From the Birthday Book

Try our Authors and Illustrators area for information about CLN members. There's an alphabetical list as well.

Our alphabetically-arranged Birthday Bios page features authors and illustrators, current and past, with short biographies.

We thank our author and illustrator biography researchers, volunteers who write these informative articles about authors and illustrators, past and present: Lois Thompson Bartholomew, Terri DeGezelle, Juli Friedberg, Heidi Grosch, Sydney Lange, Steve Mudd, Vicki Palmquist, Leslie Greaves Radloff, Karen Ritz, Mary Rude, Julie G. Schuster, Christina Semsch, Martha Valainis

Born on March 17th, Lilian Moore grew up in New York, received a degree in teaching from Hunter College, and did graduate work at Columbia University. She attended college during the Depression, so job opportunities were few. She worked for the Bureau of Educational Research, helping children who could not read in their Reading Clinic. Ms. Moore was also a reading specialist for the New York Board of Education. She trained teachers and did extensive research into reading difficulties.

She was the editor of Scholastic's first paperback book club, the Arrow Book Club, beginning in 1957. As she said, "Imagine making it possible for these youngsters to choose and buy good books for the price of comics!" She was an editor at Wonder Books, Thomas Y. Crowell, and contributor to Humpty Dumpty magazine.

In addition, Ms. Moore was a founding member of the Council on Interracial Books for Children. Ms. Moore died on July 20, 2004, at the age of 95.

She is best known for her poetry and easy-to-read books.

the sudden light of forsythia
one morning without warning
explodes into yellow
and startles the street into spring

from I Thought I Heard the City (Atheneum, 1969)

—Vicki Palmquist

Kate Greenaway, born on March 17, 1846, still stands as one of the most popular British illustrators of the late 19th century with her images of sweet children, flowers, and quaint sketches of landscapes. Her popularity began when she published Christmas cards and soon she was illustrating her own verse as well as the work of others.

Her first book, Under the Window, was published in 1879. She took her career seriously, dedicating 8:00 am–1:00 pm daily to her work. Often she drew from child models or mannequins dressed in outfits she sewed and designed herself. After much of her early work was plagiarized, she made it a rule not to part with the copyrights of her drawings, selling only the rights to the work and keeping the original art.

Kate Greenaway died in 1901.

—Heidi Grosch

British fantasy writer Penelope Lively, born on March 17th, best known for The Ghost of Thomas Kempe (1973), The House at Norham Garden (1974), The Whispering Knights (1976), and A Stitch in Time (1976), combines a fascination with English history and memory. After success with her children's books she began writing for adults and in her words, "rather abandoned my children's book." Our loss, since the novels mentioned still engage readers of fantasy today.

—Leslie Greaves Radloff

Cheaper By the Dozen was my favorite book when I was growing up. I re-read it many times. Being an only child, this family of twelve children was magical to me and Frank B. Gilbreth, Jr., born on March 17, 1911, was a very funny writer. He was born in Plainfield, New Jersey, one of the children of Frank and Lillian Moller Gilbreth, two of America's most famous engineers. Frank Gilbreth, the father, is credited with being the father of motion study, the study of the relationship between human beings and human effort. They orginated micro-motion study, a breakdown of work into fundamental elements now called therbligs, which is Gilbreth spelled backwards. These elements were studied by means of a motion-picture camera and a timing device which indicated the time intervals on the film as it was exposed. The couple was married in 1904, and Gilbreth, Sr., died in 1924. His wife carried on their work, concentrating particularly on household tasks. Today, their science is known more readily as "work simplification." Frank, Jr. graduated from the University of Michigan, served in World War II, and became a columnist and reporter for the Charleston Post and Courier in South Carolina. He also wrote a dozen books, including the stories about his family which he co-authored with his sister Ernestine: Cheaper by the Dozen, Belles on Their Toes, and Time Out for Happiness. Reading the books is a much funnier experience than the recent movie of the same name, which bears little resemblance to the real story. Frank, Jr., died in February, 2001.

—Vicki Palmquist

Born on March 16th, William Mayne is one of England's most well-known authors. Born in Yorkshire, the son of a doctor, he spent his childhood at the choir school of Canterbury Cathedral. He left school at fourteen, knowing he wanted to be a writer, and worked for a short time at the British Broadcasting Corporation before writing full-time.

