Jiminy Cricket! Wait till you get a load of this historic collection of cartoons. Disney and Doonesbury, Seuss and Snoopy, Li'l Abner and Little Nemo.
The pages of Cartoon America are filled with highlights from the Library of Congress, which began collecting and preserving cartoons and caricatures not long after its founding in 1800. The book, an accompaniment to a current exhibit, features fine essays, sumptuous color reproductions and pen-and-inks that leap off the page. It ain't cheap and it needs a coffee table but it's worth both minor inconveniences just for the political cartoons.
Consider "The Patriotic Accountant," gallows humor from 1792 that shows a number cruncher placidly adding up heads during the French Revolution. Or "The Prairie Dog" from 1804 by James Akin, where a mangy dog with Jefferson’s head regurgitates piles of money. The cartoon was a criticism of the President's decision... to buy Florida!
Of course you could buy your giftee a ticket to Washington, D.C., so he or she can see the original art in the Library of Congress. But hurry! The Cartoon America exhibit closes at the end of January. As a backup, consider the book.
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