Robert Lawson (author)
Robert Lawson (October 4, 1892 – May 27, 1957) was an American writer and illustrator of children's books. He won the Caldecott Medal for his illustrations in They Were Strong and Good in 1941 and the Newbery award for his short story for Rabbit Hill in 1945.
For other people named Robert Lawson, see Robert Lawson.
Robert Lawson
October 4, 1892
New York City, New York, U.S.
May 27, 1957 (aged 64)
Westport, Connecticut, U.S.
Background[edit]
Born in New York City, Lawson spent his early life in Montclair, New Jersey. Following high school, he studied art for three years under illustrator Howard Giles (an advocate of dynamic symmetry as conceived by Jay Hambidge) at the New York School of Fine and Applied Art (now Parsons School of Design), marrying fellow artist and illustrator Marie Abrams in 1922.[1] His career as an illustrator began in 1914, when his illustration for a poem about the invasion of Belgium was published in Harper's Weekly. He went on to publish in other magazines, including the Ladies Home Journal, Everybody's Magazine, Century Magazine, Vogue, and Designer.[2]
Camouflage service[edit]
During World War I, Lawson was a member of the first U.S. Army camouflage unit, the American Camouflage Corps, in which he served in France with fellow artists Barry Faulkner, Sherry Edmundson Fry, William Twigg-Smith and Kerr Eby (Behrens 2009). In his autobiography, Faulkner recalls that Lawson had a remarkable "sense of fantasy and humor", which made him especially valuable when the camoufleurs put on musical shows for the children of the French women who worked with them on camouflage (Faulkner 1957).
Later life[edit]
In the early 1930s, Lawson became interested in etching. One of the resulting prints was awarded the John Taylor Arms Prize by the Society of American Etchers.
Lawson died in 1957 at his home in Westport, Connecticut, in a house that he referred to as Rabbit Hill, since it had been the setting for his book of the same name. He was 64. He is buried in Mountain Grove Cemetery, in Bridgeport, Connecticut. An annual conference is held in his honor in Westport.
The Robert Lawson Papers are in the University of Minnesota Children's Literature Research Collections.[4]
The largest collection of Robert Lawson's art is at the Free Library of Philadelphia Rare Book Department.[5]
