John Held, Jr. was born on January 10, 1889, to Annie Evans and John Held in Salt Lake City, Utah. He was interested in art from his youth. He became a popular American cartoonist, printmaker, illustrator, sculptor, and author. He was a highly successful magazine illustrator, especially in the 1920s. His most popular works included his cartoons of people dancing, driving, playing sports, and engaging in other popular activies of the era. He also created a number of linocut and woodblock prints on handmade paper. Held was married four times. He had three adopted children with his second wife and one daughter with his third wife. Held died on March 2, 1958, in Belmar, New Jersey, of throat cancer and is burried at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, New York City.