HERBLOCK

We watched the HBO documentary Herblock: The Black and the White a couple of nights ago. It's about Herbert Block. I'd never heard of this American political cartoonist, who spent 55 years at the Washington Post, from 1946 to 2001, and won three Pulitzer prizes. I came away from the film with huge admiration for him. He died in October 2001, just before his 92nd birthday, left $50 million with instructions to create a foundation to support charitable and educational programs that help promote and sustain the causes he championed during his 72 years of cartooning. There's a good piece on the film, by David Von Drehle, at Time magazine website:
The Man Who Made Presidents Cringe: HBO’s Herblock ---Herbert L. Block's political cartoons made razor-sharp thrusts into the heart of Washington
Snip

...He was also stunningly well-compensated. His tenure at The Post went back to the days when the paper was a near-bankrupt concern, and at least once he was presented with the dodgy opportunity to trade some paychecks for company stock. The paper’s rise to national prominence was inseparable from Herblock’s widely syndicated work. When publisher Philip L. Graham made the cover of TIME in 1956, the background to his portrait was a collage of the cartoonist’s instantly recognizable images. By the time Herblock died in 2001, his original Post shares had split 240-to-1 and each resulting share was trading above $500. The ink-stained wretch left an estate valued at $90 million.

But somehow Herblock’s fame a dozen years later doesn’t quite measure up to those outsize standards. He lacked the self-promotional or social-climbing energy of many other Washington legends, and the star-making power of radio and television eluded this balding fellow with the huge nose and the voice borrowed from Disney’s Goofy.

Herblock lacked the glamor of Edward R. Murrow—although he beat Murrow to the job of unmasking the demagogue Joe McCarthy by a good four years. He lacked the Hollywood pizzazz of his younger Post colleagues Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein—although his Watergate cartoons pointed the finger at Nixon long before the scrappy reporters connected the dots. He lacked the reverential cult of New York Times columnist James “Scotty” Reston—even though Herblock was immune to the head-spinning half-truths of high-powered dinner companions who sometimes managed to snow the sage. Herblock preferred dinner in front of the TV, which he tuned to The Yogi Bear Show and Rocky & Bullwinkle.

I'm wary of showing images of his cartoons for fear of copyright police, but I'll risk three which appealed particularly to me - others can be seen HERE and via Google Image.

I was interested to see Mr Block's natal chart - set for 12 noon, as no birth time is known for him.

Four personal planets in Libra! Underlining Libra's craving for fairness and balance, it leaps from some of his cartoons. (Moon would have been in Libra whatever his time of birth.)
What I notice as particularly significant is a Grand Cross linking Uranus, Sun/Mercury, Neptune and Saturn.

I've noticed in the past that a Grand Square sometimes crops up in the chart of someone of a professionally politically confrontational nature. From memory, Keith Olbermann and Bill Maher both have Grand Squares - though linking different planets/signs. Herblock's Grand Square is formed in the Cardinal signs and has Saturn and Uranus (establishment and avant garde) squaring off, then Saturn and Neptune (establishment and fixed ideas squaring off against creativity and/or delusions), Neptune squaring off against Sun/Mercury (or vice versa! - Self versus illusion, delusion), and final square Sun/Mercury squaring Uranus (Libra Sun and Mercury's need for balance against Uranus's unexpected chaotic tendencies). The two oppositions forming the "cross" = Uranus opposing Neptune (a generational aspect) and Sun/Mercury opposing Saturn which well describes Herblock's own (Sun/Mercury = self and mode of communication) opposition to officaldom's or government's (Saturn) misdeeds or misjudgments.

Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s).