During her 50 year career spanning the decades of the 1930s through the 1980s, Eloise Wilkin illustrated over 110 books for children. Her illustrations evoke an idyllic rural world not unlike that which she knew while raising her family of four children in upstate New York. Famous for her instantly recognizable style: sweet, cherubic, chubby-faced children; detailed early American and Victorian style architecture and furnishings; and the verdant, daisy-strewn hills of upstate New York, Eloise illustrated children’s early reading books; paper dolls; puzzles; entries in the Childcraft series; 20 books authored by her sister, Esther; as well as her 47 popular “Little Golden Books” titles. Her most beloved titles include We Help Daddy, We Help Mommy, Baby Dear, So Big!, Prayers for Children, Busy Timmy, and My Little Golden Book About God. In addition to free lance drawing and book illustration, in the early 1960s Eloise successfully designed and marketed, via the Vogue Doll Company, a new-born infant doll about which the popular Little Golden Book, Baby Dear, was later written. Eloise's daughter, Deborah and grandson, David served as the models for the mother and baby in the book. The realistic style of the Baby Dear doll revolutionized the doll industry at the time, encouraging more realistic baby dolls. Reportedly, former Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev returned home with several of the dolls after a trip to F.A.O. Schwartz in New York City. Born in Rochester, New York in 1904, Eloise Burns, was fortunate to have had a mother who encouraged her imaginative children to enjoy their creative gifts, allowing them to draw all over one wall in their house just before redecorating. Her father was a newspaperman and her mother had studied piano at a conservatory and often played classical music, which Eloise grew to love. Eloise, her sister Esther (only fifteen months older), a brother Robert, and two other siblings grew up in New York City on 109th Street near Central Park. As children, Eloise and Esther shared a bedroom and spent hours creating doll houses from orange crates, dolls out of newspapers, and sewing doll clothes. Eloise and Esther, remained especially close, and eventually married brothers, Sydney and George Wilkin. At age 11, Eloise won a drawing contest for children, sponsored by the Wanamaker department stores, with a picture of a pilgrim returning home. While studying art at Mechanics Institute (now Rochester Institute of Technology), Eloise Burns met Joan Esley, best known as an illustrator of several books for adolescents. They formed a lifelong friendship that included collaboration on a children’s book entitled, The Visit. After graduating from The Rochester Institute of Technology, Eloise and Joan began doing free lance work in Rochester (i.e., Eloise painting stations of the cross for the Sacred Heart Academy Church and illustrations for the Rochester Box Company) and ultimately moved together to New York City, where they hoped to have a better chance at careers in illustration. Eloise’s first book was The Shining Hour for the Century Co. Other publishers for which she illustrated were Ginn, Scribner, Little Brown, Rand McNally, Random House and MacMillian. Many early illustrations were for school books, i.e., The First Grade Book for Ginn. Early in her career Eloise illustrated paper dolls for Samuel Gabriel & Sons, Playtime House and Jaymar. She illustrated for four years before marrying Sidney Wilkin in 1935, thus, her early works are signed Eloise Burns. The Wilkins family settled in a fieldstone farmhouse with eight fireplaces in the country near Canandaigua in upstate New York, and Eloise slowed her career for several years while raising her four children, Ann, Sidney, Jr., Deborah and Jeremy. In 1943, she was offered a contract with Simon & Schuster and worked almost exclusively for Little Golden Books, illustrating the 47 little golden books, calendars, shape books, big golden books, and sturdy golden books until 1961; then, only occasionally illustrating for them up until the mid-eighties. Eloise used her neighborhood, her home, her children, her husband, her grandchildren, and their friends and neighbors as models for her illustrations. Many little golden book pages became puzzles which were produced by Simon & Schuster and later Golden Press. Earlier puzzles illustrated by Wilkin have been found produced by Playtime House and Leo Hart Co. Her illustrations are also found on record sleeves of many little golden records (occasionally on the record label itself) and on china plates, ads, Hallmark cards and in Child's Life, Story Parade and Golden Magazines. Currently, original editions of Eloise Wilkin illustrated books in very good condition can command prices of up to several hundred dollars. It is said that Eloise was very modest about her talents and was a woman who stood up for her beliefs, whether it was refusing to paint pants on a mother in one of her children’s books, marching with Martin Luther King, marching with the Berrigans in Washington