Arnold Spilka is a children's illustrator, author and poet. He was born 13 November 1917, in New York City.[1]
Spilka studied at the Art Students League, studied drawing with Rico Lebrun, and studied sculpture with John Hovannes.[2] He illustrated many books for other authors, including Robert Froman, John Lawson (children's author), Beman Lord, and Ann McGovern. He is the author of Rumbudgin of Nonsense (1970) which is one of the well known collections of 20th century children's verse.[3] He also wrote and illustrated "A Lion I Can Do Without" (1964).
Among his poems are Don’t Tell Me That I Talk Too Much and Flowers are a silly bunch, which starts by listing aspects of nature (such as trees are bossy, and lakes are shy), but turns out to be a poem about liking the city.
Some of his papers and original drawings have been donated to the University of Minnesota Library, for their children's literature research collections.[1]