Fred Ellis

Fred C. Ellis (June 5, 1885 – June 10, 1965) was an American editorial cartoonist. He is best remembered as one of the leading radical artists of the 1920s and 1930s as an artist for various publications of the Communist Party, USA (CPUSA), including stints on the staff of the CPUSA's daily newspaper.

Biography Early years Fred Ellis was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1885. He left school after eighth grade to take a job as an office boy for Frank Lloyd Wright. He worked later in an engraving shop and an ice cream factory before becoming a "trucker" at a meat factory, transporting prepared meat from refrigerators to railway cars for shipment around the country.

In 1905, the 20-year-old Ellis was among 20,000 Chicago packinghouse workers who went out on strike, with the truckers seeking a pay raise from the $1.98 the workers were then averaging per 12-hour day. Ellis drew extensively for the Communist movement from 1923 onward, contributing material to The Daily Worker. The Liberator, the Labor Herald, and other publications.

In 1936 he returned to his job at the Daily Worker and taught at the American Artists School, a progressive independent art school directed by Harry Gottlieb whose board included many prominent left wing artists such as William Gropper as well as photographer Margaret Bourke-White.

Ellis retired in 1955.

Death and legacy Fred Ellis died in 1965.

Ellis's papers are held by Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York. The material includes more than 250 original cartoons, a sketchbook with more than 200 sketches, letters, newspaper clippings, photographs, and other material.

Daily Worker gallery

Works Red Cartoons from the Daily Worker. With Jacob Burck. Sender Garlin, editor. New York: The Daily Worker, 1926.