Edward Sorel (born Edward Schwartz, 26 March 1929) is an American illustrator, caricaturist, cartoonist, graphic designer and author. His work is known for its storytelling, its left-liberal social commentary, its criticism of reactionary right-wing politics and organized religion. Formerly a regular contributor to The Nation, New York Magazine and The Atlantic, his work is today seen more frequently in Vanity Fair. He has been hailed by The New York Times as "one of America's foremost political satirists". As a lifelong New Yorker, a large portion of his work interprets the life, culture and political events of New York City. There is also a large body of work which is nostalgic for the stars of 1930s and 1940s Hollywood when Sorel was a youth. Sorel is noted for his wavy pen-and-ink style, which he describes as "spontaneous direct drawing". Early life Sorel was born and grew up in The Bronx, the son of Jewish immigrants. His father was a door-to-door dry goods salesman, while his mother worked full-time in a hatmaking factory. Sorel became serious about drawing when a case of double pneumonia confined him to bed for nearly a year. He attended the High School of Music & Art, and graduated from the Cooper Union in 1951. As he explains in Mary Astor's Purple Diary, he took his name from the character Julien Sorel of The Red and the Black by Stendhal, with whom he felt akin because both hated their fathers, the clergy and the corrupt society of their time. Career Sorel was a co-founder of Push Pin Studios with Milton Glaser, Seymour Chwast, and Reynold Ruffins in 1953. In 1956 Sorel went freelance. His first published illustration was A War for Civilization was sold to the satirical magazine The Realist; in 1961. He then sold the magazine a cartoon satirizing the glamor of the Kennedy family, an early example of his parody movie posters. Victor Navasky appointed him art director for the satirical magazine Monocle in 1963. In the later 1960s he produced full-color satirical bestiaries for the left-wing Ramparts, and a series called "Sorel's Unfamiliar Quotations" for The Atlantic. A profile of Sorel in Time 15 October 1968 was instrumental in selling "Sorel's News Service" by King Features to 44 syndicated newspapers for 14 months from later 1969 through 1970. Clay Felker founded New York magazine in the late 1960s and Glaser hired Sorel as its art