All in Line

A new edition of Saul Steinberg’s memoir-in-drawing of his escape from fascist Europe, staying briefly in the Dominican Republic and then travelling up into America, capturing absurdities, delights, and the grim realities of war along the way.

To escape fascist Europe, the artist Saul Steinberg drew his way to America. He made it to New York in 1942 already in contract with The New Yorker, but was soon called up to serve in World War II. This book, All In Line, is a memoir-via-drawing of this key time in Steinberg’s life, when he began to find his line and his way in America.

In his cartoons and illustrations for The New Yorker and others, Steinberg depicted delightful absurdities and quiet moments: a painter saws a long canvas into smaller, sellable portions; a child draws a gigantic face on the sidewalk to the confusion of passersby; a woman alone in her room bends metal hangers into the shapes of faces.

But Steinberg didn’t shy away from facing the grim realities of his era. There are withering anti-fascist cartoons, as well as glimpses of war: skies crowded with bombers, families on the run, army convoys, broken-down jeeps, and smoldering battlefields.

This new edition of All In Line includes an essay by the writer Iain Topliss on Steinberg’s creation of the book, as well as an afterword by the cartoonist Liana Finck. This new edition of All In Line will resonate with lifelong fans of Steinberg, as well as artists just beginning to find their own way.