Margot Ladd Tomes (August 10, 1917 – June 25, 1991) was an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

artist and illustrator of

children's books A child (plural, : children) is a human being between the stages of childbirth, birth and puberty, or between the Development of the human body, developmental period of infancy and puberty. The legal definition of ''child'' generally refers ...

. Books that she illustrated have been among

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Best Illustrated Children's Books of the Year, ''Jack and the Wonder Beans'' in 1977 and ''If There Were Dreams to Sell'' in 1984. She also provided illustrations for

Jean Fritz Jean Guttery Fritz (November 16, 1915 – May 14, 2017) was an American children's writer best known for American biography and history. She won the Children's Legacy Literature Award for her career contribution to American children's literature ...

’s Newbery Honor Book and American Book Award ''Homesick: My Own Story'' in 1982.

Life and career

Tomes was born in

Park Hill, Yonkers Park Hill is a neighborhood in southwestern Yonkers, New York. The neighborhood is located atop a bluff east of South Broadway. The neighborhood was developed in 1888 by the American Real Estate Company of Manhattan as one of the first planned co ...

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, a cousin of painter

Guy Pène du Bois Guy Pène du Bois (January 4, 1884 – July 18, 1958) was a 20th-century American painter, art critic, and educator. Born in the U.S. to a French family, his work depicted the culture and society around him: cafes, theatres, and in the twenties, f ...

, costume designer Raoul Pene Du Bois, and author & illustrator

William Pène du Bois William Sherman Pène du Bois (May 9, 1916 – February 5, 1993) was an American writer and illustrator of books for young readers. He is best known for ''The Twenty-One Balloons'', published in April 1947 by Viking Press, for which he won the 194 ...

. After graduating from

Pratt Institute Pratt Institute is a private university with its main campus in Brooklyn, New York (state), New York. It has a satellite campus in Manhattan and an extension campus in Utica, New York at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. The school was ...

, she began a career as a highly-regarded designer of wallpaper and fabric. In 1959, she illustrated her first book '' The Breaking Point'' by

Daphne du Maurier Dame Daphne du Maurier, Lady Browning, (; 13 May 1907 – 19 April 1989) was an English novelist, biographer and playwright. Her parents were actor-manager Sir Gerald du Maurier and his wife, actress Muriel Beaumont. Her grandfather was Geor ...

. In 1963, at age 46, Tomes focused full time on illustrating children's books. She illustrated over 60 titles during her career including ''Aaron and the Green Mountain Boys'', ''The Secret of Sachem’s Tree'', ''And then what happened, Paul Revere?'', and numerous fairy tales such as ''Hansel and Gretel'', and ''The Sorcerer’s Apprentice''. Her drawings were known for their meticulous attention to detail. Her longtime friend,

Edward Gorey Edward St. John Gorey (February 22, 1925 – April 15, 2000) was an Americans, American writer, Tony Award-winning costume designer, and artist, noted for his own illustrated books as well as cover art and illustration for books by other w ...

said of Tomes work “I always wanted to draw like her—I loved her work. I was terribly envious of her ability, and she had an incredible sense of color.” She passed away from pancreatic cancer in 1991. Tomes was a posthumous recipient of the

Kerlan Award The Kerlan Award is a literary award given by the University of Minnesota's Kerlan Collection, a special library focusing on children's literature. Many awards focus on the finished product, but the Kerlan Award is given based on the creative proc ...

in 1995, where the majority of her original artwork resides in the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

Collection. A selection of her work was included in the exhibition "The Picture Book Re-Imagined" in 2016, curated by Leonard Marcus.

References

Other sources

*''Fifth Book of Junior Authors & Illustrators'', vol. 36, pp. 186–90. *''Illustrators of Children's Books: 1957-1966'', p. 182. *''Something About the Author'', vol. 36, pp. 186–90.

External links

Meet the Illustrator Margot Tomes
at Houghton Mifflin Reading * * * Margot Tomes fina
original illustration
from ''Where Do You Think You're Going, Christopher Columbus?'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Tomes, Margot 1917 births 1991 deaths American children's book illustrators People from Yonkers, New York People from Nassau County, New York American women illustrators 20th-century American women artists