George Mikali Mandel, the author and cartoonist who was an early member of the Beat Generation, died last month in New York. He was 101.
Born in New York City in 1920, Mandel worked as a cartoonist prior to World War II. He was wounded in combat in the war and received the Purple Heart Medal. He published his first novel, Flee the Angry Strangers, in 1952.
Over the course of his career he wrote novels with widely varied subjects, such as Scapegoats, about racial tensions in New York City, Crocodile Blood, a multigenerational saga set in Florida, and the war novels Into the Woods of the World and The Wax Boom. He also wrote short stories, and his cartoons were published in two collections: Beatville U.S.A. and Borderline Cases.