early in the Vietnam War, teaching art to inner city children, or assisting a University of Rochester student in the burning of his draft card in Central Park. In October of 1987, Eloise died of cancer, at the age of 84 in Brighton, New York. At the time of her death, she was working on a new doll and was still illustrating. In the recently published, A Little Golden Book Collection Eloise Wilkin Stories (featuring nine of her most treasured stories: "Busy Timmy, "Guess Who Lives Here", "Wonders of Nature", "Selections from A Child’s Garden of Verses", "We Help Mommy", "Baby Listens," "Baby Dear," and "Baby Looks"), an afterword by James Werner Watson aptly describes Eloise Wilkin’s legacy: "A warm and creative homemaker, Eloise shared with the world glimpses of her big, busy, welcoming household, its rooms papered with gentle patterns, its drop-leaf tables and rocking chairs aglow with hand-rubbed sheen, its four-poster beds covered by hand-stitched quilts. A devoutly religious person, she shared ever so gently her values, her sense of the beauty of order and love, of implicit self-discipline, and of regard for others . . . she has left us, only slightly idealized, rich reminders of a lovely time not very long ago." To listen to a three-part interview with one of Eloise Wilkin’s daughters, Deborah Wilkin Springett, (author of the Eloise Wilkin’s Book of Poems, her mother’s last illustrated book, published in 1988) and to order her biography about her mother, The Golden Years of Eloise Wilkin, go to: http://www.triviumpursuit.com/blog/2007/02/21/podcast-2-interview-with-eloise-wilkins-daughter-part-one/
My daughter Colleen left today for a teaching position in Korea. It's not the first time she has gone overseas. She studied abroad in Sevilla, Spain for a year and taught in Extremadura, Spain a couple years later. So I guess I'm broken in and definitely not a nervous wreck like the first time. But I still missed her the minute she walked out the door. How is it possible to be proud and feel sad at the same time? So I'm comforting myself by eating a bunch of candy and showing a book I read to all my kids, (3 girls, 1 boy) and my grandson. Poems to Read to the Very Young ranks high in sentimentality for me and I love some of the poems in this book. Beautifully illustrated by Eloise Wilkin, who had a lovely way of portraying children. Wilkin used her children and in later years, grandchildren as models. Eloise Wilkin (1904-1987), an award winning illustrator and author, had a career that spanned over 50 years. Wilkin is best known for her Golden Books, working for them for almost 20 years and illustrating over 50 books for Golden, some of which are still in print. Many of her books have become classics. In her career she illustrated well over 100 books! To read about Eloise Wilkin, Cassandra of Cassandra Considers All Things Bright and Beautiful did a very comprehensive post on the life of Wilkin in 2010 - to view that click here. Eloise's daughter, Deborah Wilkin Springett, wrote a book about her mother's life, called The Golden Years of Eloise Wilkin. Poems to Read to the Very Young Selected by Josette Frank Illustrated by Eloise Wilkin Random House, 1982
During her 50 year career spanning the decades of the 1930s through the 1980s, Eloise Wilkin illustrated over 110 books for children. Her illustrations evoke an idyllic rural world not unlike that which she knew while raising her family of four children in upstate New York. Famous for her instantly recognizable style: sweet, cherubic, chubby-faced children; detailed early American and Victorian style architecture and furnishings; and the verdant, daisy-strewn hills of upstate New York, Eloise illustrated children’s early reading books; paper dolls; puzzles; entries in the Childcraft series; 20 books authored by her sister, Esther; as well as her 47 popular “Little Golden Books” titles. Her most beloved titles include We Help Daddy, We Help Mommy, Baby Dear, So Big!, Prayers for Children, Busy Timmy, and My Little Golden Book About God. In addition to free lance drawing and book illustration, in the early 1960s Eloise successfully designed and marketed, via the Vogue Doll Company, a new-born infant doll about which the popular Little Golden Book, Baby Dear, was later written. Eloise's daughter, Deborah and grandson, David served as the models for the mother and baby in the book. The realistic style of the Baby Dear doll revolutionized the doll industry at the time, encouraging more realistic baby dolls. Reportedly, former Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev returned home with several of the dolls after a trip to F.A.O. Schwartz in New York City. Born in Rochester, New York in 1904, Eloise Burns, was fortunate to have had a mother who encouraged her imaginative children to enjoy their creative gifts, allowing them to draw all over one wall in their house just before redecorating. Her father was a newspaperman and her mother had studied piano at a conservatory and often played classical music, which Eloise grew to love. Eloise, her