 1980 Pulitzer Prize-winning work depicts two Florida prison guards removing a corpse from the electric chair. Some ask, “Why did the governor say we were going to do this?” The other person replies, “Let me be clear: We value human life.”
Mr. Wright has been shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize five times and is a five-time Pulitzer Prize finalist. 'Political Cartoon Collection' (1971) and 'Right Side Up' (1981).
His cartoons were first syndicated by the Washington Star, then the New York Times, and finally Tribune Media Services.
Mr. Wright, who meticulously combined every ink, graphite, and crayon on his illustration board late into the night to carry out the hard-line opinions of famous people in fields such as politics and sports, was the most popular choice among readers. He often said that the only comic that generated a reaction was . This is a sentimental work he painted after Walt Disney's death in 1966, depicting Mickey Mouse and other Disney characters crying.
Mr. Disney's widow, Lillian Disney, commissioned Mr. Wright to draw the original cartoons, which he bequeathed to the Library of Congress when he died in 1997.
In 1989, The New Yorker reported that Mr. Wright was among the American cartoonists who inspired Chinese intellectuals and businessmen in their support for that year's Tiananmen Square student uprising.
Donald Conway Wright was born on January 23, 1934 in Los Angeles to Charles and Evelyn (Olberg) Wright. His father was a maintenance supervisor for an airline, and his mother managed the household finances.
When Don was a child, the family moved to Florida. He always liked to draw, and after graduating from Miami Edison High School in 1952, he applied for a job in the art department of the Miami News. Instead, the newspaper recruited him into the photography department and gave him a camera, even though he was already into comics.
He also describes Fidel Castro's triumphant arrival in Havana, Elvis Presley's exuberance, Cassius Clay's swagger at a Miami Beach gym before converting to Islam and changing his name to Muhammad Ali, and his ambitions. He continued to take classic photographs of people such as Senator John F. Kennedy. In a hotel room, wearing a suit jacket, tie, and boxer shorts.
A self-taught both photographer and illustrator, Wright combines the craftsmanship and attention to detail of a photographer with the creativity of an illustrator.
“He was always drawing, he was always doodling,” said Wright, whose wife was a reporter for the Miami News when they met.
After serving in the Army, Mr. Wright returned to the Miami News, where he began publishing some of the cartoons and hired him as a graphics editor to create art because he feared the paper's editors would quit if he did not transfer. Assigned to the department. . By 1963, his cartoons were appearing regularly on editorial pages.
In 1989, he was hired by the Post, which, like The News, was owned by Cox Newspapers.
In addition to his wife, Mr. Knight's survivors include his brother, David;
Wright admitted that not all of his cartoons were home runs.
In 1994, he told the Times: “You're on a deadline, you have 3 ideas, you throw away the first idea, you throw away the second one too, before you run out of time.” Just know, the cliché is Looks better. ”
When he retired from the Post, he explained that although his comics often had punchlines, his goal was not to be humorous.
“I'm sometimes confused by how many readers believe that comics should be lighthearted, fun, and 'funny,'” Wright said. “Humor has many associations: sarcastic, subtle, slapstick, and even black. It is aimed at Americans who have
“But just think about it,” he added. “How funny is that?”
