A comic artist especially known for his New Yorker magazine cartoons that focused on the uncosmopolitan side of life, George Booth was born and raised in rural Missouri. He started drawing as a youngster, encouraged by his mother who was a comic artist, and was exposed to the world of public media when he worked as a type setter at the local newspaper.

Booth served in the U.S. Marines where he did cartoons for The Leatherneck Magazine. After this service, he took art training at the Chicago Academy of Art, Corcoran School of Art and School of the Visual Arts in New York City. He married in 1958, and two years later became a contributing artist for the The New Yorker. He also served ...