sister Esther (only fifteen months older), a brother Robert, and two other siblings grew up in New York City on 109th Street near Central Park. As children, Eloise and Esther shared a bedroom and spent hours creating doll houses from orange crates, dolls out of newspapers, and sewing doll clothes. Eloise and Esther, remained especially close, and eventually married brothers, Sydney and George Wilkin. At age 11, Eloise won a drawing contest for children, sponsored by the Wanamaker department stores, with a picture of a pilgrim returning home. While studying art at Mechanics Institute (now Rochester Institute of Technology), Eloise Burns met Joan Esley, best known as an illustrator of several books for adolescents. They formed a lifelong friendship that included collaboration on a children’s book entitled, The Visit. After graduating from The Rochester Institute of Technology, Eloise and Joan began doing free lance work in Rochester (i.e., Eloise painting stations of the cross for the Sacred Heart Academy Church and illustrations for the Rochester Box Company) and ultimately moved together to New York City, where they hoped to have a better chance at careers in illustration. Eloise’s first book was The Shining Hour for the Century Co. Other publishers for which she illustrated were Ginn, Scribner, Little Brown, Rand McNally, Random House and MacMillian. Many early illustrations were for school books, i.e., The First Grade Book for Ginn. Early in her career Eloise illustrated paper dolls for Samuel Gabriel & Sons, Playtime House and Jaymar. She illustrated for four years before marrying Sidney Wilkin in 1935, thus, her early works are signed Eloise Burns. The Wilkins family settled in a fieldstone farmhouse with eight fireplaces in the country near Canandaigua in upstate New York, and Eloise slowed her career for several years while raising her four children, Ann, Sidney, Jr., Deborah and Jeremy. In 1943, she was offered a contract with Simon & Schuster and worked almost exclusively for Little Golden Books, illustrating the 47 little golden books, calendars, shape books, big golden books, and sturdy golden books until 1961; then, only occasionally illustrating for them up until the mid-eighties. Eloise used her neighborhood, her home, her children, her husband, her grandchildren, and their friends and neighbors as models for her illustrations. Many little golden book pages became puzzles which were produced by Simon & Schuster and later Golden Press. Earlier puzzles illustrated by Wilkin have been found produced by Playtime House and Leo Hart Co. Her illustrations are also found on record sleeves of many little golden records (occasionally on the record label itself) and on china plates, ads, Hallmark cards and in Child's Life, Story Parade and Golden Magazines. Currently, original editions of Eloise Wilkin illustrated books in very good condition can command prices of up to several hundred dollars. It is said that Eloise was very modest about her talents and was a woman who stood up for her beliefs, whether it was refusing to paint pants on a mother in one of her children’s books, marching with Martin Luther King, marching with the Berrigans in Washington early in the Vietnam War, teaching art to inner city children, or assisting a University of Rochester student in the burning of his draft card in Central Park. In October of 1987, Eloise died of cancer, at the age of 84 in Brighton, New York. At the time of her death, she was working on a new doll and was still illustrating. In the recently published, A Little Golden Book Collection Eloise Wilkin Stories (featuring nine of her most treasured stories: "Busy Timmy, "Guess Who Lives Here", "Wonders of Nature", "Selections from A Child’s Garden of Verses", "We Help Mommy", "Baby Listens," "Baby Dear," and "Baby Looks"), an afterword by James Werner Watson aptly describes Eloise Wilkin’s legacy: "A warm and creative homemaker, Eloise shared with the world glimpses of her big, busy, welcoming household, its rooms papered with gentle patterns, its drop-leaf tables and rocking chairs aglow with hand-rubbed sheen, its four-poster beds covered by hand-stitched quilts. A devoutly religious person, she shared ever so gently her values, her sense of the beauty of order and love, of implicit self-discipline, and of regard for others . . . she has left us, only slightly idealized, rich reminders of a lovely time not very long ago." To listen to a three-part interview with one of Eloise Wilkin’s daughters, Deborah Wilkin Springett, (author of the Eloise Wilkin’s Book of Poems, her mother’s last illustrated book, published in 1988) and to order her biography about her mother, The Golden Years of Eloise Wilkin, go to: http://www.triviumpursuit.com/blog/2007/02/21/podcast-2-interview-with-eloise-wilkins-daughter-part-one/
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My daughter Colleen left today for a teaching position in Korea. It's not the first time she has gone overseas. She studied abroad in S...
Eloise Wilkin I love the one sock and all the cookies!
