brodner attended cooper union, in new york city and graduated in 1976 with a bachelor of fine arts degree. brodner went on to work briefly for the "hudson dispatch" in hudson county, nj after leaving college. between 1979 and 1982 he self-published the "new york illustrated news", which featured his work as well as those of colleagues. in 1977, he began his freelance career with "the new york times book review", working with steven heller, art director. soon he was working with lewis lapham and sheila wolfe at harper's on a monthly page of commentary entitled ars politica.