Herblock: A Cartoonist's Life
Herbert Block, or Herblock, as he is more commonly known, has been an editorial cartoonist for theWashington Postsince 1945.A Cartoonist's Lifereproduces 250 of his best cartoons from those years (along with some from his earlier stints in Chicago and Cleveland), skewering politicians from Hoover and FDR to Clinton and Gingrich. Herblock also offers his candid reflections on life in the newspaper trade, rubbing shoulders with the people he drew, including the evaluation offered by Lyndon Johnson at a White House reception: "Oh, he'll come over and eat your cookies, but then he'll go back and draw a cartoon giving you hell the next day."Herblock's always been willing to choose giving the objects of his criticism hell over the easy laugh, as many of the grimmer cartoons on subjects like antigun control lobbyists and the Bosnian conflict attest. The paperback edition includes added material going up to July 1998 addressing campaign finance reform, the unfinished war in Iraq, and the political showdown between President Clinton and independent prosecutor Kenneth Starr.