Trudeau & Doonesbury: A Biography

“A compelling biography of one of our nation’s greatest journalists. Outstanding.” —Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Alphonse Fletcher University Professor, Harvard University

“Well-reported and -researched.”—Walter Isaacson, New York Times bestselling author of Steve Jobs and Elon Musk

A definitive account of the life and work of Garry Trudeau, creator of the massively popular and influential cartoon Doonesbury, based on archival sources and extensive interviews, including with Trudeau himself, and lavishly illustrated with over 200 cartoons and images.

​Drawing on previously unmined archival materials and extensive interviews with Trudeau, his friends, fellow cartoonists, prominent journalists, and even politicians who were mocked in the strip, Trudeau & Doonesbury is an entertaining romp through both Trudeau’s remarkable life and the last half century of American history.

Biographer Joshua Kendall tells the story of the cartoonist and what drove him to put pen to paper. He traces Trudeau’s boyhood in the Adirondack Mountains, his teenage angst in prep school, and his formative years at Yale, where he began drawing his iconic strip. And he shows the changing world it reflected; Doonesbury began appearing in papers nationwide in 1970, and big events, from Watergate to the the war in Vietnam, fueled its popularity and its significance.

For more than 50 years, Doonesbury has helped drive the national conversation. The first comic strip to win a Pulitzer Prize, Garry Trudeau’s sprawling narrative featuring a host of beloved characters has reflected America back to itself, capturing the highlights and lowlights of American politics and culture with wit and penetrating insight. And as Doonesbury’s characters aged alongside their creator, Trudeau became one of the preeminent chroniclers of the Baby Boom generation.

A unique and compelling biography of both the individual behind Doonesbury and the times he has chronicled, Trudeau & Doonesbury is also a lavishly illustrated, full-color coffee table book featuring more than 200 cartoons, making it perfect for sharing, gifting, and displaying.