Hilary Knight (illustrator)

Hilary Knight (born November 1, 1926) is an American

writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles and techniques to communicate ideas. Writers produce different forms of literary art and creative writing such as novels, short stories, books, poetry, travelogues, p ...

and artist. He is the illustrator of more than 50 books and the author of nine books. He is best known as the illustrator and co-creator of

Kay Thompson Kay Thompson (born Catherine Louise Fink; November 9, 1909''"In the St. Louis Registry of Births, in the volume covering the period July 1909 – January 1910, on page 85, is the following entry: "Catherine Louise Fink, November 9, 1909."''

's '' Eloise'' (1955) and others in the ''Eloise'' series. Knight has illustrated for a wide variety of clients, creating artwork for magazines, children's fashion advertisements, greeting cards, record albums and posters for Broadway musicals, including ''Gypsy'', ''Irene'', ''Half A Sixpence'', ''Hallelujah Baby!'' and ''No, No, Nanette''.

Influences
One of two sons of artist-writers Clayton Knight and Katharine Sturges Dodge, Hilary Knight was born on Long Island in Hempstead. His father illustrated aviation books, and his mother was a fashion and book illustrator. Living in
Roslyn, New York Roslyn ( ) is a village in the Town of North Hempstead in Nassau County, on the North Shore of Long Island, in New York, United States. It is the Greater Roslyn area's anchor community. The population was 2,770 at the 2010 census. History Ros ...
, as a child, Hilary was age six when he moved to Manhattan with his family. Knight attended the City and Country School (class of 1940) for elementary and middle school and
Friends Seminary Friends Seminary is an independent K-12 school in Manhattan within the landmarked district in the East Village. The oldest continuously coeducational school in New York City, Friends Seminary serves 794 students in Kindergarten through Grade 1 ...
for high school. Knight recalled: After study with George Grosz and Reginald Marsh at the
Art Students League The Art Students League of New York is an art school at 215 West 57th Street in Manhattan, New York City, New York. The League has historically been known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists. Although artists may stu ...
, Knight labored as a ship painter while serving in the
navy A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions. It in ...
from 1944 to 1946. Returning to New York, he studied architectural drafting (at Delahanty Institute), interior design, and theater design, working for one summer as an assistant designer at a theater in
Ogunquit, Maine Ogunquit ( ) is a resort town in York County, Maine. As of the 2020 census, its population was 1,577. Ogunquit is part of the Portland– South Portland–Biddeford, Maine Metropolitan Statistical Area. History Ogunquit, which means "be ...
. He painted murals in private homes and entered the field of magazine illustration, starting with '' Mademoiselle'' in 1952, followed by '' House & Garden'', ''
Gourmet Gourmet (, ) is a cultural idea associated with the culinary arts of fine food and drink, or haute cuisine, which is characterized by refined, even elaborate preparations and presentations of aesthetically balanced meals of several contrasting, of ...
'', '' McCalls'', and ''Woman's Home Companion''. His work as a humorous illustrator was strongly influenced by the British cartoonist
Ronald Searle Ronald William Fordham Searle, CBE, RDI (3 March 1920 – 30 December 2011) was an English artist and satirical cartoonist, comics artist, sculptor, medal designer and illustrator. He is perhaps best remembered as the creator of St Trinian's S ...
.

