Heads and Tales

Have you ever looked at a good caricature -- one that captures an essential characteristic of a person and still poked a bit of fun at him or her -- and wondered, "How did they do that?"

Jim Stovall has been asking that question all his life.

Stovall has also been writing all his life, and he has been fascinated by the process of writing and writers.

In his forward to this book, Ed Caudill says:

"Jim Stovall writes in the introduction that he is "trying to caricature people." He succeeds, perhaps ironically in light of the fact that writers themselves are inevitably - sometimes tragically, sometimes commendably, usually unintentionally - caricaturing culture. This collection careens along the gamut from rich and famous to downtrodden and obscure. Some of them, the readers will know. Others, I would take long odds, are unheard of among the perusers of this volume. There any number of lesser knowns whose names are fleeting but whose work is durable, whether in politics, letters, sciences, or elsewhere. Some are masters of other media, such radio or cinema or illustration."

Jim Stovall is a former journalism professor who writes and draws obsessively and occasionally inflicts his work onto an unsuspecting and largely undeserving public.