Robert Lawson (author)

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Robert Lawson (born October 4, 1892 in New York City – died May 27, 1957 in Westport, Connecticut) was an American artist and children's book author. He did some illustrations for The Century Magazine in 1919, and in 1922 he produced illustrations for his first book, Little Prince Too Fat. He won the Taylor Arms Prize of the Society of American Etchers in 1931, and was the first person to receive both the Newbery Medal (Rabbit Hill, 1945) and Caldecott Medal (They Were Strong and Good, 1940).

Lawson was a witty and inventive author, and his children's fiction can entertain all ages. He developed the idea of a person's life expressed through the eyes of a companion animal, and realized it first in Ben and Me: An Astonishing Life of Benjamin Franklin By His Good Mouse Amos. Later books employed the device, which was suited to his style of illustration, to other figures, Christopher Columbus, Paul Revere, and finally Captain Kidd's Cat (1956), which he also illustrated, narrates through the medium of the aforesaid feline, McDermot, the story of the famous pirate's ill-starred voyage, revealing him in the process as a brave, upright, honest, hen-pecked man betrayed by his friends and calumniated by posterity.

An Annual Conference is held in his honor in Westport.

He is buried in Mountain Grove Cemetery, Bridgeport, Connecticut.

[edit] Bibliography

• Chester, George Randolph, Robert Lawson (Illustrator). The Wonderful Adventures of Little Prince Toofat. New York, The James A. McCann Co. [c1922]
• Mason, Arthur, Robert Lawson (Illustrator). From the Horn of the Moon. New York: Doubleday, 1931
• Haines, William Wister, Robert Lawson (Illustrator). Slim. Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1934
• Coatsworth, Elizabeth, Robert Lawson (Illustrator). The Golden Horseshoe. New York: Macmillan and Sons, 1935
• Gale, Elizabeth, Robert Lawson (Illustrator). Seven Beads of Wampum. New York: Junior Literary Guild: Putnam, 1936
• Leaf, Munro, Robert Lawson (Illustrator). The Story of Ferdinand. New York: Viking Press, 1936
• Fish, Helen Dean, Robert Lawson (Illustrator). Four and Twenty Blackbirds. New York: Frederick A. Stokes, 1937
• Bowie, Walter Russell, Robert Lawson (Illustrator). The Story of Jesus for Young People. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1937
• Twain, Mark, Robert Lawson (Illustrator). The Prince and the Pauper. Chicago, Philadelphia, etc. The John C. Winston Co., 1937
• Leaf, Munro, Robert Lawson (Illustrator). Wee Gillis. New York: Viking Press, 1938
• Atwater, Richard & Florence, Lawson, Robert (Illustrator). Mr. Popper's Penguins. Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1938
• Lawson, Robert. Ben and Me: An Astonishing Life of Benjamin Franklin By His Good Mouse Amos. Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1939
• Bunyan, John, Robert Lawson (Illustrator), Pilgrim's Progress. New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1939
• Lawson, Robert. Watchwords of Liberty. Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1939
• Lawson, Robert. They Were Strong and Good.New York: Viking Press, 1940
• Lawson, Robert (Illustrator). Just For Fun: A Collection of Stories and Verses New York: Rand McNally, 1940
• Lawson, Robert. I Discover Columbus: A True Chronicle of the Great Admiral & His Finding of the New World. Boston: Little Brown, 1941
• Forester, C. S., Robert Lawson (Illustrator). Poo-poo and the Dragons. Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1941
• Leaf, Munro, Robert Lawson (Illustrator). Aesop's Fables. New York: Heritage Press, 1941
• Teal, Val, Robert Lawson (Illustrator), The Little Woman Who Wanted Noise. New York: Rand McNally, 1943
• Lawson, Robert. Rabbit Hill. New York: Viking Press, 1944
• Lawson, Robert. Country Colic. Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1944
• Lawson, Robert. Mr. Wilmer. Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1945
• Lawson, Robert. Mr. Twigg's Mistake. Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1947
• Lawson, Robert. At That Time. New York: Viking Press, 1947
• Lawson, Robert. Robbut: A Tale of Tails. New York: Viking Press, 1948
• Lawson, Robert. Dick Whittington & His Cat. New York, Limited Editions Club, 1949
• Lawson, Robert. The Fabulous Flight. Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1951
• Lawson, Robert. Smeller Martin. New York: The Viking Press, 1950
• Lawson, Robert. McWhinney's Jaunt. Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1951
• Lawson, Robert. Edward, Hoppy and Joe. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1952
• Lawson, Robert. Mr. Revere And I. Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1953
• Lawson, Robert. The Tough Winter. New York: Viking Press, 1954
• Lawson, Robert. Captain Kidd's Cat. Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1956
• Lawson, Robert. The Great Wheel. New York: Viking Press, 1957