Edward Sorel (born 26 March 1929, the Bronx) is an illustrator, caricaturist, cartoonist, and graphic designer whose work is known for its storytelling, its left-liberal social commentary its criticism of reactionary right-wing politics and organized religion. Formerly a regular contributor to The Nation, New York Magazine and The Atlantic, his work is today seen more frequently in Vanity Fair. He has been hailed by The New York Times as "one of America's foremost political satirists". As a lifelong New Yorker, a large portion of his work interprets the life, culture and political events of New York City. There is also a large body of work which is nostalgic for the stars of 1930s and 1940s Hollywood when Sorel was a youth. Sorel is also noted for his wavy pen-and-ink style, which he describes as "spontaneous direct drawing"

Sorel grew up in the Bronx, son of Jewish immigrants. His father was a door-to- door dry goods salesman, while his mother worked full-time in a hatmaking factory. Sorel became serious about drawing when a case of double pneumonia confined him to bed for nearly a year. He attended the High School of Music and Art, and graduated from the Cooper Union in Sorel was a co-founder of Push Pin Studios with Milton Glaser, Seymour Chwast, and Reynold Ruffins in In 1956 Sorel went freelance. His first published illustration was A War for Civilization was sold to the satirical magazine The Realist; in He then sold the magazine a cartoon satirizing the glamor of the Kennedy family, an early example of his parody movie posters. Victor Navasky appointed him art director for the satirical magazine Monocle in In the later 1960s he produced full-color satirical bestiaries for the left-wing Ramparts, and a series called “Sorel’s Unfamiliar Quotations” for The Atlantic. A profile of Sorel in Time 15 October 1968 was instrumental in selling “Sorel’s News Service” by King Features to 44 syndicated newspapers for 14 months from later 1969 through Clay Felker founded New York magazine in the late 1960s and Sorel was a regular contributor, becoming art director in the late 1970s.

Sorel also contributed covers and features to early issues of National Lampoon. When Felker bought the Village Voice in 1974 Sorel was given a weekly spot there, which lasted for most of the 1970s. By the mid- 1980s Sorel moved to The Nation, now edited by his old colleague Navasky, and to which he contributed for the next decade. Sorel joined The New Yorker in late 1992 contributing a cover to the first issue edited by new editor Tina Brown. He has contributed many illustrations, features, and 44 covers to The New Yorker. He has contributed many features to Vanity Fair. His art has also appeared on the covers of Harper's Magazine, Fortune, Forbes, Esquire, Time, American Heritage, Atlantic Monthly. Sorel also had a lengthy association with Penthouse, often lavishly reworking earlier drawings and ideas from his work for Village Voice and The Nation. In 2007 he completed the celebrated mural for the Waverly Inn in New York's Greenwich Village, which was published as a book, The Mural at the Waverly Inn in In 2009 he completed the mural for the redesigned Monkey Bar Restaurant in New York City. As a writer, Sorel has reviewed books and exhibitions of fellow cartoonists and illustrators for such publications as the New York Times, the New York Observer, and American Heritage magazine.

Sorel has been married twice. He met his second wife, Nancy Caldwell, in 1963 at a Quakers Morningside Friends Meeting, and married her in Sorel and Caldwell have collaborated on two books, with Caldwell writing the text and Sorel doing the illustrations. Sorel has four children: Madeline Sorel Kahn, Leo Sorel, Jenny Sorel, Katherine Sorel; and five grandchildren: Sabella Kahn, Walter Sorel, Adam Sorel, Saskia Kahn, and Dulio Sorel. In February 2010 he was named to the Freedom From Religion Foundation's Honorary Board of distinguished achievers.