Satirical columnist Art Buchwald was born in Mount Vernon, New York, October 20, 1925. On his seventeenth birthday in 1942, he joined the Marines, rising from private to sergeant. Assigned to the Fourth Marine Air Wing, he spent most of his three-year tour of duty in the Pacific.
On his return to civilian life, Buchwald entered the University of Southern California. There he became managing editor of the Wampus, the University's humor magazine, did a column for the college newspaper, the Daily Trojan, and wrote a variety show entitled No Love Atoll.
Without graduating, Buchwald left the University for Paris in 1948. He bought a one-way ticket to France and when his money ran low, took a job with Variety magazine in Paris. In January 1949, he presented a trial column he had developed to the European edition of the New York Herald Tribune. Presenting a witty American impression of French culture, it brought Buchwald a job on the staff. By 1952, his columns had become so popular that they were syndicated in the United States.
Ten years later, in August 1962, Buchwald returned to America and took up residence in Washington, D.C. Although he originally planned to return to Paris after two years, his column of humorous political and social satire achieved such fame that he remained in Washington, and by the 1960s Buchwald had become one of America's best-known columnists.
In addition to his newspaper writing, Buchwald has published many books, many of them collections of his columns. In 1970 he wrote a play, Sheep on the Runway, which enjoyed a brief run on Broadway. He also lectured extensively.
Art Buchwald died in Washington, D.C., on January 17, 2007.
