AAEC - Editorial Cartoon News
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April 6, 2002
"Gracious, Kind, Funny and Classy"
By BOB ENGLEHARTIn the spring of 1979, I learnedthat I was the sole nominee forthe Pulitzer Prize in cartooning.The cartoon committee said I was"head and shoulders" above therest of the entrants. Rather thanfollow the rules of submitting threenames to the prize's board of governors,the committee recommendedme alone.
The Pulitzer board of governorsasked the chairman of the cartooncommittee to poll the members, andthey again said that I was theirchoice. Not wanting to be challenged,the board of governors gavethe award to Herblock. It was histhird. He hadn't even entered thecontest.
The story of the Pulitzers thatyear couldn't be written withoutmentioning what happened to me."I feel like I've been mugged," I toldreporters who called from TheWashington Post, The New YorkTimes and my own paper, The JournalHerald in Dayton. Four dayslater, Herblock called me.
"The same thing happened tome in 1936," he told me. Only then,his syndicate had taken out ads intrade magazines, and his parentsflew to Washington for the announcementon the big day. Hemade me laugh, and we talked fora long time.
That was Herblock -- gracious,kind, funny and classy. I met himmany times after that and we alwaysenjoyed our moments together.Not only was he a great cartoonist,he was a great human being.He was the Duke Ellington ofeditorial cartoonists. He was drawingpowerful cartoons up until hislast published piece at the end ofAugust. His convictions remainedstrong, his detractors hated him asmuch as they ever did, and hestayed true and honest to the end.What a way to go.
-- The Hartford Courant October 13, 2001