Todd DePastino (born in

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

, United States) is an author and history professor.

Biography

Personal life

DePastino and his wife Stephanie live in

with their two children.

Education

Mt. Lebanon High School in

; BA in History and Philosophy from

Boston College Boston College (BC) is a private Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Founded in 1863, the university has more than 9,300 full-time undergraduates and nearly 5,000 graduate students. Although Boston College is classifie ...

; MA and Ph.D. in American History from

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

Academic career

DePastino teaches at

Penn State Beaver Penn State Beaver is a commonwealth campus of Pennsylvania State University located in Center Township in Beaver County, Pennsylvania. Campus history The land where the campus now exists was once a farm owned by the Hartenbach family. The barn ...

Writing career

With the birth of his first daughter in 1996, DePastino became a

stay-at-home dad A stay-at-home dad (alternatively, full-time father, stay-at-home father, house dad, househusband, or house-spouse) is a father who is the main caregiver of the children and is generally the homemaker of the household. The female equivalent is ...

, teaching in the evenings at

and

Waynesburg College Waynesburg University is a private university in Waynesburg, Pennsylvania. It was established in 1850 and offers undergraduate and graduate programs in more than 70 academic concentrations. The university enrolls over 2,500 students, including ...

while finishing his Ph.D. He then revised his dissertation on the history of homelessness into a book, for which he won a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship. The result was ''Citizen Hobo: How a Century of Homelessness Shaped America'' (2003). After editing, annotating, and introducing the lost classic, ''The Road'' by

Jack London John Griffith Chaney (January 12, 1876 – November 22, 1916), better known as Jack London, was an American novelist, journalist and activist. A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines, he was one of the first American authors to ...

, DePastino plunged into his

Bill Mauldin William Henry Mauldin (; October 29, 1921 – January 22, 2003) was an American editorial cartoonist who won two Pulitzer Prizes for his work. He was most famous for his World War II cartoons depicting American soldiers, as represented by the ...

research. ''Bill Mauldin: A Life Up Front'' (2008) received strong reviews, was an Eisner Award finalist, and won the Sperber Prize for the best biography of a major media figure. His award-winning double-volume collection of Mauldin's World War II cartoons, ''Willie & Joe: The WWII Years'' (2008) was followed in 2011 by ''Willie & Joe: Back Home,'' which covers 1945-1946. ''Commissioned in Battle: A Combat Infantryman in the Pacific,'' co-authored by Jay Gruenfled, was released by Hellgate Press in early 2012.

Other work

DePastino is the director of the Pittsburgh-based Veterans Breakfast Club.

Works

* ''

: A Life Up Front'', W.W. Norton, 320 pp., 92 illus. * ''WILLIE & JOE: THE WWII Years'', Fantagraphics Books, 650 pp., * ''Citizen

Hobo A hobo is a migrant worker in the United States. Hoboes, tramps and bums are generally regarded as related, but distinct: a hobo travels and is willing to work; a tramp travels, but avoids work if possible; and a bum neither travels nor works. E ...

: How A Century of

Homelessness Homelessness or houselessness – also known as a state of being unhoused or unsheltered – is the condition of lacking stable, safe, and adequate housing. People can be categorized as homeless if they are: * living on the streets, also kn ...

Shaped America'', University of Chicago Press, 350 pp., 27 illus., * ''The Road'', By Jack London'', Rutgers University Press, 168 pp., 48 illus., * ''WILLIE & JOE: Back Home'', Fantagraphics Books, 288 pp., * ''Commissioned in Battle: A Combat Infantryman in the Pacific, WWII'', With Jay Gruenfeld, Hellgate Press, 2012.

References

External links

The Legacy of Pulitzer-Prize Winning Cartoonist Bill Mauldin: An Interview with Biographer Todd DePastino
* ttp://www.pritzkermilitary.org/whats_on/pritzker-military-presents/todd-depastino-bill-mauldin-life-front/ DePastino discusses ''Bill Mauldin: A Life Up Front''at the

Pritzker Military Museum & Library The Pritzker Military Museum & Library (formerly Pritzker Military Library) is a non-profit museum and a research library for the study of military history on Michigan Avenue in Chicago, Illinois. The institution was founded in 2003, and its spe ...

on May 8, 2008
DePastino at the Abraham Lincoln Book Shop
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Depastino, Todd 1966 births People from Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania Living people Pennsylvania State University faculty American non-fiction writers Morrissey College of Arts & Sciences alumni Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni