Author(s): Dian Hanson

General Photography and Art

Alberto Vargas took over Esquire magazine's monthly pin-up post in late 1940. By 1942, when the U.S. joined the war, he had more than a million ardent fans who carried his pin-ups in backpacks and duffel bags as reminders of the American girls they'd left behind. When Esquire was charged with obscenity over a particularly spicy pin-up the military stepped in the fight for The Varga Girl, declaring her necessary for morale. Today these wartime pin-ups are the most collectible of Vargas' work, and we 've collected them all in this compact, affordable 192-page volume.