Leonard Weisgard

Original gouache drawing for a double-page for the book (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1948). Measures 16 x 24-1/2 inches. Picture book story showing what a Pelican sees as it flies from North to South, on its way to be reunited with its family down in Florida.

 

Leonard Weisgard (1916–2000) was an American illustrator and writer of more than 200 children’s books, best known for his collaboration with proponent of modern children’s book production, Margaret Wise Brown. He won the Caldecott Medal award for The Little Island in 1947, written by Brown under a pseudonym Golden MacDonald. Weisgard introduced Maurice Sendak to his first commissions as a book illustrator.