The creator of Little Orphan Annie, Harold Gray is regarded as the first strip cartoonist to use the medium as a vehicle for political philosophy. Gray's gift for narrative and characterization kept the strip popular at a much broader level during its lone history, and established it as a part of American folk culture that has outlasted its author.

Harold Lincoln Gray was born in the rural town of Kankakee, Illinois, about 50 miles south of Chicago. His family can be traced back to the 17th century in the new world. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering from Purdue in 1917, and that same year took a job with the art department of the Chicago Tribune. In 1920, he became an assista...