"Christmas Cards from the Cremers" is a brief chapter from the book A Nursery in the Nineties, the autobiography of Eleanor Farjeon (1881 - 1965). You may already know that Farjeon wrote the lyrics to "Morning Has Broken," way back before Cat Stevens made them famous (click here to hear). Farjeon also wrote the clever little poem "Cats Sleep Anywhere," which has been illustrated as a children's book many times. You may be wondering: Why a Christmas post so soon? Read on, and you will see: Recalling the Christmas presents that she and her brothers received as children, Eleanor Farjeon writes: "Among our benefactors were . . . the Cremers. . . . Mr. Cremer kept the best toy-shop in Regent Street. There had been a Mrs. Cremer; there were two Miss Cremers. As long as old Mr. Cremer continued in life, Christmas brought us cases full of the most fascinating toys. . . . When Mr. Cremer died, the two Miss Cremers went to live in the Isle of Thanet [the name for the area just north of Dover, not really an island, and not very far at all from London]. At Christmas now "The Cremers" meant cards only. But they were always the first Christmas cards we received--dear little robins perched on babies' cradles, dear little girls in bonnets, with bunches of holly, "To dear little Harry, dear little Nellie [this was Eleanor], dear little Joe, dear little Bertie--with love from the Misses Cremer." They came like heralds, early in December, when Christmas was three endless weeks away. Mother's voice calling: "The Cremers' Cards have come!" brought us running. We looked, and knew that Christmas was coming too. But posts are so uncertain, and Thanet and London not quite next door, you know, and it would be dreadful to a pair of fond, remembering spinsters should their cards ever arrive a trifle late. To make quite sure, they began to despatch their Christmas cards in November. "Children! the Cremers' Christmas cards!" "Already?" Christmas is not yet due for a full month. We run to collect the precious firstlings (emphasis added). And years pass, you grow older, the things to be done, the occasions to prepare for, press a little more irksomely each year on ladies who, if they cannot still send cases of toys to little Harry, Nellie, Joe, and Bertie, must never disappoint dear children of their Christmas Greetings. "The Cremers' cards!" calls Mama, somewhere about Guy Fawkes' Day [November 5th]. We return, one September, from the summer holiday. The golden weeks beside the sea have waned, but London streets are sunny, it is weeks yet to the time of fog, and fires. Laughing too much to speak, she appears waving the envelope. "No!" exclaims Harry. But there they are, the Cremers' cards have come. "To dear little Harry, dear little Nellie, dear little Joe and dear little Bertie." The robins, and the little girls in bonnets. Two of us at least are over twenty, and tomorrow it will be October the First (emphasis added). That was the last of the Cremers' Christmas cards. Then time went back on them" (313 - 17). Time went back on them. Sigh. One day, it will happen. . . .
During her 50 year career spanning the decades of the 1930s through the 1980s, Eloise Wilkin illustrated over 110 books for children. H...
A blog about those books from our childhood that we still love...
from a 1966 children's book, "I'm Suzy". Illustrations by Alice Schlesinger.
Tuesday and Wednesday I am sorry for not posting yesterday. It was a day full of busy life. I will just put both days into one post. In this post I will feature two of my favorite illustrators. …
I love books. I especially love children's books. When I see a title I know- I feel like I've just spotted an old friend that I haven't seen in awhile. Out of courtesy, I pick it up and thumb the pages, soak in the pictures and read the stanzas. Out of courtesy-to an old friend because, you see, it would be rude to pass it by without an acknowlegement. I was at a flea market a few weekends ago and came across two childhood favorites. Two old friends that we're in a dire need of a new home. ;) The first acquaintance was Shel Silverstein's book of odd and quarky poetry "Where The Sidewalk Ends". I quickly flipped to the middle of the book and read the poem about the girl that didn't take the garbage out....but I remembered -in the back of my mind- there was another poem.....something that I could hear being recited within my mind...but couldn't form the words in my mouth.....it was a poem I loved- but couldn't remember. Does that make sense? I knew that if I kept flipping through the book that I would find it. And I did. I smiled big. I remembered.....and I felt like I was in fourth grade again. Yep, I still remember what fourth grade felt like. ;) Doesn't it just make you want to turn around a hug someone? Go ahead and do it!! I'll still be here... So, standing there at the flea market I spotted several other "friends" The Giving Tree, A Bargain For Francis, Ms. Suzy, Ramona and Beezus, Peter Hatcher (Fudge's older brother and proud owner of a dog named Turtle!), Hooper Humperdink (who I still feel sorry for!), and I couldn't pass up a chance to say "hello" to Sam Gribley of "My Side of the Mountain". So many friends-so many memories of hiding in my bed-between the covers-reading into the night! Then. Standing in the aisle there....my little heart pitter-pattered. Like it always does when I see a book illustrated by Eloise Wilkin. I always felt like I knew the little girl in the book....her adventures, her clothing, her questions and stories were always so familiar and real....the pictures that Eloise Wilkin drew were real life. My heart melts at these drawings-and I'm positive I love them more now than as a child! I always felt the drawings told a much better story than the words in the books. I could can look at the pictures over and over. I was in an antiques market, a fancy one too... but it was these books that I clung to as if they were treasures. They have sentimental value. I couldn't wait to bring my old friends home and introduce them to my Jake. We laid in bed that night (under the covers with a flashlight!) reading Shel Silverstein's poems until my eyes hurt and I simply couldn't read any more! I can't tell you how much I loved being cuddled under the covers in our half lit "tent" reading goofy nonsense, crazy lines of silliness that roll of your tongue with melodic rhyming beats. Do you have a favorite childhood storybook? Something that instantly transports you back to a time in your life when you were bathed and in bed before the sun set? A time when your mother still kissed you goodnight... and you still believed in the toothfairy? :) Please share your treasures and memory with me! Shine All Your Light....(especially at night, under the covers, reading a book with your kiddos!) Cass
Oma's Memoirs: Humor, perspective and lessons gleaned from daily life.
