Eloise Margaret Wilkin, born Eloise Margaret Burns (March 30, 1904 - October 4, 1987), was an award-winning American illustrator, best known as an illustrator of Little Golden Books

Little Golden Books

Little Golden Books is a popular series of children's books. The first 12 titles were published on October 1, 1942:#Three Little Kittens#Bedtime Stories#Mother Goose#Prayers for Children#The Little Red Hen#Nursery Songs...

. Many of the picture books she illustrated have become classics of American children's literature. Jane Werner Watson, who edited and wrote hundreds of Golden Books, called Eloise Wilkin "the soul of Little Golden Books", and Wilkin's books remain highly collectible. Her watercolor and colored pencil illustrations are known for their glowing depiction of babies, toddlers, and their parents in idyllic rural and domestic settings.

Early life

Wilkin was born on March 30, 1904 in Rochester, New York

Rochester, New York

Rochester is a city in Monroe County, New York, south of Lake Ontario in the United States. Known as The World's Image Centre, it was also once known as The Flour City, and more recently as The Flower City...

, the third of four children. At age 2, Eloise moved with her family to New York City, but spent every summer with her siblings at a relative's home in western New York State. Memories forged there of family togetherness and the outdoors would influence her famous illustrations of nature, children, and family life. Wilkin won a drawing contest for New York schoolchildren at age 11 and graduated from the Rochester Athenaeum and Mechanics Institute, now the Rochester Institute of Technology

Rochester Institute of Technology

The Rochester Institute of Technology is a private university, located within the town of Henrietta in metropolitan Rochester, New York, United States...

, in 1923.

Career

Soon after college graduation, Eloise and friend Joan Esley opened an art studio in Rochester, NY but struggling to find work, the pair moved to New York City where Century Company gave Eloise her first book to illustrate, The Shining Hours. Many of her early illustrations were for school books. Early in her career Eloise illustrated paper dolls for Samuel Gabriel & Sons, Playtime House and Jaymar.http://www.goldenbook.com/article.php?story=20050815100419629 Wilkin often illustrated the titles of her sister, children's author Esther Burns Wilkin, who married Eloise's brother-in-law. The first of the Wilkins' collaborations was Mrs. Peregrine and the Yak, published by the Henry Holt Company.

Golden Books Illustrator

In 1944, Wilkin signed an exclusive contract with original Little Golden Books publisher Simon and Schuster requiring her to illustrate three books each year. She often used her children and grandchildren and their friends as models for her illustrations. A devout Christian, Wilkin frequently illustrated religious picture books including several compilations of prayers for children.

Wilkins occasionally revised her illustrated works to reflect changing cultural norms. The New Baby, first published in 1948, depicted an expectant mother just days away from birth with no visible signs of pregnancy. For the 1975 reprinting, Wilkin decided to more realistically portray the mother and her pregnant form. The 1954 cover of "The New Baby" shows an infant sleeping on her tummy, which Wilkins changed for the 1975 edition after increasing societal awareness of sudden infant death syndrome

Sudden infant death syndrome

Sudden infant death syndrome is marked by the sudden death of an infant that is unexpected by medical history, and remains unexplained after a thorough forensic autopsy and a detailed death scene investigation. An infant is at the highest risk for SIDS during sleep, which is why it is sometimes...

. The original 1956 edition of My Little Golden Book about God featured Caucasian children only, and Wilkin re-illustrated several pages to include children of other races in 1974.

Many of Wilkin's illustrations for Golden Books appeared on calendars, puzzles, and record sleeves of Little Golden Records, and were also found on china plates, Hallmark Cards

Hallmark Cards

Hallmark Cards is a privately owned American company based in Kansas City, Missouri. Founded in 1910 by Joyce C. Hall, Hallmark is the largest manufacturer of greeting cards in the United States. In 1985, the company was awarded the National Medal of Arts....

, and in Child's Life, Story Parade, and Golden magazines. Wilkin's Golden Books have been published in French, Hebrew, Portuguese, Spanish and Swedish.

Doll Designer

In 1960, Vogue Dolls, Inc. launched the first doll designed by Eloise Wilkin. "Baby Dear" came in 12 and 18 inch-sizes and sold for $6 and $12 respectively. Nikita Khrushchev

Nikita Khrushchev

Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964...

 saw the doll in the window of FAO Schwartz during his 1960 visit to New York City and purchased 13 to take back to the Soviet Union. In all, Eloise designed eight dolls for Vogue and Madame Alexander

Madame Alexander

Madame Alexander is a brand of American collectible dolls introduced in 1923.Madame Alexander is also the business name of Beatrice Alexander, who was born Bertha Alexander, later changed her name to Beatrice, married Philip Behrman and then started her doll business...

. Baby Dear and So Big, both written by Esther Wilkin and illustrated by Eloise Wilkin, feature the Eloise Wilkin dolls.

Family

Wilkin married Sidney Wilkin on August 18, 1930. She took a decade off from illustrating in order to raise her four children: Ann, Sidney, editor Deborah Wilkin Springett, and Jeremy.

Death

Eloise Wilkin died of cancer in Brighton, New York, on October 4, 1987, at the age of 84.

Books

Among the 47 Golden Book titles illustrated by Wilkin are:

• My Little Golden Book About God
• Poems to Read to the Very Young
• The Christmas Story
• Wonders of Nature
• The Wonders of the Seasons
• We Like Kindergarten
• Prayers for Children
• The Goodnight Book
• Baby Dear
• Baby Listens
• Baby Looks
• Little Mommy
• Baby's Mother Goose
• Babies
• This World of Ours
• We Help Daddy
• We Help Mommy
• The Visit
• Play With Me
• Baby's Birthday
• The Treasury of Prayers From Around the World
• So Big
• A Baby is Born
• Hansel and Gretel
• The Tune Is In the Tree
• The Boy With a Drum
• Busy Timmy
• Guess Who Lives Here
• A Child's Garden of Verses
• Eloise Wilkin's Book of Poems'.

External links

• http://www.goldenbook.com/article.php?story=20050815100419629