With a career spanning 35 years of American politics and counting, popular political artist Pat Oliphant serves as a role model for a generation of political and editorial cartoonists. Deemed the "most influential editorial cartoonist now working" by the New York Times, and credited by fellow Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist Mike Luckovich with "creating modern-day political cartoons," Oliphant's work appears in approximately 375 newspapers, four days a week.

Oliphant grew up in Adelaide, South Australia, the son of a cartographer for Australia's Ministry of Lands. According to Oliphant, art was an early interest. He was drawing constantly by the age of five and spent a couple years in art school after high school. In 1953, he joined the Adelaide News as a copy boy and "press artist" charged with drawing weather maps. Three years later he became the cartoon-ist for the Adelaide Advertiser, a job that combined...