Slobodkina, Esphyr, 1908-2002

Painter, illustrator, designer, and author; Great Neck, New York, and Florida. b.1908. d. 2002. Slobodkina was married to Ilya Bolotowsky.

Esphyr Slobodkina was born September 22, 1908, in Cheliabinsk, Siberia. She was an abstract artist, author and illustrator. She came to the United States in 1928. She worked in paintings and sculpture, and her work can be seen in museums. She began writing and illustrating children's books during the Depression, to make extra money. She died July 21, 2002, in Glen Head, New York. Biographical Sources: Something About the Author, vols. 1, 135 Something About the Author Autobiography Series, vol. 8

Esphyr Slobodkina worked as a dress designer, as a designer and foreman at an experimental printing textile shop, as a painter, writer, sculptor, interior decorator and as an illustrator. She wrote several children's books (most self-illustrated), and is known for her illustrations of several Margaret Wise Brown titles.

Born in Chelyabinsk in Siberia in 1908, Esphyr Slobodkina came to America with her family in the wake of the Bolshevik Revolution. She began providing illustrations for some of Margaret Wise Brown's books for children in the late 1930s and soon moved to writing and illustrating books of her own. In addition, she was responsible for the mural on the west wall of the second floor south area of the University of Southern Mississippi's Cook Library.

Esphyr Slobodkina was born September 22, 1908, in Cheliabinsk, Siberia. She was an abstract artist, author and illustrator. She came to the United States in 1928. She worked in paintings and sculpture, and her work can be seen in museums. She began writing and illustrating children's books during the Depression, to make extra money. She died July 21, 2002, in Glen Head, New York. Biographical Sources: Something About the Author, vols. 1, 135 Something About the Author Autobiography Series, vol. 8.