Leonard Weisgard

Who was Leonard Weisgard?

Leonard Joseph Weisgard was an American writer and illustrator of more than 200 children's books. He is known best for his collaborations with writer Margaret Wise Brown. He was born in New Haven, Connecticut, and spent most of his childhood in England.

Weisgard studied art at the Pratt Institute in New York City. His first book, Suki the Siamese Pussy, was published in 1937 and his first collaboration with Brown was two years later, The Noisy Books. He won the 1948 Caldecott Medal for U.S. picture book illustration, recognizing The Little Island, written by Brown. They collaborated again on The Important Book, published by Harper & Brothers in 1949. Writer Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings was a Newbery Medal runner-up in 1956 for The Secret River, which Weisgard illustrated.

Weisgard married Phyllis Monnot in 1951 and moved to Copenhagen, Denmark, with her and their three children in 1969. He died on January 14, 2000, in Denmark.