Many of his early books were written in the "boy's school" genre; A Swarm in May being the most notable example. Made into a movie in 1983, the story is that of a young chorister who must sing at the ceremony honoring a legendary choirboy who could control bees with his voice.

Mayne is noted for his fantasy and science fiction novels, particularly Earthfasts and the two books that followed. William Mayne was awarded the Carnegie Medal for A Grass Rope in 1957. His most recent novel, Animal Garden, was published in 2003.

—Steve Mudd

Albert Sidney (Sid) Fleischman, born March 16th, was born in Brooklyn, NY, and grew up in San Diego, CA. As a youth, he wanted to be a magician. After high school, he performed in vaudeville shows across the country, and had a book of original magic tricks published when he was 17. After graduating from college he worked briefly as a newspaper reporter in San Diego, then turned to writing full-time.

His first children's book was written for his own children, to show them what their father did for a living. He writes books for adults and children, as well as screenplays. He has said, "Nothing surprises me more than to discover myself a writer. I wanted to become a magician." He infuses his writing with a sense of magic, using wild language, unusual names, exaggeration, and a sense of humor.

He has won numerous awards for his adult and children's books, including the 1987 Newbery Award for The Whipping Boy. Among his other books are Mr. Mysterious & Company (1962), McBroom Tells the Truth (1966), Humbug Mountain (1978), and Jim Ugly (1992). Recent titles are Escape! the Story of the Great Houdini, The White Elephant, and The Trouble Begins at 8: a Life of Mark Twain in the Wild, Wild West.

—Steve Mudd

Barbara Cohen was born on March 15, 1932. She grew up in New Jersey, where her mother ran a small hotel. Ms. Cohen attended Barnard College, and earned her MA from Rutgers University in 1957. While she raised her three daughters, she taught high school English, published a column, "Books and Things," in New Jersey newspapers, and was active in civic and Jewish activities in her region.

She received the 1981 Sydney Taylor Body of Work Award from the Association of Jewish Libraries. She won two National Jewish Book Awards in 1983, for King of the Seventh Grade and Yussel's Prayer, which was also an IBBY Children's Choice Book.

She passed away at the age of 60 in 1992.

—Vicki Palmquist

Born in Ireland on March 15, 1921, Maureen Daly's family soon moved to Wisconsin because it reminded her father of the Emerald Isle. She married William P. McGivern, a mystery writer, in 1946, and the two of them traveled the world until he died of cancer in 1982. They had two children.

Ms. Daly is the author of Seventeenth Summer, a book about teenage love which has stayed in print since 1942 and won the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award in 1946. This is the book which is often said to have started young adult literature as we know it. The book was submitted to Dodd, Mead for its first intercollegiate literary fellowship—it won first prize.

She is quoted as saying that while many girls remember their first kiss, she remembers her first librarian.

Reading and writing were essential parts of Ms. Daly's life. Her most recent young adult novel, Acts of Love, was published in 1986.

A long-time resident of Palm Desert, California, Ms. Daly died in 2007.

—Vicki Palmquist

What would childhood be without the playful Dennis the Menace? He has become part of the American cartoon legacy and for that we can thank creator Hank Ketcham, who was born on March 14, 1920. A skillful draftsman from childhood, Ketcham dropped out of college in 1938 to work for animator Walter Lantz, creator of the Woody Woodpecker cartoons. Later he went to work for Disney (on Pinocchio and Fantasia) before joining the navy during WWII. His son Dennis was born in 1947 and by the age of four he was "too young for school, too big for his playpen, too small to hit, not old enough for jail." Raising him became overwhelming for Ketcham who instead turned to his own version of what a boy should be, Dennis the Menace. By the end of 1951 his strip was in over 100 papers and ranked with Beetle Bailey and Peanuts as one of the top comics of its time. As popularity grew, Ketcham let others do the work, only overseeing the final product. He turned to art, painting the subjects that were his passions; jazz and heroic athletes. His autobiography The Merchant of Dennis (1992) is an interesting reflection on his career. Mr. Ketcham died on June 1, 2001.

