Herblock: A Cartoonist's Life

A Cartoonist's Life tells of the remarkable career that has spanned the era from Roosevelt to Clinton. Herb Block opposed isolationism before World War II; warned of nuclear hazards in the '40s; opposed McCarthyism in the '50s and racism in the '50s and '60s; and zeroed in on Watergate in the '70s and Iran-contra and other Reagan-Bush scandals in the '80s. He coined the word "McCarthyism" and describes that time of fear. He also writes engagingly about personal incidents and meetings with public figures. Herbert Block has been using the pen name "Herblock" since the age of thirteen, when he started contributing quips and comments to a humor column in the Chicago Tribune and apprenticed himself to the columnist. He dropped out of college to take his first cartooning job with the Chicago Daily News at age 19. In 1946, after a wartime stint in the Army, he moved to The Washington Post - then a comparatively small paper. He is the only cartoonist to win the Elijah Parish Lovejoy Award for contributions to the cause of freedom of speech and the press, the National Press Club Fourth Estate Award and the Franklin Roosevelt Freedom Medal. He is also the only living cartoonist whose work is in the National Gallery of Art.