On Sunday, December 7, 1941, the Japanese air force bombarded Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, then a U.S. territory, not a state, killing almost two and a half thousand civilians and military personnel. War had been raging in Europe for several years, and in response to the Japanese government’s attack, the U.S. threw its hat into the ring.
Knowing it would eventually join its European allies, but desperate for soldiers, the U.S. instituted a draft registration in 1940 that would be undertaken at four different times in 1942. Henry was required to register on April 27, on what has been called the “old man’s draft registration.” The last of four different periods during which men registered for the draft, it was established for men born between April 28, 1899 and February 16, 1897. That meant Darger had to register for military service a second time.
Darger’s draft card for World War II gives the picture of a forty-nine-year-old man in physical decline. He weighed only 125 pounds, a sign of undernourishment. His skin was “sallow,” another probable sign of his poor eating habits and of general debilitation. His eyes are described as “hazel,” although his draft card for the First World War indicates they were blue, and his dark brown hair has turned “gray.” The draft card also raises a number of questions about Darger.
One question we’re faced with is his height. When Henry registered for the First World War, he was twenty-five years old and stood, according to his registration card, five feet and one inch tall. However, twenty-four years later, instead of shrinking as men typically do as they age, Henry has sprouted an extra ten inches, growing to a remarkable five feet eight inches tall. How was this possible?
Another question revolves around the individual whom Henry listed as the “Person Who Will Always Know Your Address.” It wasn’t a family member who would always know where he was because none of his uncles and aunts were alive in 1942, and his cousins, all of whom were considerably older than he, had been strangers to him for years. Who in the world might Darger have listed as his contact person, the only human being who would always know his address—and why?
For the answer to these and other mysteries surrounding the life of outsider artist Henry Darger, be on the lookout for Throw-Away Boy: A Life of Henry Darger….
