White Collar: Novel in Linocuts

 

Black and white image created using linocut of a person walking blindly with their face covered by a white collar.

Overview

Images of union workers commonly feature blue-collar workers such as longshoremen or dock workers, but workers can organize unions in any occupation, including in the service industry and white-collar positions. Published in 1940, White Collar is a graphic, textless novel featuring Patri’s linocut illustrations to chronicle the struggles of a white-collar worker during the Great Depression.  The main character does not consider himself a union man but finds that even his white collar cannot keep him safe from the pain of job loss, poverty, debt, and a family tragedy: "Unfolding in stark, monochromatic pictures with no text, his novel recounts the experiences of an artist in the years of the 1929 stock market crash. Unable to find work with advertising agencies, the novel's protagonist loses his house just as his wife informs him that she is pregnant. He soon learns that he shares much with blue-collar workers and, like them, can benefit from union organizing" (Johnson 66). Click the link below to see the full 130 pages of the book.

Questions

  • What beliefs does the main character have that negatively impact his view of unions?
  • Describe in your own words the narrative of the book.  Does the book make a compelling argument for joining a union?  Why or why not?

White Collar: Novel in Linocuts Links to an external site. (130 pages)

Linocut black and white print of an illustrator at work

White Collar pg. 12

Linocut black and white print of an illustrator returning home with blue collar workers in the background

White Collar pg. 15

Linocut print of a man and being comforted by his wife

White Collar pg. 46

Linocut black and white print of devastated man and wife comforting each other

White Collar pg. 45

Linocut black and white print of a farm worker family consoling the destitute illustrator and his family

White Collar pg. 125

Linocut red and white print of a multitude of workers marching in solidarity

White Collar pg. 130

Patri, Giacomo. White Collar: Novel in Linocuts Links to an external site.. Giacomo Patri illustrations. Giacomo Patri Collection, LARC_0039, Labor Archives & Research Center, San Francisco State University. 

Johnson, Mark Dean. At Work: The Art of California Labor. California Historical Society Press, 2003.