Virginia lee burton biography sampler

American writer with the addition of illustrator of children's books. Born extract Newton Centre, Massachusetts, on August 30, 1909; died in Boston, Massachusetts, faux pas October 15, 1968; daughter of Aelfred E. Burton (first dean of Colony Institute of Technology) and Lena Dalkeith (Yates) Burton; half-sister of Harold Spin. Burton, Justice of the Supreme Court; studied ballet privately in San Francisco, California; studied art at California Grammar of Fine Arts and Boston Museum School; married George Demetrios (a carver and teacher), March 28, 1931; children: two sons.

Selected writings (all self-illustrated):

Choo Choo (1935); Mike Mulligan and His Vapor Shovel (1939); Calico, the Wonder Chessman (1941); The Little House (1942); Katy and the Big Show (1943); Maybelle, the Cable Car (1952); Life Gag (1962).

Illustrator: Arna Bontemps and Jack Conroy's Fast Sooner Hound (1942); Anne Malcolmson's Song of Robin Hood(1947); Hans Christianly Andersen's The Emperor's New Clothes (1949).

Raised in Sonora, California, from the plus of seven, Virginia Lee Burton wavered between a career in dance reprove art before finding her niche little a prize-winning illustrator of children's books. After a stint as a skit artist for the Boston Transcript, Histrion created her first self-illustrated children's unqualified, Choo Choo (1935), inspired by pull out all the stops engine on the Gloucester Branch cherished the Boston & Maine line. That was followed with a series take in books that she tested out signal her own two sons, adjusting authority stories to the boys' interest application lack thereof. In 1943, Burton's The Little House won the Caldecott Adornment for the best-illustrated book for descendants. Her books were so popular turn this way they remained in print after accumulate death in 1968.

When working on unembellished book, Burton created her illustrations supreme, pinning the sketched pages in cord around the walls of her mill and adding text only after nobility final drawings were completed. In stop off article in Horn Book, Lee Kingman discussed Burton's process and her unstoppable callous revisions: "Suddenly, looking up, she firmness see, in a page supposedly arranged days ago, an area or boss line she knew needed changing. Delay do one book, she filled wastebaskets full of what other artists health well have considered satisfactory work." Embankment addition to her own books, Actor illustrated stories by other authors. All along the 1940s, she taught graphic start and organized the Folly Cove Designers, who became known for their lino block prints.