Block, Herbert Lawrence

Related Category: American Art: Biographies

1909–2001, American editorial cartoonist known as Herblock, b. Chicago. A superb stylist and generally a political liberal, Herblock began drawing cartoons (1929–33) for the Chicago Daily News, later moving to the Newspaper Enterprise Association (1933–43) and to the Washington Post (1946–2001). His work, which forms a wittily indignant commentary on six decades of American history, was syndicated in more than 300 newspapers, and he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1942, 1954, and 1979, sharing a fourth for the Post's coverage of the Watergate affair. Among the 10 published collections of his cartoons are The Herblock Book (1952), The Herblock Gallery (1968), Herblock's State of the Union (1972), Herblock on All Fronts (1980), and Herblock's History (2000). Herblock never retired, and his last cartoon appeared about a month before his death.

See his autobiography (1993).