Oh! Hello, Saturday! YOU are looking perfectly lovely to this house mouse. Around here, there is tidying and dusting, sweeping and mopping, and a lot of "putting away" to be done. We have a house guest coming, a weary young man from the military academy down the highway. He's coming to nestle in with us for a few days. If I can motivate myself to walk out the door today, I'm going to hunt for twigs and make something with them. Thank you for your twig suggestions. Does everyone yearn for spring? I'm not sure if I want summer to come so much that I'm chomping at the bit for April, or if I really do crave spring bulbs, soft rains, and EASTER. I walked right past the bird seed at the grocery store. Selfish. I am not home to watch the birds eat at the feeders, so I didn't buy any seed. Oh, I've recognized my silly ways and I WILL buy some today. Come on, little birdies! Come perch, come snack, and have a dip in the bird bath. Please. I think I'll focus on corners today. I still have a few Christmas items around my house. Today, they all go down stairs into beat up cardboard boxes. For sure. Also, today . . . a few little dips into The Wind in the Willows again. Look at Badger's coat! Isn't it lovely? I love him. Jane Dyer again. She draws and clothes the perfect bears. Gretchen Joanna over at Gladsome Lights made an apron for her friend, Bird. The way she made that apron sound made me want a "security blanket" apron. I've been meaning to make a rose print flannel apron for quite some time, but I used the bias tape I bought for it, for bunting. Do you have a "security blanket" apron? I know Tina at The Quiet Home does. Today is a good day to take my Edward bear upstairs. I hug him more when he's in our bedroom. I bought him a year or so ago. I was having a little Winnie the Pooh read aloud for myself and experienced a "bear of my own" sort of craving. He is so soft and willing to let me pat his back and smooch his face. Now I know why elderly residents in nursing homes like stuffed toys. They have a lot of love to give and they don't always have someone "present" to give their love to. Does that make sense? Well, our bed sports snowmen flannel sheets this time of year, but I think if there were a Cath Kidston store around the corner, our bed would dress itself in roses. Yes, flannel roses. More adorable Jane Dyer paintings. Isn't this red haired mother lovely? Do you like her nightgown? Look at those happy siblings in the downy bed! Delightful! So, look up and see the blue, blue sky or the smoky sky. Yes, I am talking myself into a winter walk today, a twig picking, road combing sort of stroll . . . I'm walking to springtime and summertime, when I can wear my security apron all day, dig around in the garden, host grand (children) picnics in the green, green grass, drink lemonade and hang laundry on the line, and sit quiet instead of saying, "stop talking" like I do at school. Thank you for listening to my long litany of birds, badgers, bears, beds and all the other stuff. Smile. It's now time to tame this wild house of Pom Pom messes, prepare a place for a welcome visitor, and live another sweet, sweet Saturday. Which picture above do YOU like the best? Why? (BIG FAT SQUEEZE! I like you!)
