Leonard Everett Fisher

Leonard Everett Fisher (born June 24, 1924) is an American artist best known for illustrating children's books. Since 1955 he has illustrated about 250 books for younger readers including about 88 that he also wrote.

Fisher was born in the Bronx borough of New York City in 1924.[1][2] Raised in the Sea Gate section of Brooklyn, he began his formal art training with his Brooklyn-born father, Benjamin M. Fisher, a designer of naval vessels, who contributed to the construction of Simon Lake submarines in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and such US Navy warships as USS Arizona, USS Honolulu, and USS North Carolina -- all designed, built, and commissioned at the Brooklyn, New York Navy Yard (1913–1937). Between 1932 and 1942, Leonard Everett Fisher continued his training at the Heckscher Foundation (NY), with Moses and Raphael Soyer (NY), with Reginald Marsh at the Art Students League of New York, and Serge Chermayeff at Brooklyn College. He is a graduate of Yale University (BFA 1949, MFA 1950).[3]

Selected books
  • Colonial Craftsmen: The Glassmakers (1964)
  • Colonial Craftsmen: The Silversmiths (1964)
  • Colonial Craftsmen: The Hatters (1964)
  • Colonial Craftsmen: The Papermakers (1965)
  • Colonial Craftsmen: The Printers (1965)
  • Colonial Craftsmen: The Wigmakers (1965)
  • Colonial Craftsmen: The Tanners (1966)
  • Colonial Craftsmen: The Cabinetmakers (1966)
  • Colonial Craftsmen: The Weavers (1966)
  • Colonial Craftsmen: The Shoemakers (1967)
  • Colonial Craftsmen: The Schoolmasters (1967)
  • Colonial Craftsmen: The Doctors (1968)
  • Colonial Craftsmen: The Peddlers (1968)
  • Colonial Craftsmen: The Limners: America's Earliest Portrait Painters (1969)
  • Colonial Craftsmen: The Potters (1969)
  • Colonial Craftsmen: The Architects (1970)
  • Colonial Craftsmen: The Shipbuilders (1971)
  • The Death of Evening Star: The Diary of a Young New England Whaler (1972)
  • Colonial Craftsmen: The Homemakers (1973)
  • Colonial Craftsmen: The Blacksmiths (1976)
  • Gandhi (1982)
  • The Great Wall of China (1986)
  • Theseus and the Minotaur: A Greek Myth (1988)
  • The Big Book for Peace (1990) (Written by Milton Meltzer)
  • Cyclops (1991)
  • Gutenberg (1993), picture book that he also wrote
  • William Tell (1996)
  • Don Quixote and the Windmills (2004)
  • Blackbeard's Last Fight (2006)

Other works
Design of Liberty Tree indicia on a USPS stamped postal stationery envelope

In addition Fisher has also designed nine United States postage stamps including eight Bicentennial issues: "Colonial American Craftsmen" & "Craftsmen for Independence", and the 1974 commemorative "Legend of Sleepy Hollow"[4] He is also a noted painter.

Collections

His paintings, drawings and illustrations are in the collections of the Library of Congress (DC), the National Gallery of Art(DC), the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Postal History (DC), the New York Public Library (Donnell), the New Britain Museum of American Art (CT), the Yale University Art Gallery (CT), the Butler Art Institute (OH), Mount Holyoke (MA), Bluffton (OH), and Union (NY) colleges, the Society of Illustrators Museum of American Illustration (NY), the Housatonic Museum of Art (CT), the Norwalk Transportation Authority (CT), Brown University (RI), Mazza Museum of Findlay University (OH), the universities of Connecticut, Appalachia State (NC), Oklahoma, Minnesota, Oregon, and Southern Mississippi.

Exhibitions

Fisher's artwork has been featured in exhibitions nationwide including those at the Brandywine River Museum, Chadds Ford (PA), the Art Institute of Chicago (IL), the Rochester Institute of Technology (NY), the Buell Museum (CO), among others.

Military service

A veteran of World War II (December 1, 1942–January 22, 1946), he served at home and overseas with the US Army's 30th Engineer Topographic Battalion. Assigned to the highly classified Operations Section of the battalion he participated in the planning, editing, and production of topographical ground maps for the 3rd, 5th and 7th US Army invasions and campaigns in Italy and France; the 3rd, 4th and 5th US Marine Divisions invasion of Iwo Jima, the US 10th Army invasion and campaign of Okinawa, the aborted invasion and occupation of Japan.

Education

Following the war he attended the Yale School of Art receiving BFA and MFA degrees (1949,1950), the John Ferguson Weir Prize, and William Wirt Winchester Traveling Fellowship.

Honors

In 1950 he received the Pulitzer Award for Painting. Among his other honors is the 1968 Premio Grafico Fiera Internazionale di Bologna; the 1979 Medallion of The University of Southern Mississippi; the 1991 Kerlan Award of the University of Minnesota; the 1991 Regina Medal of the Catholic Library Association; a National Jewish Book Award (1980); the Christopher Medal for Illustration (1981); and the American Library Association's 1994 Arbuthnot Citation, and Westport's (CT) Lifetime Achievement Award for the Visual Arts, among others. On July 15, 2014, Fisher was announced as a finalist for the prestigious 2015 NSK Neustadt Prize for Children's Literature.

He formerly served on the advisory board of the master of fine arts program of Western Connecticut State University; is a member of the Low Committee of the New Britain Museum of American Art (CT); is on the Board of Directors of the Westport Arts Center serving as Chairman of the Westport Artists Museum Committee; and is dean emeritus of the Paier College of Art (CT). He is a member of the Society of Illustrators (NY), P.E.N.; and the Authors Guild. In addition he is a Lifetime Member of both the Silvermine Guild of Artists (CT) and the New Haven Paint and Clay Club (CT).

He lives in Westport, Connecticut with his wife, Margery, a retired school librarian, and member of New York's Bank Street College of Education's Children's Book Committee. They are the parents of three children and the grandparents of six.

References
  1. "Leonard Everett Fisher Papers". de Grummond Children's Literature Collection. University of Southern Mississippi. June 2001. Retrieved 2013-06-30. With biographical sketch.
  2. "Guide to the Leonard Everett Fisher Papers 1936-1969". University of Oregon. Northwest Digital Archives. Retrieved 2013-06-30. With historical note.
  3. CBC Magazine: Meet the Author/Illustrator: Leonnard Everett Fisher Archived 2007-12-06 at the Wayback Machine
  4. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2018-08-03. Retrieved 2018-10-03.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
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