Adapted posthumously from the illustration for the 1958 book, Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories.

The 1958 book,Yertle the Turtle, has a little-known and somewhat surprising origin. In a 1987 interview, Ted said: “Yertle was Hitler or Mussolini. Originally, Yertle had a mustache, but I took it off.” During the run-up to WWII, FDR was battling the isolationist “America First” supporters who were seeking to keep us out of the war. Ted believed American isolationism was not an option and that Hitler needed to be stopped. He fought these battles with hundreds of WWII editorial cartoons during 1941 and ’42, and ultimately with his service in the Army as a captain in Frank Capra’s celebrated wartime documentary filmmaking unit.