Eloise Wilkin

Eloise Margaret Wilkin (born Eloise Margaret Burns; March 30, 1904 – October 4, 1987), was an American illustrator. She was best known as an illustrator of Little Golden Books. 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, 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, in 1923.

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, 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 saw the doll in the window of FAO Schwarz during his 1960 visit to New York City and purchased 13 to take back to the Soviet Union.

Death

Eloise Wilkin died of cancer in Brighton, New York, on October 4, 1987, at the age of 83. She is buried in Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Rochester, New York.

Books

Among the 47 Golden Book titles illustrated by Wilkin are:

Good Little Bad Little Girl My Little Golden Book About God Poems to Read to the Very Young The Christmas Story Evening Prayer A Giant Little Golden Book Of Birds Wonders of Nature The Wonders of the Seasons We Like Kindergarten Prayers for Children The Goodnight Book Baby Dear Baby Listens Baby Looks Baby's Mother Goose Baby's Christmas The Christmas ABC 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 Where Did the Baby Go? The Little Book A Child's Garden of Verses My Dolly and Me Eloise Wilkin's Book of Poems.