Eloise Wilkin is one of my favorite children’s book illustrators. I still have several Little Golden Books illustrated by her that I received when I was very, very young. My mom said the illustrations of golden-haired, chubby-cheeked little girls reminded her of me. My all-time favorite was So Big. It still brings back memories.

Eloise Wilkin was born Eloise Burns on March 30, 1904, in Rochester, New York. Not much is known about her early life, but I did read one story about her mom, who encouraged children to be creative, allowing the children to draw all over a wall in their home before repainting it. This must have left a lasting memory on an artistic little girl!

Eloise graduated from The Rochester Institute of Technology and moved to New York City with another illustrator friend, Joan Esley. Later they worked on several books together.

In 1935, Eloise married Sydney Wilkin and later had four children. Eloise illustrated over 20 books with her sister, Ester, who married Sydney‘s brother!

In 1943, Simon & Schuster offered her a contract to do four Little Golden books a year. At first Eloise refused to come in because she didn’t have a babysitter! She signed the contract and illustrated exclusively for Simon & Schuster until 1961, and continued illustrating LGBs occasionally until the mid-eighties. In all, she illustrated around 100 books. (I still haven’t come up with a complete list.)

Doll designing was another love for Mrs. Wilkin. In the 1960s she designed a newborn doll named “Baby Dear.” Former Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev was reported to have returned home with several of the dolls after a trip to a toy store in New York City.

Eloise was known as a women that stood up for her beliefs, “whether it was refusing to paint pants on a woman or marching with Martin Luther King or assisting a college student in the burning of his draft card. “

Eloise Wilkin died of cancer in Brighton, New York, on October 4, 1987. At the time she was still illustrating and was working on a new doll design. She is still remembered as one of the top children’s illustrators of the 20th century.

Booksellers:
Eloise Wilkin's books are very collectible. Several of them fetch a good price on eBay so do a little research in the closed eBay auctions to see if your garage sale find can earn you a little money. My favorites, however, are staying in my home library no matter what they're going for on eBay!