Books
In 1955, he collaborated with Kay Thompson to create the whimsical black, white, and pink look of ''Eloise''. Knight says that the image of Eloise was based on a 1930s painting by his mother Katherine Sturges Dodge.Barnes & Noble: Meet the Writers series
, retrieved 8 April 2015 The live CBS television adaptation on ''Playhouse 90'' (1956) with Evelyn Rudie as Eloise received such negative reviews that Kay Thompson vowed never to allow another film or TV adaptation. Three book sequels followed: ''Eloise in Paris'' (1957), ''Eloise at Christmastime'' (1958) and ''Eloise in Moscow'' (1959). Thompson and Knight teamed to create another sequel, ''Eloise Takes a Bawth'', working with children's book editor
Ursula Nordstrom Ursula Nordstrom (February 2, 1910 – October 11, 1988) was publisher and editor-in-chief of juvenile books at Harper & Row from 1940 to 1973. She is credited with presiding over a transformation in children's literature in which morality tales ...
. That title was announced in the ''Harper Books for Boys and Girls'' fall 1964 catalog, but in the mid-1960s, Thompson removed the three ''Eloise'' sequels from print and did not allow '' Eloise Takes a Bawth'' to be published. It was an action that deprived her collaborator of income for decades (a situation that changed with Thompson's death in 1998). In ''Salon'', Amy Benfer speculated on Thompson's motives in "Will the real Eloise please stand up?" (June 1, 1999): ''Eloise Takes a Bawth'' was finally published in 2002. Knight recalled: Knight also illustrated most of the '' Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle'' books. Other publications with Knight illustrations include ''
Good Housekeeping ''Good Housekeeping'' is an American women's magazine featuring articles about women's interests, product testing by The Good Housekeeping Institute, recipes, diet, and health, as well as literary articles. It is well known for the "Good Hous ...
'' and the children's magazine ''
Cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...
''. In addition to creating children's picture books—among them, in collaboration with poet Margaret Fishback, ''A Child's Book of Natural History'' (USA: Platt & Monk, 1969), a revision and extension of ''A Child's Primer of Natural History'' by
Oliver Herford Oliver Herford (2 December 1860 – 5 July 1935) was an Anglo-American writer, artist, and illustrator known for his pithy ''bon mots'' and skewed sense of humor. He was born in Sheffield, England on 2 December 1860 to Rev. Brooke Herford a ...
—Knight has illustrated for other genres, such as Peg Bracken's ''The I Hate to Cook Book''. The roll call of artists Knight admires includes
Ludwig Bemelmans Ludwig Bemelmans (April 27, 1898 – October 1, 1962) was an Austrian-American writer and illustrator of children's books and adult novels. He is known best for the ''Madeline'' picture books. Six were published, the first in 1939. Early life ...
, Joseph Hirsch, Leo Lionni,
Robert Vickrey Robert Remsen Vickrey (August 26, 1926 – April 17, 2011) was a Massachusetts-based artist and author who specialized in the ancient medium of egg tempera. His paintings are surreal dreamlike visions of sunset shadows of bicycles, nuns in f ...
, and
Garth Williams Garth Montgomery Williams (April 16, 1912 – May 8, 1996) was an American artist who came to prominence in the American postwar era as an illustrator of children's books. Many of the books he illustrated have become classics of American childr ...
. His 1964 book ''Where's Wallace?'', featuring an orangutan that kept escaping from the zoo to visit different places such as a circus, museum, department store, beach etc. and who had to be located in each of the books panoramic pictures, anticipated '' Where's Waldo?'' by more than 20 years. ''The Algonquin Cat'' written by Val Schaffner with drawings by Hilary Knight is a charmingly illustrated story about a real cat that resides in the Algonquin Hotel in New York City. There have been numerous cats in the hotel over the years. This is a delightful addition to the numerous books with Mr. Knight's art work. Published by Delacorte Press/Eleanor Friede in 1980.

Galleries
Over the decades, Knight maintained an apartment in midtown Manhattan, which also served as his studio and library. Here, he adds to his collection of books, sheet music, programs, and soundtrack and cast recordings. He is represented by two galleries—the Giraffics Gallery (
East Hampton, New York The Town of East Hampton is located in southeastern Suffolk County, New York, at the eastern end of the South Shore of Long Island. It is the easternmost town in the state of New York. At the time of the 2020 United States census, it had a tot ...
) and Every Picture Tells a Story (
Santa Monica, California Santa Monica (; Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 U.S. Census population was 93,076. Santa Monica is a popular resort town, owing t ...
).

In other media
The 2015 HBO documentary ''It's Me, Hilary: The Man Who Drew Eloise'', by
Lena Dunham Lena Dunham (, born May 13, 1986) is an American writer, director, actress, and producer. She is known as the creator, writer, and star of the HBO television series ''Girls (TV series), Girls'' (2012–2017), for which she received several Emmy ...
, chronicles Knight's work on Eloise, personal life, and tumultuous relationship with Kay Thompson.

Works
* ''The Circus Is Coming'', 1947 * ''Jeremiah Octopus (by Margaret Stone Zilboorg)'', 1962 * ''Angels and Berries and Candy Canes'', 1963 * ''Christmas Stocking Story'', 1963 * ''Firefly in a Fir Tree'', 1963 * ''Christmas in a Nutshell Library'', 1963 * ''The Night Before Christmas'', 1963 * ''Where's Wallace?'', 1964 * ''When I Have A Little Girl'', 1965 * ''When I Have A Little Boy'', 1967 * ''Matt's Mitt'', 1976 * ''That Makes Me Mad'', 1976 * ''Hilary Knight's Cinderella'', 1978 * ''The Circus is Coming'', 1978 * ''The Algonquin Cat'', 1980 * ''The Twelve Days of Christmas'', 1981 * ''The Owl and the Pussy-Cat (by Edward Lear)'', 1983 * ’’Telephone Time: A First Book of Telephone Do’s and Don’t’s’’, 1986 * ''The Best Little Monkeys in the World'', 1987 * ''Side by Side: Poems To Read Together (verse compilation)'', 1988 * ''The Beauty and the Beast'', 1990 * ''Sunday Morning'', 1992 * ''Happy Birthday (verse compilation)'', 1993 * ''The Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle Treasury'', 1995 * ''When I Have A Little Girl/When I Have A Little Boy'', 2000 * ''Eloise Takes a Bawth'', 2002 * ''A Christmas Stocking Story'', 2003 * ''Eloise: The Absolutely Essential'', 2005 * ''Hilary Knight: Drawn from Life'', 2018 * ''Olive & Oliver: The Formative Years'', 2019

References

External links

Barnes & Noble: Meet the Writers series

Hilary Knight official site

''Salon'': "Will the real Eloise please stand up?" by Amy Benfer (June 1, 1999)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Knight, Hilary 1926 births American children's writers American children's book illustrators Eloise (books) Living people People from East Hampton (town), New York People from Roslyn, New York Artists from New York (state) Writers from New York (state) Gay artists