Born 1908, San Diego, California
Died 1978, New York City

Freeman’s main body of work is in the area of illustration; as a newspaper illustrator, cartoonist, book illustrator and lithographer. He was also a painter. An orphan at a young age, he attended high school in St. Louis and art school in New York, studying with John Sloan and Harry Wickey at the Art Students League. He was a musician, using his dance band skills to earn money so he could attend school, playing trumpet in clubs and at Italian weddings.

He was particularly interested in the theater and life on the inner city streets. He sketched his impressions of Broadway shows for the Herald Tribune and the New York Times. Other publications ranging from the Christian Science Monitor to Fortune also bought his work. His lithographs have a noticeable concentration on the people working New York theater. Some would say his depictions of the working people were too close to cartoons, but Freeman is Freeman - take him for what he is. George Miller printed most of his lithographs. In California Lynton Kistler printed some and before mid-1932 they were printed at the Art Students League. One of his lithographs was in the first year’s distribution of Associated American Artists (1934).

He wrote and illustrated several of his own books and illustrated many others and colaborated with his wife Lydia on many children's books.

The human dimensions of Freeman’s work echoes 19th Century artist Honore Daumier. In his estate were many books about Daumier and sketches of Daumier’s work. He had a brief affair with the Federal Arts Project but regretted that they did not make the editions large enough so that more people could be exposed to the art.

Aside from all the above, an outstanding achievement of Don Freeman was his creation of Newsstand. Beginning in 1936, he personally published a quarterly publication of his drawings and lithos intermixed with short essays by notable writers of the time. The work somewhat resembled a cartoon anthology of Manhattan life. The motto was “all the news that fits to print”. He sought out the best papers and bound each issue with a spiral notebook style binding. He initially charged 50 cents a copy and sometimes editions would reach over 200 to 250 copies. Associated American Artists took over the printing for a year in 1941-42. After that Don was only able to run a few more issues and by the time it ended in 1968, 20 issues had been done, 15 up to 1943 and only 5 in the following years.

The key reference on his print work is The Prints of Don Freeman, 1988, by Edith McCulloch.