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Eloise Wilkin - Little Golden Book Illustrator ELOISE WILKIN - Little Golden Books Illustrator
Eloise Wilkin's career covered more than fifty years, involving illustration and writing, free-lance drawing, and doll design. After graduating from The Rochester Institute of Technology, Eloise Burns and her friend Joan Esley moved to New York City where they hoped to have a better chance at careers in illustration. In 1935, Eloise married Sydney Wilkin and soon began a family of four children. She illustrated over 20 books with her sister Esther, who also married a Wilkin. In 1943, she was offered a contract with Simon & Schuster and worked almost exclusively for Little Golden Books until 1961. Wilkin won several awards for her writings and illustrations including the Ewald Eisenhardt Memorial Merit Award for excellence in printmaking for her lithograph "Lilybet." Two books which she illustrated, The Boy With a Drum (1971) by David L. Harrison and I Hear: Sounds In a Child's World (1971) by Lucille Ogle and Tina Thoburn, were each named children's book of the year by the Child Study Association of America. She also received honorable mention in l940 from the New York Times Book Review for her illustrations for A Good House for a Mouse written by Irmengarde Eberle, 1940, and in 1950 for The Tune is in the Tree written by Maud Hart Lovelace. Eloise Wilkin was also known for designing dolls and doll houses. In the 1960s she successfully marketed a new-born infant doll called "Baby Dear." Reportedly, former Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev returned home with several of the dolls after a trip to a toy store in New York City. While studying art at Mechanics Institute (now Rochester Institute of Technology), Wilkin met Joan Esley, best known as an illustrator of several books for adolescents. They formed a lifelong friendship that included collaboration on The Visit. Eloise Wilkin died October 4, 1987 in Rochester, New York. Eloise was a women that stood up for her beliefs, whether it was refusing to paint pants on a woman or marching with Martin Luther King or assisting a college student in the burning of his draft card. On October 4, 1987, Eloise died of cancer, at Genesee Hospital in Brighton, New York. At the time of her death at 84, she was working on a new doll and was still illustrating. With around 100 books illustrated, she will be remembered as one of the top children's illustrators of the 20th century.
LITTLE GOLDEN BOOKS BIBLIOGRAPHY All books written and illustrated by Eloise Wilkin unless otherwise noted. Baby Dear. by Esther Wilkin, 1962. LGB# 466
ELOISE WILKIN - Little Golden Books Illustrator |
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Eloise Wilkin (1904–1987) illustrated dozens of classic Golden Books in her long career. Famous for her instantly recognizable style, she provided the art for such books as Baby Dear, We Help Mommy, and the original Little Golden Book versions of Prayers for Children and My Little Golden Book About God.