The Two Thousand Yard Stare: Tom Lea's WWII

[TRK]

There's an interesting discussion on Alamo Sentry about illustrators, including Tom Lovell and James Bama. My favorite twentieth-century illustrator is Tom Lea (1907–2001). He was an established illustrator, artist, and muralist in El Paso when World War II broke out. Life magazine commissioned him to cover the war, and from 1941 to 1944 he made four overseas tours, drawing, painting, and writing about the U.S. armed forces’ role in the conflict, from the North Atlantic Patrol in 1941 to a tour aboard the carrier USS Hornet during the Guadalcanal Campaign, an airplane trip to China to cover the U.S. Army Air Forces’ role in the war in the fall of 1943, and landing with the Marines in the invasion of Peleliu in 1944. One of the results of his experiences on Peleliu was his iconic painting, “The Two Thousand Yard Stare,” showing a hollow-eyed, shell-shocked Marine against the backdrop of Bloody Nose Ridge. Following the war, Lea went on to greater renown as an artist and bestselling author (including The King Ranch and my favorite, The Hands of Cantu.)
There's a new book titled The Two Thousand Yard Stare: Tom Lea's World War II, edited by Brendan M. Greely Jr. and published by Texas A&M University Press. It collects for the first time his wartime paintings, sketches, drawings, and writings, including the complete texts of two limited-edition, fine-press books that Carl Hertzog of El Paso published in 1944, A Grizzly from the Coral Sea and Peleliu Landing. The price, forty bucks, isn't bad for a coffee table book with excellent production qualities, including 76 color photos and 85 black and white photos. I recommend it highly.

[marklemon]

Tom,
I know him well....Excellent artist. When I was a kid, I remember seeing, in a big book on WWII, a Lea painting of the marine walking up the beach with his arm blown off. Man, that painting riveted me almost like no other. I can still see every detail of it in my mind...Yeah, he was a good one. Thanks for the tip on the book. I'll have to grab that one.
Mark

[sloanrodgers]

I certainly agree. Tom Lea was a wonderful artist. I have an original print of his that appeared in the 1939 book,
John C. Duval, First Texas Man of Letters by J. Frank Dobie. Lea's 2001 passing was a sad occassion.

[TRK]

RR: Knowing you, it's the one opposite the title page

Mark: Lea had his sketchpad with him at Peleliu, but he didn't use it in the chaos of the landing; instead, he committed what he saw to memory, including that scene of the marine with his arm torn off you referred to, titled "The Price." Later, he worked up sketches, the original of which for "The Price" is included. Also cool is a color photo of the K-bar knife Lea carried with him at Peleliu and which he used to sharpen his drawing pencils. He continued to use it as a pencil sharpener for the rest of his life.

[Herb]

Apr 22, 2009 21:50:27 GMT -5 @marklemon said:

Tom,
I know him well....Excellent artist. When I was a kid, I remember seeing, in a big book on WWII, a Lea painting of the marine walking up the beach with his arm blown off. Man, that painting riveted me almost like no other. I can still see every detail of it in my mind...Yeah, he was a good one. Thanks for the tip on the book. I'll have to grab that one.
Mark

Mark, I think the book you're referring to, might be WWII by James Jones (author of From Here to Eternity, Thin Red Line), although it was published in 1975. It's a work of WWII art with an extensive commentary by Jones.

[paul]

I think these are the two Tom Lea works you're talking about.

I met him once. He was a fine man.

[sloanrodgers]

Apr 23, 2009 9:43:20 GMT -5 TRK said:

RR: Knowing you, it's the one opposite the title page

Yup, I have it on hand. It resides in a barnwood frame with a halo of barbwire
and an arrowhead. I just wish it were signed by Lea.