Profile: Joseph Farris, Artist, Author

This evening, Joseph Farris, one of Bethel's illustrious artists, will be speaking at Byrd's Books about his new book," A Soldier's Sketchbook".

The book started out as a scrapbook put together from some of the 400 letters that Farris sent home when he was just a “young, naïve man” in France and Germany during World War II. Photos in the book illustrate the text, and were provided by National Geographic, who published the book.

 Farris gave an interview in his home, perched high as a birds nest on one of the tallest peaks in Bethel, where he has lived for 58 years. The home had originally been a Boy Scout camp, and the treacherous driveway that winds with hairpin turns would make a fast getaway impossible.

 Decorating every inch of wall space are works of art by Farris, his wife Cynthia, a retired art teacher, their children, grandchildren and students from Cynthia's classes. The style of each piece by Farris is immediately recognizable. Even at 87 years old, the New Yorker cartoonist continues to illustrate books, magazine covers and more. 

CR: Where did you grow up?

 Farris: My father ran a corner store in Danbury. My parents were both illiterate. They came Lebanon, and they learned to speak English by going to the movies three times a week. I admired them tremendously for how they survived. While they were at the movies, my brother and I ran the store. It was open from six in the morning until midnight every day, including Christmas. Sadly it is not there anymore.

My father wanted me to be a pharmacist, you know, with the white coat and all. He thought that would be quite a step up and I said, No dad, I want to be an artist. They never really understood what I did.

 (Showing a drawing of the are where he grew up.) River Street, Elm Street, these buildings are all gone, except for one. It's now the American Legion.

It was a wonderful street, all nationalities all kinds of occupations. And as you know, Danbury was the hat capitol of the world.  There were a number of hat shops and fur shops, and a friend of mine found his father's factory right here on River Street.

Men's hats started to decline in the '40s, and then Kennedy dealt the final blow. He came in bare headed.  I wore a hat to school, a tie and jacket. Danbury High School was the WestConn's Fairfield Hall, the tan building on White Street.

CR: How did this book come about?

 Farris:  For 50 yrs, the letters were stored in the closet in a paper bag. I always wanted to do something with them and I kept postponing. But in 2004 I turned 80, I'm now 87, and I thought if I am going to do anything with them, I'd better do it now. My main goal was to do something for my family, took excerpts of the letters, did two thick scrapbooks, of my drawings, and photos, other things.

 Somebody in my wife's family works for National Geographic, and she was visiting one day.  I was showing off my scrapbooks, and she said I should publish it. That was not why I did it, but I was not go to say no right away. She told me to send her a copy and we worked on it for a year and a half.

CR: Were the letters sad?

 Farris: I wrote over 400 letters home, and most of the letters were rather bland. 'Dear folks, everything is swell.' Swell was an operative word at the time (smiling). I'm bringing that word back, by the way.

 My letters were cheery, I didn't want them to worry. When I came home I immediately looked through them and wrote down what really happened.

 Everything we wrote was heavily censored. We couldn't write anything about the battles of the time. After the war I was assigned to be at company headquarters, I was a staff sergeant, a machine gunner, 100^th infantry division.

One day, I saw on the desk the Morning Reports. They were concise and terse. Three men died, or, the men are miserable.  So many men captured.

The way I handled it in the book, I would take the company report, and take the letters I wrote home, and my memory of what really happened was piqued. Ad I filled in what happened.  About a third of the book is contemporary writing. My drawings are all from before I had any training, I was an unskilled artist at the time.

 When the war first broke out there was Pearl Harbor, we, not just me but the country, we just thought, the Japanese all have houses made of wood. We'll drop a few bombs and that will be that. We were so naïve. The country was naïve.

 I knew the war was going on, I started paying attention to the news reports. I realized I was going to be part of that war but it was worse than I thought it was going to be. I never stopped being frightened. You never knew if a bomb was going to drop on you. There was a foxhole where we stayed and it just kept raining.  We had to dredge it with our helmets. I didn't change my clothes for a month.  We were crouched in there, I would sit on my helmet. 

I was 18 when I went into the service. I had never left home before. I had been in the Boy Scouts and we went to Washington once. Suddenly I was drafted with about 200 other Danbury people, and we were sent up to Fort Devins in Massachusetts. It was my first time away from home. I didn't know what was in store for me.

CR: Are you still working?

 Farris: Oh yes, I go to my studio every day. I look forward to going to work every morning, I can't wait. There is nothing else I would rather do.

CR: What has publishing this book meant to you?

 This has been a wonderful thing for me, toward the end of my life. It's wonderful for my children and grandchildren. My daughter said she couldn't put it down. It's funny but the publicity has been aimed towards men, but it's women who really flip over the book. I have had more responses from women who say they couldn't put it down. I think it's the letters.

CR: What is different between this and other books about World War II?

 Farris: The main difference between this book and the others is that this is from a common soldier's point of view. I was not famous, I didn't get the Medal of Honor. This is why it's gotten such a good response from people whose parents were in the war. People tell me, “Now I know what my dad went though. It makes me understand him more,” because many of the soldiers couldn't talk about it.

CR: Why is this an important book?

 They realize we are disappearing, over 3000 veterans are dying every day. There are fewer and fewer of us. We're disappearing quickly

CR: How did the war effect who you are?

 Farris:  I grew up quickly. It says on the back of the book, “I went into the army a naïve young men and came out a battle hardened, naïve young man.”

 (Farris was very involved in the anti-war movement in Viet Nam.) At the time, I thought WW II was the right thing, but I've had some doubts that maybe it could have been avoided. I heard an interesting story. The British ambassador was living in a place where he could observe the troops and where Hitler stood. He wired home and said if you could send me some sharp shooters, we could kill this man on the spot. And some official, I think it was Chamberlain, said, “Well, that wouldn't be very sporting.”

 You can imagine if they had killed him how the world would have changed, how many people would have been saved. It is the same thing in Afghanistan, so many people have been killed.

CR: Many people come back from war and have a hard time dealing with having killed people.

 Farris: They called that battle fatigue. I didn't have battle fatigue, I was almost emotionally unscathed. But I remember a cousin of mine had terrible battle fatigue and he had shock treatment. We were honored when we came home, it was not like Viet Nam where they came home and no one recognized them.

CR: What has happened since the book came out?

 Farris: There have been book signings, Byrd's tonight, The Westport library invited me, and the head librarian in New York Public Library saw the publicity and asked me to speak there. Do you know the Lotus Club in NY? It's a literary society, one of the founders was Mark Twain, it's very prestigious. I was invited to be a guest, and they asked me questions all night. I barely got to eat my dinner. (laughing.) It's in a spectacular building, it used to be a Vanderbilt home.

 Joseph Farris will be at Byrd's books tonight at 7 p.m. to discuss his book, "A Soldier's Sketchbook".