One of the most admired illustrators and cartoonists of the late nineteenth century, E. W. Kemble dominated what some historians have termed "the genial school of American caricature." His illustrations for Southern authors and his cartoons were pervasive in the books and illustrated journals of his day.

Born in Sacramento, California, on 18 January 1861, Edward Windsor Kemble was the second son of Edward Cleveland Kemble, a newspaper publisher in the early years of California journalism who was descended from William Whipple, a general in George Washington's army and a signer of the Declaration of Independence; his mother, Cecilia Amanda Windsor, was the daughter of a respected New York family with its own prominent lineage. The Kembles and Windsors descended from English stock who had settled in the New York area generations earlier; they were Republican and Episcopalian. Apparently there were no artists in either family line, but both parents...