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Herb Block
The Life and Work of the Great Political Cartoonist
by Haynes Jonhson and Harry Katz
This retrospective volume, published to coincide with an exhibition at the Library of Congress celebrating Herb Block’s 100th birthday, illuminates his life and times and reinforces the importance of editorial cartoons as a vital means for expressing political opinion in America.
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
The diminishing profession of editorial cartooning has been a particularly doleful canary foretelling the decline of the daily newspaper format. In this context, this retrospective of the late cartoonist's work defiantly documents the extraordinary career of a daily visual commentator on American political life. Designed to accompany an exhibit at the Library of Congress, the book briefly outlines the artist's career and its historical context, starting with Herbert Block's early career during FDR's term. His first Pulitzer, in 1941, earned him independence when he came under editorial fire for advocating U.S. entry into WWII. After his own military service, he joined the Washington Post, an association that lasted until his death in 2001. The bulk of the book showcases highlights of the artist's seven-decade career. Politically independent but largely progressive, Herblock is presented as prescient on issues including McCarthyism (a term he coined), civil rights and environmentalism. Herblock's best cartoons do more than provide color commentary on political skirmishes. They manifest characters vividly: his viciously ineffectual Eisenhower brandishes a feather opposite an ax-wielding McCarthy, for instance. The book is accompanied by a DVD containing 18,000 cartoons, a nearly complete collection of Herblock's indispensable oeuvre. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
“[A]s this generous selection of cartoons verifies, [Herblock] was drawing his trademark fat-cat big shots and portentous atmospheres (he was a master of shading) virtually from the beginning. Castigated as a knee-jerk liberal, he was really on the side of the little guy, repeatedly pointing out how big labor as well as big business, homegrown demagogues as well as exotic dictators, oppressed the common person.... Herblock’s Post reporter colleague Johnson, cartoon curator Katz, and the man himself, via snippets from his occasional writings, contribute to the text, and a DVD containing more than 18,000 cartoons accompanies the book.” (Ray Olson - Booklist)
From The Washington Post
From The Washington Post's Book World/washingtonpost.com Reviewed by Michael Sims Over the past three centuries, editorial cartoonists have been the watchdogs of political change. Just think of Daumier's lampooning of King Louis-Philippe, or the famous broken snake in the "Join, or Die" cartoon that encouraged barely cooperating American colonies to unite for the common good, or Thomas Nast's sniper attacks on Boss Tweed and Tammany Hall. Nast would have loved Herbert Block, who gained fame as Herblock, the longtime cartoonist for The Washington Post. Like his predecessor, Block united in a single mind irony, outrage and a mastery of symbolism. He knew that there are no more predictable constants in any society than hypocrisy, opportunism and exploitation, and he described the political cartoon as "essentially a means for . . . puncturing pomposity." This irresistible new book, with commentary by Haynes Johnson and Harry Katz, accompanies a Library of Congress exhibition celebrating the centennial of Block's birth and includes a CD that punctures pomposity with more than 18,000 cartoons. Block coined the term "McCarthyism" and foresaw the threat of Hitler and the risk of dependence on foreign oil. He attacked the brutality and hypocrisy of segregation and Jim Crow. He mocked Ronald Reagan's endless waffling and Bill Clinton's moral hypocrisy. And he hounded Richard Nixon for decades. But Block wasn't just a fighter. "For creative pleasure," he wrote, "the little black ink bottle contains everything from a picture of a pompous politico down the street to a drawing of planets swirling around in space." Block's strong ink lines and masterful lithographic pencil are sensuous pleasures. On every page, you can see his enjoyment in drawing, from the noir shading of unemployed workers during the Depression to the gleeful caricature of Jimmy Carter finding Ted Kennedy in his medicine cabinet. Even in a condemnation of gun violence, Block beautifully renders the walnut grip panel of a German Luger. No wonder countless people in power considered Block's combination of anger and artistry dangerous. bookworld@washpost.com
Copyright 2009, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved.
Copyright 2009, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved.