—Heidi Grosch

Thomas Rockwell celebrates his birthday on March 13th. Rockwell moved from New York to rural Vermont when he was five years old. His father (Norman!) was an artist, his mother an unpublished writer, his older brother became an artist, and his younger brother, a sculptor. Thomas majored in literature at Bard College and worked for a gardening magazine in New York before moving to Poughkeepsie, NY to help his father write his autobiography.

Thomas published his first children's book in 1969, Rackety-Bang and Other Verses. It received such crushing reviews that his publisher declined his next book of verse. Rockwell switched to novels and How To Eat Fried Worms, published in 1973, won ten awards.

Over the years, Rockwell has taught, sold second-hand books, worked for War on Poverty, and tried sporadically and half-heartedly to write for television and advertising to support his passion.

—Karen Ritz

Johann David Wyss, born on March 13, 1743, was a chaplain in the Swiss army and served in Italy. He is credited with writing Swiss Family Robinson but the story of family involvement only begins there.

Johann David Wyss had four sons who loved to hear stories based on Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe. The Swiss Family Robinson differed from Robinson Crusoe in that a whole family was shipwrecked. From this, a father could use the opportunity to teach his children values of life and civilization.

The family discussed these stories and then took turns making up their own tales of adventure. Each boy took turns telling their tale and their father would write the stories down. One of the sons, Johann Emmanuel Wyss illustrated the adventures with drawings and watercolors. Years later, another son, Johann Rudolph Wyss edited his father's work and submitted it for publication.

The first English translation appeared in 1814 and since then the immensely popular book has appeared in over two hundred editions in English.

Incidentally, Johann Rudolph Wyss went on to write the Swiss national anthem.

—Terri DeGezelle

Ellen Raskin, who was born on March 13, 1928, began her career as an illustrator and designer, freelancing for the Saturday Evening Post and pharmaceutical journals. During her early career she created over 1,000 book jackets, including the Newbery winner A Wrinkle In Time (1963) by Madeline L'Engle.

But writing was always in her blood and after 15 years as an illustrator she published her own book Nothing Ever Happens on My Block (1966). "As far back as I can remember," she wrote, " I invented characters. My sister and I would spend weeks at a time acting out the lives of at least 10 character each." Her delightful word play won her a Newbery all her own with The Westing Game (1979).

"I try to say one thing with my work: A book is a wonderful place to be. A book is a package, a gift package, a surprise package—and within the wrappings is a whole new world and beyond."

—Heidi Grosch

We wish Diane (Sorber) Dillon a happy birthday on March 13th. She grew up on the West Coast and attended Parsons School of Design in New York, which is where she met Leo Dillon. They were married one year after they graduated and have since melded their separate careers into one career, which they refer to as the "third artist," in order to avoid professional jealousy.

Their first illustrated children's book was The Ring and the Prairie, which was published in 1970.They are the only artists to win the Caldecott medal two years in a row: Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears in 1976 and Ashanti to Zulu in 1977.

They are also recipients of four Boston Globe/Horn Book Awards, two Coretta Scott King Awards, the Gold Medal from the Society of Illustrators, and the Hugo Award in 1971 for science fiction book illustration.

The couple have one son and they live in New York City.

—Martha Valainis

Dorothy Keely Aldis was born in Chicago on March 13, 1896. Her father was a newspaper editor and the young Dorothy lived around books and the written word her entire life. She wrote books and poetry for adults and children, but her children's work is still remembered today. Her poems may be found in books such as All the Year Around (1938), The Boy Who Cared (1956), and Hiding (1920), were extremely popular. She had four children and lived in Lake Forest, Illinois, until she died at age 70.

—Vicki Palmquist

Born in Saint Louis, Missouri on March 12th, Naomi Shihab Nye is a poet, an essayist, a songwriter, and the author of many wonderful books for children.

Her first poem was published when she was seven years old!

She has a Palestinian-American background and she was fortunate to grow up in Saint Louis, Jerusalem, and San Antonio, Texas. She draws on her rich experiences traveling the world to create books that promote international good will. Her poetry is rich and beloved by many.

She has won the Guggenheim Fellowship, two Jane Addams' Children's Book Awards and the Lavan Award from the American Academy of Poets.

Her books include the autobiographical YA novel, Habibi, as well as 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East, This Same Sky, and Hugging the Jukebox.

—Vicki Palmquist