Library of Congress opens Herblock exhibit

Today The Library of Congress opens a retrospective exhibit examining the life and work of Herbert Block (“Herblock”) whose career spanned 72 years. The legendary editorial cartoonist would have turned 100 years old today.

“He was the great cartoonist, the most famous in the country and had an enormous influence,” said journalist Haynes Johnson, who is the author of “HERBLOCK: The Life and Work of the Great Political Cartoonist,” which will be released in conjunction with the opening of the exhibit.

“He relentlessly attacked the gun lobby, segregationists, government secrecy, abuses of power, religious bigots, sexism, racism, and, always, public hypocrisy wherever and whenever it arose,” writes Johnson in the opening of the book. “At the same time he ardently fought for civil liberties, for the poor and the oppressed. He always stood for the underdog, and for the everyman and everywoman among us trapped in, or frustrated by, the ever more complicated nature of modern life.”

You can see samples of the art online over at abcnews.com