My daughter Colleen left today for a teaching position in Korea. It's not the first time she has gone overseas. She studied abroad in Sevilla, Spain for a year and taught in Extremadura, Spain a couple years later. So I guess I'm broken in and definitely not a nervous wreck like the first time. But I still missed her the minute she walked out the door. How is it possible to be proud and feel sad at the same time? So I'm comforting myself by eating a bunch of candy and showing a book I read to all my kids, (3 girls, 1 boy) and my grandson. Poems to Read to the Very Young ranks high in sentimentality for me and I love some of the poems in this book. Beautifully illustrated by Eloise Wilkin, who had a lovely way of portraying children. Wilkin used her children and in later years, grandchildren as models. Eloise Wilkin (1904-1987), an award winning illustrator and author, had a career that spanned over 50 years. Wilkin is best known for her Golden Books, working for them for almost 20 years and illustrating over 50 books for Golden, some of which are still in print. Many of her books have become classics. In her career she illustrated well over 100 books! To read about Eloise Wilkin, Cassandra of Cassandra Considers All Things Bright and Beautiful did a very comprehensive post on the life of Wilkin in 2010 - to view that click here. Eloise's daughter, Deborah Wilkin Springett, wrote a book about her mother's life, called The Golden Years of Eloise Wilkin. Poems to Read to the Very Young Selected by Josette Frank Illustrated by Eloise Wilkin Random House, 1982
Eloise Wilkin Copyright 1984
During her 50 year career spanning the decades of the 1930s through the 1980s, Eloise Wilkin illustrated over 110 books for children. Her illustrations evoke an idyllic rural world not unlike that which she knew while raising her family of four children in upstate New York. Famous for her instantly recognizable style: sweet, cherubic, chubby-faced children; detailed early American and Victorian style architecture and furnishings; and the verdant, daisy-strewn hills of upstate New York, Eloise illustrated children’s early reading books; paper dolls; puzzles; entries in the Childcraft series; 20 books authored by her sister, Esther; as well as her 47 popular “Little Golden Books” titles. Her most beloved titles include We Help Daddy, We Help Mommy, Baby Dear, So Big!, Prayers for Children, Busy Timmy, and My Little Golden Book About God. In addition to free lance drawing and book illustration, in the early 1960s Eloise successfully designed and marketed, via the Vogue Doll Company, a new-born infant doll about which the popular Little Golden Book, Baby Dear, was later written. Eloise's daughter, Deborah and grandson, David served as the models for the mother and baby in the book. The realistic style of the Baby Dear doll revolutionized the doll industry at the time, encouraging more realistic baby dolls. Reportedly, former Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev returned home with several of the dolls after a trip to F.A.O. Schwartz in New York City. Born in Rochester, New York in 1904, Eloise Burns, was fortunate to have had a mother who encouraged her imaginative children to enjoy their creative gifts, allowing them to draw all over one wall in their house just before redecorating. Her father was a newspaperman and her mother had studied piano at a conservatory and often played classical music, which Eloise grew to love. Eloise, her sister Esther (only fifteen months older), a brother Robert, and two other siblings grew up in New York City on 109th Street near Central Park. As children, Eloise and Esther shared a bedroom and spent hours creating doll houses from orange crates, dolls out of newspapers, and sewing doll clothes. Eloise and Esther, remained especially close, and eventually married brothers, Sydney and George Wilkin. At age 11, Eloise won a drawing contest for children, sponsored by the Wanamaker department stores, with a picture of a pilgrim returning home. While studying art at Mechanics Institute (now Rochester Institute of Technology), Eloise Burns met Joan Esley, best known as an illustrator of several books for adolescents. They formed a lifelong friendship that included collaboration on a children’s book entitled, The Visit. After graduating from The Rochester Institute of Technology, Eloise and Joan began doing free lance work in Rochester (i.e., Eloise painting stations of the cross for the Sacred Heart Academy Church and illustrations for the Rochester Box Company) and ultimately moved together to New York City, where they hoped to have a better chance at careers in illustration. Eloise’s first book was The Shining Hour for the Century Co. Other publishers for which she illustrated were Ginn, Scribner, Little Brown, Rand McNally, Random House and MacMillian. Many early illustrations were for school books, i.e., The First Grade Book for Ginn. Early in her career Eloise illustrated paper dolls for Samuel Gabriel & Sons, Playtime House and Jaymar. She illustrated for four years before marrying Sidney Wilkin in 1935, thus, her early works are signed Eloise Burns. The Wilkins family settled in a fieldstone farmhouse with eight fireplaces in the country near Canandaigua in upstate New York, and Eloise slowed her career for several years while raising her four children, Ann, Sidney, Jr., Deborah and Jeremy. In 1943, she was offered a contract with Simon & Schuster and worked almost exclusively for Little Golden Books, illustrating the 47 little golden books, calendars, shape books, big