Jacob Burck was born in 1904. Employed as a cartoonist on the radical Daily Worker, Burck gave support to Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal. He moved to the Chicago Times and in 1942 won the Pulitzer Prize for his cartoon, If I Should Die before I Wake.

In the 1950s Burck was investigated by Joseph McCarthy. and the House Un-American Activities Committee but charges against him were eventually dropped. In the 1960s he worked on the Chicago Sunday Times where he worked with another radical cartoonist, Bill Mauldin.

Jacob Burck died on 11th May, 1982.