| - |
Search Member Inventory
Membership Application
|
Eloise Wilkin | ||||||||
|
Now, again we are inundated with our 'way-of-the-world' news. Sometimes it is just too much to take in and process. We have to turn off the TV news. You are lucky if you have a child close by in your life. Pick up a Little Golden Book and give yourself and the child a rest from the chaos of the world. And if you don't have a little one around go ahead anyway and look through some of the most wonderful stories and illustrations of childhood.
Illustrators like Garth Williams of the Little House on The Prairie books wrote and illustrated for Little Golden Books, as did hundreds of others. Richard Scarry, Gustaf Tenggren and many more contributed to the essence of these little books.
My favorite was The Taxi That Hurried, written just a year after WWII when people again wanted peace in their lives. It is a cheery little book about a taxi in a busy city. But, then I did love my brother's copy of The Animals of Farmer Jones with the cows and the chickens and the ducks. The last page was ripped out but I didn't care.
|
Now as an adult, I realize the importance of these books in our lives. And I seem to think of the books several times lately. I turn off the television and forgo reading the headlines. I look through Santi's book and remember.
I remember my mother reading about The New Baby, and Good Morning, Good Night illustrated by Eloise Wilkin. I wanted to find out more about this woman who wrote and illustrated more than 100 books in her lifetime.
And as did Tasha Tudor, Eloise Wilkin spread her creative talents into other venues. She designed a baby doll for Vogue Dolls that has been listed as one of their most favored dolls. It has the same characteristics that her book children have; rounded cheeks, bright eyes filled with trust and wonderment. I found one of these dolls on E-bay and bought the Baby Dear doll for a fair price to go along with the So Big book I had just received from a bookseller in Hawaii. Why? What will I do with it? I don't know - I will probably just put it on a shelf in my office. When I tire of listing Chilton manuals into my inventory, I can glance up and see the doll and the book that take me back to a quieter time, a less tiresome life.
|
What kind of a woman wrote and illustrated these famous old stories still popular and important in the book collector world?
Born in Rochester, New York in 1904, Eloise Burns became an illustrator after graduating from The Rochester Institute of Technology. Little is know of her early life but she was fortunate to have had a mother who seemed to be a free spirit and encouraged her children to enjoy their creative gifts. One fine day she allowed them to draw all over one wall in their house just before redecorating. Imagine the squeals and happy scribbles that day.
|
Eloise Burns became Eloise Burns Wilkin in 1935 after her marriage to Sydney Wilkin and soon began a family of four children. She illustrated over 20 books with her sister Ester, who also married a Wilkin.
In 1943, she was offered a contract with Simon & Schuster in New York. She signed to do four Little Golden books a year staying with Little Golden Books exclusively until 1961, then only occasionally doing a book for them up until the mid-eighties.
On October 4, 1987, at the age of 84, Eloise died of cancer in Brighton, New York, bringing an end to a beautiful and fulfilling career and leaving a legacy of delightful stories and pictures still loved by 21st century children and the folks who read to them. At the time of her death Eloise Wilkin was still illustrating and working on a new doll design.
Home
|
Mission Statement
|
Code of Ethics
Book Terminology
|
Description Definitions
Contact Us
Member Dealers Contact Info
|
Membership Application
(and dues payment)
Links to Book Related Sites
Problems? email the
Webmaster
| - | - |