Patrick Hoeppner wanted to write a biography — but no one had grabbed his attention yet.
It wasn’t until the Belmont resident was flipping through a book about the history of the United States — one of many he read during the COVID-19 pandemic — that his eye was drawn to intricate images and cartoons that remain prevalent today. The Democratic donkey, the Republican elephant, and even the modern depiction of Santa Claus are credited to Thomas Nast, a 19th-century editorial cartoonist.
Hoeppner’s biography on Nast, titled “The Life and Art of Thomas Nast,” was published in March. Hoeppner presented his work at the Belmont Public Library on July 12.
Nast, born in 1840, is best known for his work published in Harper’s Weekly in the 1860s and 1870s during the Civil War and Reconstruction. His work highlighted the cruelty of slavery and often criticized those who supported the Confederate South or a compromise between it and the Union. He popularized the symbols of the Democratic and Republican parties, and also created two iconic U.S. symbols: Uncle Sam and Columbia.
Nast and his work are also credited with the downfall of Tammany Hall and the Tweed Ring, a corrupt network of politicians in New York City led by William “Boss” Tweed, according to Hoeppner. Tweed and other public officials embezzled tens of millions of dollars of public money, most notably through the construction of the Tweed Courthouse in the mid-1800s.
“It’s like the stranger-than-fiction aspect,” Hoeppner said. “It’s not fictional; this is history, and a guy with some pictures actually knocked over one of the worst political gangs in history.”
In 1873, Tweed was tried and convicted in connection with the unfinished courthouse and sentenced to 12 years in prison.
“Nast was one of the extraordinary examples of how creative expression can right a wrong,” Hoeppner said.
Hoeppner wrote the book throughout 2021 and 2022, and later worked alongside editors and peer reviewers for an additional year. At one point, Hoeppner printed out all 400 pages of his manuscript, eventually cutting it down by more than half.
Hoeppner’s mother, Marilu Hoeppner, helped him through the research and editing process. In all, the book has nearly 1,000 citations throughout the 160 pages. Marilu Hoeppner is a molecular biologist and, at one time, digitized books at the National Library of Medicine. Though she didn’t know much about Nast, she helped her son find primary sources to support his writing.
“One of the things that struck me when I was working with Patrick on the book is he sees things that I don’t see in images. Even deciding to work on this particular character, it was because he saw these pictures in history books,” she said.
Hoeppner moved with his parents to Belmont about four years ago, though he grew up in Maryland. He attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he majored in creative writing and served as a satirical columnist for the school’s newspaper. Ronald Kuka, a former professor of Hoeppner’s, described him as “a talented and hardworking writer.”
“I was very happy to see all of his good work in print. I can only imagine the hours of research it took to bring this book to fruition,” Kuka said in an email to The Voice.
For Hoeppner, the attraction to Nast’s work had as much to do with its riveting history as with Nast’s iconic symbols and attention to detail. As a Gen-Z writer, Hoeppner saw parallels between Nast’s time and his own. From staggering wealth gaps to increasing inflation, he said the issues many young people face across the country aren’t entirely different from the ones reflected in Nast’s work.
“Inequity was one of the things that Nast detested and was consistently a voice against, and that’s something that I see as a theme of today,” Hoeppner said.
“The Life and Art of Thomas Nast” is available for purchase online through McFarland Publishers, or you can order it from Belmont Books.
