First major biography of Garry Trudeau explores Doonesbury's 56-year cultural impact

A new biography, 'Trudeau & Doonesbury: The Cartoonist Who Turned the News into Art,' examines Garry Trudeau's life and work. Author Joshua Kendall spent two years interviewing Trudeau's friends and colleagues, drawing on over 10,000 documents from Yale's Beinecke Library. Trudeau, known for his reclusiveness, eventually agreed to some interviews but the book remains unauthorized. The biography traces Trudeau's childhood in Saranac Lake, New York, where his family founded a tuberculosis sanatorium, and his mother's departure when he was 10. At Yale, Trudeau developed his comic strip, initially displaying sexism but evolving after dating a feminist. His character Joanie Caucus became a mainstream feminist icon in the 1970s. Trudeau won a Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning, the first comic strip artist to do so. He covered Watergate, Patty Hearst's trial, and the 'We Are the World' recording. Henry Louis Gates Jr. calls Trudeau 'one of our nation's greatest journalists.' The biography highlights Trudeau's evolution on war, race, and religion, and his current focus on Donald Trump. Kendall argues satire is a healing impulse, and Trudeau remains hopeful despite dark times.