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Seligson, (Luis) caricatures
HLL.2019.043
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Contributing Institution:
Holt Labor Library at CSU Dominguez Hills
Title: Luis Seligson caricatures
Identifier/Call Number: HLL.2019.043
Physical Description:
1 box
Physical Description:
1 Linear Feet
Date (inclusive): circa 1960-1969
Abstract: This collection contains caricatures illustrated by Luis (Lou) Seligson, likely during the 1960s. A number of these illustrations
were for the Socialist newsplaper, The Militant.
Language of Material:
English
.
Existence and Location of Copies
The scanned copies of these caricatures have information missing that are located on the physical originals. This link does
not contain scans of all physical originals.
"Luís Seligson was born in Argentina in 1914, the son of immigrant Russian parents. To escape serving in the Tsarist wars,
Abraham (Albert) Seligson, a carpenter, fled to Argentina. Sarah a seamstress, fleeing the virulent anti- Semitism in Russia,
arrived in Argentina some years later. There the two married and had two sons.
When Luís was six and his brother, Mauricio, three, the family left Argentina (ironically, because of a pogrom) for the United
States and settled in Wisconsin, where Mauricio died in childhood of rheumatic fever.
In the early thirties, in the very depths of the Great Depression, Luís--now an Americanized Louis--entered the University
of Wisconsin. He studied journalism and art, became an athlete (boxing and swimming), and was politically active on a campus
radicalized by the Depression. He worked his way through college as a sign painter, learning the brush and pen-and-ink techniques
that he was to use the rest of his life.
Toward the end of the thirties, Lou had migrated to the San Francisco Bay Area, where he became sports editor of the People's
World, a left-wing daily. He wrote two columns, "Pardon My Glove" and "Out in Left Field."
Upon U.S. entry into World War II, he joined the Merchant Marine and sailed on freighters and tankers in the Pacific. Later
he worked in the Marin shipyards, where he met and married Dorothy Wilson, a journeyman shipfitter and union organizer. They
were both active in winning better conditions for workers in industry and agriculture.
After the war, Lou returned to journalism, and worked for several big-city newspapers across the country. It was during this
period that he developed his unique style of doing interviews with an accompanying caricature. Lou would sketch his subject
while he conducted the interview and produce a dramatic and often wry pen-and-ink portrait that would appear alongside the
feature story. The combination was very popular and the column gave him access to many local and national celebrities.
With the onset of the McCarthy witch-hunt in the fifties, Lou became one of its first victims. An outspoken radical and officially
a citizen of Argentina, he was arrested as a seditious alien in 1952.
The Immigration and Naturalization Department began proceedings to deport Lou to Argentina. He was able--for about ten years--to
forestall deportation by means of legal maneuvers. However, he lost his job, nor could he remain in any job. No sooner was
he hired than a minion of the FBI would call on his employer--and Lou would be dismissed. By the end of the fifties, he had
been hounded out of journalism.
Divorced from Dorothy, exhausted by the 10-year struggle to prevent deportation to Argentina (which was then ruled by a right-wing
dictatorship), depressed by his inability to work at his profession, and with the Immigration authorities closing in, Lou
voluntarily left the United States for Israel, where he would be given citizenship under the Law of Return. Shortly after
his arrival in 1963, he found work in Tel Aviv doing his interviews-plus-portraits for the daily newspaper, Ma'ariv. The text
of his work was translated into Hebrew for publication. During this time, he met and married Eunice Chankowsky, a Canadian
living in Israel.
In the mid-sixties Lou was offered a job as editor of one of Switzerland's English-language newspapers, the Geneva Weekly
Tribune. Frustrated with not seeing his work appear in the language in which he wrote, he longed to work in English again
and therefore accepted the offer.
After three years in this position, ownership of the paper changed hands and the job came to an end. This was the beginning
of a particularly enjoyable period. Lou and Eunice traveled all over Europe in a camper, while Lou wrote a travel book.
Toward the end of 1970, Lou and Eunice moved to Canada, where Lou worked at various times for the Montreal Star, the Montreal
Gazette, and the Canadian Jewish News. His column won him many friends, public honors, and a loyal readership. He continued
to produce his column until 1997, when failing health forced him to retire.
Lou Seligson spent most of his adult life battling unjust persecution and yet always remained optimistic and steadfast in
his political ideals. A stalwart atheist and Marxist-Leninist, Lou fought all the battles of his era tenaciously. Yet Lou
was a happy man, gracious to his family and friends, and vitally connected to a network of progressive people all over the
world, who will always value him and his work.
Lou Seligson died July 22, 2002."
For information about citing archival material, see the
Citations for Archival Material guide, or consult the appropriate style manual.
Please see the Lou Seligson Subject File within the Holt Labor Library Pamphlet and Subject File Collection for more materials
relating to Luis Seligson. Finding aid for this collection can be found
here.
For other collections related to the Holt Labor Library, see the
Holt Labor Library Libguide.
This collection contains caricatures illustrated by Luis (Lou) Seligson, likely during the 1960s. A number of these illustrations
were for the Socialist newsplaper, The Militant.
The subjects of these caricatures include Charles de Gaulle, Ngo Dinh Diem, James Eastland, Ludwig Erhard, Arthur Goldberg,
Barry Goldwater, J. Edgar Hoover, Hubert Humphrey, Lyndon B. Johnson, Carey Estes Kefauver, John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy,
Jomo Kenyatta, Robert McNamara, George Meany, Richard Nixon, Kwame Nkrumah, Nelson Rockefeller, Dean Rusk, Sukarno, Robert
Wagner, and Harold Wilson.
All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Director of Archives
and Special Collections. Permission for publication is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical
materials and not intended to include or simply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.
There are no access restrictions on this collection.
This collection is arranged by size.
This collection was processed by Shawne West in January 2023.
The Luis Seligson Caricature Collection was given to the Holt Labor Library in San Francisco, California by Martin H. Goodman
in 2019, and was acquired by the Gerth Archives and Special Collections at California State University, Dominguez Hills, in
2019.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
World politics--Caricatures and cartoons