Legendary cartoonist known as Herblock dies

WASHINGTON — Herblock, the Washington Post cartoonist whose witty and frequently ferocious drawings provided some of the most memorable images in the history of U.S. political discourse and earned him the highest honors of his profession and the nation, died last night of pneumonia. He was 91.

His career began before the stock-market crash of 1929 heralded the Depression and lasted into the 21st century.

Herbert Block, in illustrations of stunning power and simplicity, illuminated and helped to define the great issues of the age, including the rise of Hitler and the spread of fascism and dictatorship in the 1930s, World War II, the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Mr. Block chronicled every president from Herbert Hoover to George W. Bush. He coined the term "McCarthyism" for the midcentury smear tactics of Sen. Joseph McCarthy. Mr. Block's drawings of a fat and patient humanoid A-bomb encapsulated the menace of nuclear weapons.

He took the side of the have-nots of the world against the haves. He favored civil rights and candor in government. He distrusted all efforts to curb constitutional rights. He believed in the values underlying democracy: freedom, justice and equality.

Mr. Block won three Pulitzer Prizes for editorial cartooning and shared a fourth Pulitzer with The Post for its coverage of Watergate. In 1994, President Clinton awarded him the Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.

The Post was Mr. Block's base for more than half a century, and through syndication he reached newspaper readers all over the United States and in several foreign countries. He wrote a dozen books, including "Herblock: A Cartoonist's Life," which was published in 1993.

He adopted his pen name, a combination of his first and last names, at his father's suggestion.

In 1942, he won his first Pulitzer Prize for his body of work that year. A cartoon that was singled out in the citation showed a German soldier searching the sky over occupied France while a group of Frenchmen look on with glee. The caption said, "British Plane."

In 1954, Mr. Block won his second Pulitzer Prize for a cartoon on the death of Stalin. It showed the Grim Reaper greeting the Soviet tyrant with the words, "You Were Always a Great Friend of Mine, Joseph."

Mr. Block's third individual Pulitzer, awarded in 1979, was for his life's work.