Robert Lawson

Robert Lawson was born in New York City, October 4, 1892, but grew up and attended public schools in Montclair, New Jersey. Although as a boy he was an omnivorous reader and a devoted admirer of the fine illustrators of that time, he had no particular ambition either to write or to draw. However, chiefly due to his mother's urging, Robert Lawson entered the New York School of Fine and Applied Art (Parsons) where he studied illustration for three years under Howard Giles. While there he received scholarships in line drawing and illustration. His first published illustration appeared in Harper's Weekly in the fall of 1914, a full-page decoration for a poem on the invasion of Belgium. For many years thereafter he did many sorts of illustration: magazine, newspaper, and commercial work, scenic designing, and greeting cards. This was interrupted by a year and a half in the Army, of which a year was spent in France with the 40th Engineers, Camouflage Section, A.E.F.

In 1930 Mr. Lawson illustrated his first book, The Wee Men of Ballywooden by Arthur Mason. After this came more books by various authors until gradually they supplanted all his other work. By 1938 he had illustrated some forth volumes, including  The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf and Mr. Popper's Penguins by Richard and Florence Atwater. After Mr. Popper's Penguins, Little, Brown and Company asked him to illustrate another book and to suggest a subject that would interest him. He wrote an outline of Ben and Me and sent it off to Little, Brown. They immediately wrote back that while they all thought the idea splendid, they could not possibly find any author who could write such a cockeyed story, and he would have to do it himself. The publication of Ben and Me in 1939 demonstrated his ability to write as well as to illustrate. He has been awarded both the Caldecott and Newbery Medals. The Lawson's' home, called "Rabbit Hill," was the original setting for the book by that name. Robert Lawson died at Rabbit Hill, Westport, Connecticut, in 1957.

copyright Little, Brown and Company

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