Block, Herbert

Block, Herbert (Lawrence) (1909–  ) editorial cartoonist; born in Chicago. His talent won him a scholarship at the Chicago Art Institute when he was only 12. In 1929 he began his professional life as an editorial cartoonist at the Chicago Daily News, signing himself "Herblock." In 1933 he moved to Cleveland to work for the Newspaper Enterprise Association; he won the Pulitzer Prize in 1942. During World War II, he worked in the army's information and education division (1943–46) and his cartoons were famous with soldiers and civilians alike. After the war, he joined the staff of the Washington Post (1946), which syndicated his cartoons coast-to-coast, making him the country's best-known editorial cartoonist. He was a strong critic of Senator Joseph McCarthy and won a second Pulitzer in 1954; a third Pulitzer came in 1979. Many collections of his cartoons were published and his works hang in the Corcoran Gallery and the National Gallery of Art in Washington.