Vera Williams

Vera Baker Williams (January 28, 1927 – October 16, 2015) was an American children's writer and illustrator. Her best known work, A Chair for My Mother, has won multiple awards and was featured on the children's television show Reading Rainbow.

For her lifetime contribution as a children's illustrator she was U.S. nominee in 2004 for the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Award, the highest recognition available to creators of children's books.

Biography Early life and education

Vera Baker was born January 28, 1927, in Hollywood, California. She has one sister, Naomi. As a child, her family moved to the Bronx, New York, where her father was frequently absent during her early childhood. In New York City, she danced, acted, and painted at the Bronx House, a local community center. Her book Scooter, published in 1993, is based on her childhood in the Bronx.

Encouraged by their parents to explore the arts, she studied at the High School of Music & Art and participated in the 2007 PEN World Voices literary festival. She died on October 16, 2015.

Philosophical and political views

Williams long supported nonviolent and nuclear disarmament causes. She contributed artwork for several covers of Liberation magazine.

In 1981 she spent a month in Alderson Federal Prison Camp following arrest at a women's peaceful blockade of the Pentagon. She served on the executive committee of the War Resisters League from 1984 to 1987. Asked about her arrest record, she responded:I don't make a point of ending up in jail, but if you try to put your hopes and beliefs for a better life into effect, arrest is sometimes a hazard. I am asked if I think any of his helps or works. I say, in the short run, we can't know, but many things we take for granted have been gained by the similar actions of people like myself: the end of child labor, more rights for black people, the vote for women, the end of the Vietnam War are a few. As a person who works for children, who raised three children...I have been able to say I did something to try to save our planet from destruction. It is my faith that we will.

Legacy On May 4, 2019, the Vera's Story Garden at Ethelbert B. Crawford Library in Monticello, New York, was named a United for Libraries Literary Landmark in honor of Vera B. Williams. It was dedicated by the Empire State Center for the Book.

Her original artwork is held in collections including the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division and the Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center.

A book about Vera B. Williams by historian Mark Davenport is forthcoming as of January 2024.

Works As author It's a Gingerbread House (1978) The Great Watermelon Birthday (1980) Three Days on a River in a Red Canoe (1981) A Chair for My Mother (1982) Something Special for Me (1983) Music, Music for Everyone (1984) My Mother, Leah and George Sand (1986) Cherries and Cherry Pits (1986) Stringbean's Trip to the Shining Sea with Jennifer Williams (1988) "More More More" Said the Baby (1990) Scooter (1993) Lucky Song (1997) Amber Was Brave, Essie Was Smart (2001) A Chair for Always (2009) Home at Last with Chris Raschka (2016)

As illustrator Hooray For Me!, Remy Charlip (1975) Long Walks and Intimate Talks, Grace Paley (1991) Home: A Collaboration of Thirty Authors & Illustrators (1996)

Awards 1983: Boston Globe–Horn Book Award, Picture Book category, A Chair for My Mother 2024: Vera B. Williams / STORIES: Eight Decades of Politics and Picture Making, Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center, Asheville, North Carolina, January 26 – May 11, 2024.