THE LONELY GRAVE

Reuben Louis Goldberg—Rube Goldberg as the world knew him—did it all: He was an engineer, cartoonist, sculptor, author, inventor, and—for just a very brief time in 1919—a war correspondent.

Born in San Francisco on July 4, 1883, Goldberg as a child was obsessed with drawing and by age 11 was taking lessons from a professional artist. Goldberg’s father wanted him to be an engineer, but six months after earning a degree in engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, the young Goldberg landed a job as a sports cartoonist for the San Francisco Chronicle. In 1907 Goldberg made his way to New York City, and by 1915 he was earning more than $50,000 a year (thanks largely to newspaper syndication) and was generally considered to be America’s most popular—and prolific—cartoonist.