Syd Hoff (September 4, 1912 – May 12, 2004) was an American cartoonist and children's book author, best known for his classic early reader '' Danny and the Dinosaur''. His cartoons appeared in a multitude of genres, including advertising commissions for such companies as Eveready Batteries, Jell-O, OK Used Cars, S.O.S Pads, Rambler, Ralston Cereal, and more.

Biography

Hoff was born in

Bronx, New York The Bronx ( ) is the northernmost of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It shares a land border with Westchester County, New York, West ...

. While he was still at high school, Milt Gross, a popular 1930s cartoonist, told him at an assembly, "Kid, someday you'll be a great cartoonist!"Syd Hoff:Autobiography
Official Syd Hoff Website, retrieved May 10, 2021 At 16, he enrolled at the

National Academy of Design The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Frederick Styles Agate, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, an ...

in New York City. At 18, he sold his first cartoon to ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

'', and eventually sold a total of 571 of them to the publication from 1931 to 1975. Hoff became known for his cartoons in ''The New Yorker'' depicting tenements and lower-middle class life in the city.Syd Hoff Cartoons
Syracuse University, Nov 6, 2009, Retrieved November 30, 2010HarperCollins–Authors & Illustrators
HarperCollins Publishers, 2010, Retrieved November 30, 2010 His cartoons have appeared in a variety of publications including the ''New Yorker'', ''

Esquire Esquire (, ; abbreviated Esq.) is usually a courtesy title. In the United Kingdom, ''esquire'' historically was a title of respect accorded to men of higher social rank, particularly members of the landed gentry above the rank of gentleman ...

'', and ''Look'' magazine. He was also the host of a television show ''Tales of Hoff'', in which he drew and told stories. Hoff wrote and illustrated over 60 volumes in the

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is a British–American publishing company that is considered to be one of the "Big Five (publishers), Big Five" English-language publishers, along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group USA, Hachette, Macmi ...

"I Can Read" series for beginning readers, most notably ''Sammy the

Seal Seal may refer to any of the following: Common uses * Pinniped, a diverse group of semi-aquatic marine mammals, many of which are commonly called seals, particularly: ** Earless seal, also called "true seal" ** Fur seal ** Eared seal * Seal ( ...

'' and the popular '' Danny and the Dinosaur'' (1958), which sold 10 million copies and has been translated into a dozen languages. In 1976, Hoff edited and published ''Editorial and Political Cartooning: From Earlier Times to the Present'', which contains over 700 examples of works from the world's editorial and political cartoons.

Syndicated comic strips

Hoff drew two long-running syndicated comic strips: ''Tuffy'' (1939–1949) and ''Laugh It Off'' (1958–1978). One of his recurring characters is a walrus-mustached man who eventually appeared as the father in his daily ''Tuffy'', done for the

King Features Syndicate King Features Syndicate, Inc. is an American content distribution and animation studio, consumer product License, licensing and print syndication company owned by Hearst Communications that distributes about 150 comic strips, columnist, newspape ...

from 1939 to 1950. ''Tuffy'' was originally commissioned by

William Randolph Hearst William Randolph Hearst (; April 29, 1863 – August 14, 1951) was an American newspaper publisher and politician who developed the nation's largest newspaper chain and media company, Hearst Communications. His extravagant methods of yellow jou ...

in 1938, and was declared "essential for national morale" during the American involvement in World War II. This classification kept Hoff out of active military duty during World War II, although he joined the Office of War Information and drew propaganda cartoons which were dropped behind enemy lines.Biographical Timeline
www.sacreddoodles.com, the official Syd Hoff website, retrieved 1/5/2013

Political cartoons as A. Redfield

Starting in 1933, Hoff began to contribute cartoons to leftist newspapers and magazines, including '' The Daily Worker'' and ''

New Masses ''New Masses'' (1926–1948) was an American Marxist magazine closely associated with the Communist Party USA (CPUSA). It was the successor to both '' The Masses'' (1911–1917) and ''The Liberator'' (1918–1924). ''New Masses'' was later merge ...

'' as A. Redfield, the pseudonym that he adopted for his radical work. Hoff's first published book ''The Ruling Clawss'' (''

Daily Worker The ''Daily Worker'' was a newspaper published in Chicago founded by communists, socialists, union members, and other activists. Publication began in 1924. It generally reflected the prevailing views of members of the Communist Party USA (CPU ...

'', 1935) collects over 150 Hoff cartoons originally published in the communist daily, and his first book for childre
''Mr. His: A Children's Story for Anybody''
was published as a pamphlet by (and also within the pages of) ''

'' magazine. Hoff's output under the A. Redfield pseudonym began to taper off by 1940, though he remained politically active. He was questioned by the

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

in 1952 about his A. Redfield work and Communist Party association, after being photographed with Marxist civil liberties advocate Corliss Lamont at a protest against the atomic bomb the previous year. Hoff was never formally charged, nor

blacklisted Blacklisting is the action of a group or authority compiling a blacklist of people, countries or other entities to be avoided or distrusted as being deemed unacceptable to those making the list; if people are on a blacklist, then they are considere ...