golden books, and sturdy golden books until 1961; then, only occasionally illustrating for them up until the mid-eighties. Eloise used her neighborhood, her home, her children, her husband, her grandchildren, and their friends and neighbors as models for her illustrations. Many little golden book pages became puzzles which were produced by Simon & Schuster and later Golden Press. Earlier puzzles illustrated by Wilkin have been found produced by Playtime House and Leo Hart Co. Her illustrations are also found on record sleeves of many little golden records (occasionally on the record label itself) and on china plates, ads, Hallmark cards and in Child's Life, Story Parade and Golden Magazines. Currently, original editions of Eloise Wilkin illustrated books in very good condition can command prices of up to several hundred dollars. It is said that Eloise was very modest about her talents and was a woman who stood up for her beliefs, whether it was refusing to paint pants on a mother in one of her children’s books, marching with Martin Luther King, marching with the Berrigans in Washington early in the Vietnam War, teaching art to inner city children, or assisting a University of Rochester student in the burning of his draft card in Central Park. In October of 1987, Eloise died of cancer, at the age of 84 in Brighton, New York. At the time of her death, she was working on a new doll and was still illustrating. In the recently published, A Little Golden Book Collection Eloise Wilkin Stories (featuring nine of her most treasured stories: "Busy Timmy, "Guess Who Lives Here", "Wonders of Nature", "Selections from A Child’s Garden of Verses", "We Help Mommy", "Baby Listens," "Baby Dear," and "Baby Looks"), an afterword by James Werner Watson aptly describes Eloise Wilkin’s legacy: "A warm and creative homemaker, Eloise shared with the world glimpses of her big, busy, welcoming household, its rooms papered with gentle patterns, its drop-leaf tables and rocking chairs aglow with hand-rubbed sheen, its four-poster beds covered by hand-stitched quilts. A devoutly religious person, she shared ever so gently her values, her sense of the beauty of order and love, of implicit self-discipline, and of regard for others . . . she has left us, only slightly idealized, rich reminders of a lovely time not very long ago." To listen to a three-part interview with one of Eloise Wilkin’s daughters, Deborah Wilkin Springett, (author of the Eloise Wilkin’s Book of Poems, her mother’s last illustrated book, published in 1988) and to order her biography about her mother, The Golden Years of Eloise Wilkin, go to: http://www.triviumpursuit.com/blog/2007/02/21/podcast-2-interview-with-eloise-wilkins-daughter-part-one/
Eloise Wilkin was an artist and illustrator of many Little Golden Books. Her illustrations are sweet, memorable portraits of very young children.
Illustration taken from "Baby Dear" - by Esther Wilkin, illustrated by Eloise Wilkin. Golden Press, Wisconsin, 1962.
Eloise Wilkin is my favorite children's book illustrator. Yesterday I found We Like Kindergarten in a local thrift store and bought it for 49 cents. In my humble opinion, it's one of the sweetest picture books ever written. I wanted to be in Miss Hall's Kindergarten class. Who wouldn't want to spend morning after morning in a cheerful classroom singing, feeding turtles, painting, playing the triangle and napping on a colorful mat? My favorite picture in this story--I remember wanting a blue sailor dress like Karen's Other favorites by Ms. Wilkin... Baby Dear We Help Mommy We Help Daddy Where Did the Baby Go? Baby's Birthday and I would like to find a copy of The Twins. I didn't know this title existed, and I would love to read it to my own twin daughters! *EDIT* A friend of mine sent me this Etsy link and, I'm happy to say, the book is on its way!!!
Tuesday and Wednesday I am sorry for not posting yesterday. It was a day full of busy life. I will just put both days into one post. In this post I will feature two of my favorite illustrators. …
Illustration taken from "Baby Dear" - by Esther Wilkin, illustrated by Eloise Wilkin. Golden Press, Wisconsin, 1962.
During her 50 year career spanning the decades of the 1930s through the 1980s, Eloise Wilkin illustrated over 110 books for children. Her illustrations evoke an idyllic rural world not unlike that which she knew while raising her family of four children in upstate New York. Famous for her instantly recognizable style: sweet, cherubic, chubby-faced children; detailed early American and Victorian style architecture and furnishings; and the verdant, daisy-strewn hills of upstate New York, Eloise illustrated children’s early reading books; paper dolls; puzzles; entries in the Childcraft series; 20 books authored by her sister, Esther; as well as her 47 popular “Little Golden Books” titles. Her most beloved titles include We Help Daddy, We Help Mommy, Baby Dear, So Big!, Prayers for Children, Busy Timmy, and My Little Golden Book About God. In addition to free lance drawing and book illustration, in the early 1960s Eloise successfully designed and marketed, via the Vogue Doll Company, a new-born infant doll about which the popular Little Golden Book, Baby Dear, was later written. Eloise's daughter, Deborah and grandson, David served as the models for the mother and baby in the book. The realistic style of the Baby Dear doll revolutionized the doll industry at the time, encouraging more realistic baby dolls. Reportedly, former Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev returned home with several of