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Contributed by Owen Schumacher

Leo Hershfield was an eminent cartoonist, as well as one of the great courtroom illustrators of the '50s and '60s. NBC News called him the "Dean of Courtroom Artists," depending on him for many of the great courtroom dramas of the time, including those of infamous assassins Jack Ruby and James Earl Ray.

Hershfield's breezy, confident line work graced more than 50 books, including H. Allen Smith's, Low and Inside (1949), Richard Armour's, Golf Is a Four-Letter Word (1962), and—of course!—Groucho's womanizing tell-all, Memoirs of a Mangy Lover (1963). Incidentally, Groucho wrote more books than one might think, and all are worth checking out. Whatever the case, here are some of Leo's loopiest. Enjoy!

It may seem to some like lazy thinking, but appropriating sayings, quotes, and proverbs can be quite handy in distilling complex subjects into something more immediate.  At the Harold Washington Chicago Public Library are a few quotes above the checkout:

Books are meat and medicine
and flame and flight and flower,
steel, stitch, and cloud and clout
and drumbeats on the air.

- Gwendolyn Brooks

Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend. Inside of a dog it’s too dark to read.

- Groucho Marx

Books and reading are very personal subjects for most of us, and I was interested to find more famous opinions about our chosen profession…

It would appear that Maya Angelou would approve of a customizable kids book that peaks a child’s interest in books:

“Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him.”

Comedian Mitch Hedberg seemed to think that we may be too specialized:

“Every book is a children’s book if the kid can read!”

It was Confucius, however, who was the most complimentary of our endeavors:

“The book salesman should be honored because he brings to our attention, as a rule, the very books we need most and neglect most.”

What a wiseguy…