Charles Geer

Charles Hand Geer (August 25, 1922 – December 7, 2008) was an American illustrator, painter and author. He illustrated numerous books, mainly for children and young adults, and created a wide variety of cover paintings for books in many genres.

Geer grew up on Long Island, New York, attended Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, and then served in the United States Navy during World War II. Following the war he attended art school at the Pratt Institute.

Many of the buildings in his illustrations and covers featured Second Empire architecture, with their characteristic mansard roofs.

Geer lived in Rockland, Maine, until his death in 2008, where he enjoyed sailing and painting watercolors. Over the years, he built several boats.

Selected works

As illustrator Game of Statues by Anne Stevenson Schoolboy Johnson by John R. Tunis Mystery at Redtop Hill, by Marjory Schwalje, 1965 The Mad Scientists' Club, by Bertrand R. Brinley The New Adventures of the Mad Scientists' Club, by Bertrand R. Brinley The Big Kerplop, by Bertrand R. Brinley The Big Chunk of Ice, by Bertrand R. Brinley The Marvelous Inventions of Alvin Fernald, by Clifford B. Hicks Miss Pickerell on the Moon, by Dora F. Pantell Miss Pickerell and the Weather Satellite, by Ellen MacGregor and Dora F. Pantell, 1971 Miss Pickerell and the Blue Whales, by Dora F. Pantell Miss Pickerell and the War of the Computers, by Dora F. Pantell Miss Pickerell and the Lost World, by Dora F. Pantell Wild Geese Flying, by Cornelia Meigs That Summer With Lexy!, by Audrey McKim McNulty's Holiday, by Rutherford Montgomery Sauncey and Mr. King's Gallery, by Clara Ann Simmons The Biggest (and Best) Flag That Ever Flew, by Rebecca C. Jones, 1988 The Story of Dwight D. Eisenhower, by Arthur J. Beckhard, 1956 The Lost Dragon of Wessex by Gwendolyn Bowers, 1957 Katie Kittenheart by Miriam E. Mason. Macmillan, 1957. Lost in the Barrens by Farley Mowat The Pipe Organ in the Parlour, by Lilla Stirling, 1960 Sandro's Battle, by David Scott Daniell, 1962 (jacket only) Oregon at Last!, by Anna Rutgers van der Loeff, 1962 First There Was Adam by Harriet Lawrence, 1965 Secret Under Antarctica, by Gordon R. Dickson The Secret Raft, by Hazel Krantz Plain Girl, by Virginia Sorensen Gretchen of Grand Pré, by Lilla Stirling "The Lonely Mound," by William Campbell Gault (cover illustrator)

As author Dexter and the Deer Lake Mystery (1965) Soot Devil (1971) The Pipe Organ in the Parlour (also by Lilla Stirling, 1960)