. Nevertheless, he remained concerned for the remainder of his life about being identified as a "Red" and the impact that this might have on the reception of his children's books.Syd Hoff, A. Redfield, and Me: Part II
Nine Kinds of Pie: Philip Nel's Blog, October 30, 2011, retrieved 1/5/2013

Bibliography

Children's books

(

, 1939) * ''Muscles and Brains'' (Dial Press, 1940) * ''It's Fun Learning Cartooning'' (Stravon Publishers, 1952) * ''Out of Gas'' (Ives Washburn, 1954) * ''Eight Little Artists'' (Abelard-Schuman) * ''Patty's Pet'' (Young Readers Press, 1955) * '' Danny and the Dinosaur'' series (Harper & Row, 1958–1996) **''Danny and the Dinosaur'' (1958) ** ''Happy Birthday, Danny and the Dinosaur'' (1995) ** ''Danny and the Dinosaur Go to Camp'' (1996) **Danny and the Dinosaur: Too Tall (2014) **Danny and the Dinosaur and the New Puppy (2015) **Danny and the Dinosaur and the Girl Next Door (2016) **Danny and the Dinosaur: School Days (2017) * ''Julius'' (Harper & Row, 1959) * ''Sammy the Seal'' (Harper & Row, 1959) * ''Ogluk the Eskimo'' (Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1960) * ''Oliver'' (Harper & Row, 1960) * ''Where's Prancer?'' (Harper & Brothers, 1960) * ''Who Will Be My Friends?'' (Harper & Row, 1960) * ''Chester'' (Harper & Row, 1961) * ''Albert the Albatross'' (Harper & Row, 1961) * ''Little Chief'' (Harper & Row, 1961) * ''Stanley'' (Harper & Row, 1962) * ''Grizzwold'' (Reader's Digest Services, 1963) * ''Lengthy'' (G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1964) * ''Mrs. Switch'' (Putnam, 1966) * ''Learning to Cartoon'' (Stravon Educational Press, 1966) * ''Irving and Me'' (Harper & Row, 1967) — for young adults; no illustrations * ''Jeffrey at Camp'' (Putnam, 1968) * ''Slithers'' (G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1968) * ''Wanda's Wand'' (C. R. Gibson Co., 1968) * ''The Witch, the Cat, and the Baseball Bat'' (Grosset & Dunlap, 1968) * ''The Rooftop Mystery'' (Harper & Row, 1968) — text by Joan M. Lexau * ''Baseball Mouse'' (Putnam, 1969) * ''Herschel the Hero'' (Putnam, 1969) * ''Roberto and the Bull'' (McGraw-Hill, 1969) * ''The Horse in Harry's Room'' (Harper & Row, 1970) * ''My Aunt Rosie'' (Harper & Row, 1972) * ''Ida the Bareback Rider'' (G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1972) * ''A Walk Past Ellen's House'' (McGraw-Hill, 1973) * ''Amy's Dinosaur'' (Windmill Books/Simon & Schuster, 1974) * ''Barkley'' (Harper & Row, 1975) * ''The Littlest Leaguer'' (Harper & Row, 1976) * ''Henrietta'' series (Garrard Pub. Co., 1977–1985) ** ''Henrietta Lays Some Eggs'' (1977) ** ''Henrietta, Circus Star'' (1978) ** ''Henrietta, the Early Bird'' (1978) ** ''Henrietta Goes to the Fair'' (1979) ** ''Henrietta's Halloween'' (1980) ** ''Henrietta's Fourth of July'' (1981) ** ''Happy Birthday, Henrietta!'' (1983) ** ''Henrietta's Vacation'' (1985) * ''Walpole'' (Harper & Row, 1977) * ''Syd Hoff Shows You How to Draw Cartoons'' (Scholastic Book Services, 1979) * ''The Man Who Loved Animals'' (Putnam Publishing Group, 1982) * ''The Young Cartoonist, The ABC's of Cartooning'' (Stravon, 1983) * ''Barney's Horse'' (Harper & Row, 1987) * ''Mrs. Brice's Mice'' (Harper & Row, 1988) * ''Captain Cat'' (HarperCollins, 1993) * ''Duncan the Dancing Duck'' (Clarion Books, 1994) * ''Bernard on His Own'' (Clarion Books, 1996)

Books for adults

* ''The Ruling Clawss'' (

, 1935) * ''Naval Secrets: This Book is Filled with Man-to-Man Ideas and Aids to Help you Record Your Bang-up Navy Experiences'' (Hillair Publishing Company, 1943) * ''Military Secrets: This Book is Filled with Man-to-Man Ideas and Aids to Help you Record Your Bang-up Army Experiences'' (Hillair Publishing Company, 1943) * ''Feeling No Pain: an Album of Cartoons'' (Dial Press, 1944) * ''Mom, I'm Home!'' (Doubleday/Doran & Co., 1945) * ''Oops! Wrong Party!'' (Dutton, 1951) * ''Oops! Wrong Stateroom!'' (Washburn, 1953) * ''Okay—You Can Look Now!'' (Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1955) * ''The Better Hoff'' (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1961) * ''Upstream, Downstream and Out of My Mind'' (Bobbs-Merrill, 1961) * ''Twixt the Cup and the Lipton'' (Bobbs-Merrill, 1962) * ''So This is Matrimony: Cartoons'' (Pocket Books, 1962) * ''Hunting, Anyone?'' (Bobbs-Merrill, 1963) * ''From Bed to Nurse, or, What a Way to Die'' (Dell, 1963)

Film

Hoff's 1962 book ''Stanley'' was adapted into a short stop-motion animation film called ''Stanley and the Dinosaurs'' in 1989. The film was produced by Churchill Films and directed by John Clark Matthews.

References

External links

*
Syd Hoff Cartoons (1948–1969)
at Syracuse University (primary resource material) {{DEFAULTSORT:Hoff, Syd American children's writers American children's book illustrators American editorial cartoonists American magazine cartoonists American comic strip cartoonists American comics artists American comics writers American humorists The New Yorker cartoonists Jewish American comics writers Jewish American comics artists Jewish humorists Jewish American illustrators 20th-century American illustrators Jewish American children's writers 1912 births 2004 deaths 20th-century American Jews 21st-century American Jews Writers who illustrated their own writing