the dolls after a trip to F.A.O. Schwartz in New York City. Born in Rochester, New York in 1904, Eloise Burns, was fortunate to have had a mother who encouraged her imaginative children to enjoy their creative gifts, allowing them to draw all over one wall in their house just before redecorating. Her father was a newspaperman and her mother had studied piano at a conservatory and often played classical music, which Eloise grew to love. Eloise, her sister Esther (only fifteen months older), a brother Robert, and two other siblings grew up in New York City on 109th Street near Central Park. As children, Eloise and Esther shared a bedroom and spent hours creating doll houses from orange crates, dolls out of newspapers, and sewing doll clothes. Eloise and Esther, remained especially close, and eventually married brothers, Sydney and George Wilkin. At age 11, Eloise won a drawing contest for children, sponsored by the Wanamaker department stores, with a picture of a pilgrim returning home. While studying art at Mechanics Institute (now Rochester Institute of Technology), Eloise Burns met Joan Esley, best known as an illustrator of several books for adolescents. They formed a lifelong friendship that included collaboration on a children’s book entitled, The Visit. After graduating from The Rochester Institute of Technology, Eloise and Joan began doing free lance work in Rochester (i.e., Eloise painting stations of the cross for the Sacred Heart Academy Church and illustrations for the Rochester Box Company) and ultimately moved together to New York City, where they hoped to have a better chance at careers in illustration. Eloise’s first book was The Shining Hour for the Century Co. Other publishers for which she illustrated were Ginn, Scribner, Little Brown, Rand McNally, Random House and MacMillian. Many early illustrations were for school books, i.e., The First Grade Book for Ginn. Early in her career Eloise illustrated paper dolls for Samuel Gabriel & Sons, Playtime House and Jaymar. She illustrated for four years before marrying Sidney Wilkin in 1935, thus, her early works are signed Eloise Burns. The Wilkins family settled in a fieldstone farmhouse with eight fireplaces in the country near Canandaigua in upstate New York, and Eloise slowed her career for several years while raising her four children, Ann, Sidney, Jr., Deborah and Jeremy. In 1943, she was offered a contract with Simon & Schuster and worked almost exclusively for Little Golden Books, illustrating the 47 little golden books, calendars, shape books, big golden books, and sturdy golden books until 1961; then, only occasionally illustrating for them up until the mid-eighties. Eloise used her neighborhood, her home, her children, her husband, her grandchildren, and their friends and neighbors as models for her illustrations. Many little golden book pages became puzzles which were produced by Simon & Schuster and later Golden Press. Earlier puzzles illustrated by Wilkin have been found produced by Playtime House and Leo Hart Co. Her illustrations are also found on record sleeves of many little golden records (occasionally on the record label itself) and on china plates, ads, Hallmark cards and in Child's Life, Story Parade and Golden Magazines. Currently, original editions of Eloise Wilkin illustrated books in very good condition can command prices of up to several hundred dollars. It is said that Eloise was very modest about her talents and was a woman who stood up for her beliefs, whether it was refusing to paint pants on a mother in one of her children’s books, marching with Martin Luther King, marching with the Berrigans in Washington early in the Vietnam War, teaching art to inner city children, or assisting a University of Rochester student in the burning of his draft card in Central Park. In October of 1987, Eloise died of cancer, at the age of 84 in Brighton, New York. At the time of her death, she was working on a new doll and was still illustrating. In the recently published, A Little Golden Book Collection Eloise Wilkin Stories (featuring nine of her most treasured stories: "Busy Timmy, "Guess Who Lives Here", "Wonders of Nature", "Selections from A Child’s Garden of Verses", "We Help Mommy", "Baby Listens," "Baby Dear," and "Baby Looks"), an afterword by James Werner Watson aptly describes Eloise Wilkin’s legacy: "A warm and creative homemaker, Eloise shared with the world glimpses of her big, busy, welcoming household, its rooms papered with gentle patterns, its drop-leaf tables and rocking chairs aglow with hand-rubbed sheen, its four-poster beds covered by hand-stitched quilts. A devoutly religious person, she shared ever so gently her values, her sense of the beauty of order and love, of implicit self-discipline, and of regard for others . . . she has left us, only slightly idealized, rich reminders of a lovely time not very long ago." To listen to a three-part interview with one of Eloise Wilkin’s daughters, Deborah Wilkin Springett, (author of the Eloise Wilkin’s Book of Poems, her mother’s last illustrated book, published in 1988) and to order her biography about her mother, The Golden Years of Eloise Wilkin, go to: http://www.triviumpursuit.com/blog/2007/02/21/podcast-2-interview-with-eloise-wilkins-daughter-part-one/
"Watering Geraniums" I have been thinking about Eloise Wilkin ever since Vivi posted about Janusz Grabianski and his illustrations. Ms....
Wonders of Nature Jane Werner Watson with pictures by Eloise Wilkin Golden Press, 1957 When I was little, two literary things hugely in...
Eloise Wilkin Copyright 1984
