Local Cartoonist Tells WWII Story With 'A Soldier's Sketchbook'

For much of his life, Bethel resident Joseph Farris never looked through the more than 400 letters he had sent home to his parents during his service in WWII.

It wasn't until he turned 80-years-old back in 2004, that he thought something must be done with the countless letters, photographs, drawings and cartoons that helped tell his story of his three years overseas. 

“[When] I turned 80, I thought if there was ever a time to do something with the letters, it would be now,” Farris said. “I figured it would be nice to show my family what I had been through. I had no idea it would become a publication, to me they were just two large scrapbooks.” 

Then about three years ago, Farris’ wife's sister's daughter-in-law, a senior editor at National Geographic, was one of his Thanksgiving guests, who said, after being shown the scrapbooks, that they should be published. 

In May 2011, “A Soldier's Sketchbook” was published and was created to look like a 300-page, chronological scrapbook of Farris’ experiences serving in France and Germany from October 1944 through January 1946.

Along with the letters and mementos, Farris also filled in the holes with contemporary writing, maps and other events that were also happening during that time. 

Farris said: “It took a few more years to put it together, which is amazing when you'd think the letters had already been written…but as I read the letters, all these memories came back and seemed to engulf me and I started dreaming about it. It was like I was in the war again.”  

Farris grew up in downtown Danbury, where he spent much of his youth working in his family’s store, Danbury Confectionery. Shortly after he graduated high school in 1942, at the age of 18 he was one of about 200 men from Danbury drafted into the army. 

“It was the first time I was away from home…and I had no street smarts at all,” Farris said. “I worked in the store all the time, but it later helped me and made me really self-sufficient. When I reached a leadership position in the service, my work at the store helped me to deal with it.” 

Prior to serving overseas, Farris trained at various places across the country. At first, he took an IQ test and received high marks.

“It probably saved my life the first time,” he said. “Because of these high marks, I was able to go to college. I was there for six months where they tried to make an engineer out of me. My best friend, however, was immediately sent to Italy where he was shortly killed thereafter.”

After only six months of engineer training, Farris was sent to Marsielle, France in October 1944 serving with the Army’s 100th Division. One of his first memories abroad was having his first shower of weeks of horrible weather and wearing the same clothes.

“It was the best shower of my life,” Farris recalled. "My clothes were so dirty that they could stand up on their own."

Not too long after that, Farris said he remembers his first battle, where he worked with a machine gun as second gunner. 

"That first battle, we had lost track of our rifle company...we couldn't keep up with our heavy equipment,” Farris said. “My lieutenant told us to stop and so he could go ahead and survey the situation. As he passed me, he smiled at me and I smiled at him...Suddenly a shot rang out and hit him right in the head and he died immediately. It was quite a shock to all of us. We had only been in battle for a few minutes and we already lost our lieutenant.” 

Those are some of many memories Farris said he can picture so well. He remembers constantly walking and digging foxholes, being attacked by snipers hidden in trees, as well as spending Christmas Eve in a snowy foxhole and the shock of losing close friends.

In total, Farris spent three years in the army, was overseas for about a year and a half and was directly involved in combat for about six months.

He said throughout that time, he was able to survive through many fortunate experiences, including having done well on that initial IQ test and hearing about the atomic bomb being dropped, signaling that his chances of being sent to the South Pacific were slim. 

Another time, Farris said a delay in taking a break from the frontlines had saved his life. 

He said: “I was suppose to have a break in January; everyone was given a little time away from the frontlines. But they changed their minds and rescheduled it until February…The same thing happened that month. I was all packed on the truck and they said 'hold it, we need you, we can't spare you.' And it happened again in March; three months in a row. In April, I finally got away and met up with a number of other Danbury fellows. But my importance of leaving in April was during the same time my brigade went through one of its worst battles. The lieutenant who took over my machine gun squad was wounded and captured, along with eight other men. Many other men died." 

“Once again my live was saved through good fortune,” Farris said. “Life isn't fair; it wasn't fair to my good friends who was killed and it wasn't fair to the man who took over my squad in April and for the others. But that's the way it goes.” 

Farris returned home to Danbury in February of 1946, at first returning to the family store, but was soon able follow his passion and attended art school for four years through the GI Bill. 

“At the age of six or seven I started drawing and never stopped,” he said. “Some of my first jobs after the war were illustrating for books and book jackets, but then I found that my bent was really in cartooning.”

Farris eventually became an internationally published illustrator, whose cartoons have appeared in The New Yorker, many on the cover, since 1971. He has also done covers for Barron's, Harvard Magazine, ABA Journal, Indiana Alumni, Industry Week and many others. For almost twenty years his cartoons were featured in Sternmagazine in Germany. 

Farris has also published many other books and has had features with both his cartoons and paintings in several museums and art galleries.

While he’s had much success over the years, there are many things Farris said he’s been shocked to discover since the publication of “A Soldier's Sketchbook.” 

“I'm amazed by the amount of people that are interested in WWII. I've also been startled by the amount of people that come up to me to thank me for my service.” he said. “I never talked too much about my service before, I used to think it was a little boring. But my daughter said she couldn't put the book down and I’ve have had that reaction from many other people, even from those I don't know.”

Farris will be at the Bethel Public Library on Tuesday, December 6 from 6:30-8 p.m. to talk about “A Soldier's Sketchbook.” Resgistration is required. For more information call 203-794-8756, extension 4.  

For more information about the book and how to purchase a copy, visit National Geographic's website.

Farris' website, www.josephfarris.com, has more information about his other works and has links to many video interviews about “A Soldier's Sketchbook.” 

Farris has been a Bethel resident for 57 years and lives with his wife Cynthia.