Thursday, August 21, 2008

Favorite of the Week - Eloise Wilkin



I love Eloise Wilkin. She is absolutely my favorite children's book illustrator. Her illustrations for me blend nostalgic baby boomer imagery and the joy of childhood. As a child, the Little Golden Books she illustrated were my favorites. (I still have these books and I treasure them!)

Eloise Wilkin was born in Rochester, New York in 1904. She was a trained illustrator, a wife, the mother of four children, a doll designer, and a star of the Little Golden Book community. She often illustrated books written by her sister Ester Wilkin, and she also worked with Jane Werner Watson. She passed away in 1987. Some of the books she illustrated are still in print, and others are out of print and quite collectible. (One of my best early sales on eBay was a lovely copy of the Little Golden Book The Twins.) I highly recommend the lovely Maud Hart Lovelace (author of the Betsy-Tacy series) book that she illustrated, The Tune Is In the Tree.

I always try to keep a few Eloise Wilkin books in my bookstore. Here's a link if you'd like to take a peek: