Darling, Jay Norwood

Jay Norwood Darling, byname Ding Darling, (born October 21, 1876, Norwood, Michigan, U.S.—died February 12, 1962, Des Moines, Iowa), American political cartoonist who in his long career commented on a wide range of issues and twice received a Pulitzer Prize.

Darling began drawing cartoons at an early age. While at Beloit (Wisconsin) College, he was suspended for a year for drawing the faculty as a line of ballerinas, but he graduated in 1900. He joined the staff of a Sioux City (Iowa) newspaper and, after sketching a courtroom scene, was given the assignment of drawing a daily cartoon.

In 1906 he became the cartoonist for the Des Moines Register, an association that continued, except for a two-year stint with the New York Globe, until he retired in 1949. Beginning in 1917 his cartoons were distributed by the New York Tribune and its syndicate. His cartoons on the deaths of William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody and of Pres. Theodore Roosevelt (in 1917 and 1919, respectively) were particularly notable. After World War I his work stressed the League of Nations as a hope for world peace. He won his first Pulitzer Prize in 1924 and his second in 1943. Darling was also a vigorous conservationist who served as chief of the U.S. Biological Survey (1934–35) and first president (1936) of the National Wildlife Federation.