Herblock Dies

When Herblock first publicly put pen to paper it was forThe Chicago Daily News on April 24, 1929. Herbert Hoover was the newly-inaugurated president and the ’20s were still roaring.

Over 70 years and 12 presidents later, Herblock was still lampooning the distinguished and the notorious. He joinedThe Washington Post in 1946 and stuck with the newspaper through the remainder of his career.

During his years at the Post, Block famously turned his pen toward the red-baiting Sen. Joseph McCarthy in the early ’50s, coining the term “McCarthyism,” the Post reported.

One of Block’s other famous targets was President Richard Nixon, with the cartoonist’s criticism of the president reaching its peak during the Watergate break-in scandal in the early ’70s.

Through syndication, Block reached readers across the U.S. and in several foreign countries. His last cartoon was published Aug. 28, 2001.

Block garnered many accolades for his satire, including three Pulitzer prizes for editorial cartooning and a stake in a fourth Pulitzer, shared with his colleagues at the Post for their Watergate coverage.

In 1994, President Clinton awarded Block with the Medal of Freedom — the U.S.’s highest civilian honor.

Celebrating Block’s 50th anniversary at the Post, the late Katharine Graham — then the chairman of the Post‘s executive committee — said in 1996 the cartoonist had “fought for and earned a unique position at the paper: one of complete independence of anybody and anything.

“Journalistic enterprises run best when writers and editors have a lot of autonomy. But Herb’s case is extreme. And because he’s a genius, it works,” Graham wrote.

In an essay written for a 2000 Library of Congress exhibit of his work, Block gave his take on where cartoonists figured in to the political landscape.

“In opposing corruption, suppression of rights and abuse of government office, the political cartoon has always served as a special prod,” he wrote, “a reminder to public servants that they ARE public servants.”