Tony Auth

William Anthony Auth Jr. (May 7, 1942 – September 14, 2014) was an American editorial cartoonist and children's book illustrator. Auth is best known for his syndicated work originally drawn for The Philadelphia Inquirer, for whom he worked from 1971 to 2012. Auth's art won the cartoonist the Pulitzer Prize in 1976 and the Herblock Prize in 2005.

Biography Early years William Anthony "Tony" Auth Jr. was born May 7, 1942, in Akron, Ohio, the son of William Anthony Auth Sr. and Julia Kathleen Donnelly. At age five Auth was bedridden with rheumatic fever for a number of months. During this period of protracted convalescence, Auth was encouraged by his mother to take up drawing as an enjoyable and worthy creative pastime.

Auth attended UCLA where he earned his bachelor's degree in biological illustration in 1965. At UCLA he also worked on the Daily Bruin, the school newspaper, as well as for various alternative newspapers in the Los Angeles area. His content was acerbic and made use of irony in hammering home his political points.

Auth retired from his position at The Philadelphia Inquirer in 2012, taking a buyout from the paper. Following his departure from the paper, Auth went to work for the online news producer NewsWorks.org, owned by Philadelphia news-talk radio station WHYY-FM, where he became the publication's first digital artist-in-residence.

Works Behind the Lines: Cartoons. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1977. That Game from Outer Space: The First Strange Thing that Happened to Oscar Noodleman. With Stephen Manes. New York: Dutton, 1983. —Juvenile fiction. Mean Murgatroyd and the Ten Cats. With Nathan Zimelman. New York: Dutton, 1984. —Juvenile fiction. The Gang of Eight. (Contributor.) Boston: Faber and Faber, 1985. Lost in Space: The Reagan Years. Kansas City, MO: Andrews and McMeel, 1988. Mission impossible?: An Illustrated Guide to Defense Planning in the 1990s: A Report. With Stephen Daggett. Washington, DC: Committee for National Security, 1989. Sleeping Babies. Racine, WI: Western Publishing Co., 1989. —Juvenile fiction. NORB. With Daniel Manus Pinkwater. Seattle, WA: MU Press, 1991. Kids' Talk. With Linda K. Harris. Kansas City, MO: Andrews and McMeel, 1993. —Juvenile fiction. The Tree of Here. With Chaim Potok. New York: Alfred A. Knopf/Random House, 1993. —Juvenile fiction. The Sky of Now. With Chaim Potok. New York: Alfred A. Knopf/Random House, 1994. —Juvenile fiction. A Christmas Quartet: Four Modern Tales of the Holiday. With Chris Satullo. Philadelphia, PA: Philadelphia Inquirer, 2000. My Curious Uncle Dudley. With Barry Yourgrau. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press, 2004. The Hoboken Chicken Emergency. With Daniel Manus Pinkwater. New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2007. —Juvenile fiction. A Promise is a Promise. With Florence Parry Heide. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press, 2007. —Juvenile fiction. Topsy-Turvy Bedtime. With Joan Goldman Levine. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press, 2008. —Juvenile fiction. A Bedtime Story. With Joan Levine. London: Walker, 2008. —Juvenile fiction. Uncle Pirate. With Douglas Rees. New York: Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2008. —Juvenile fiction. The Art of Tony Auth: To Stir, Inform and Inflame. With David Leopold. Philadelphia: Camino Books, 2012.