Kent, Jack

John Wellington (Jack) Kent was born March 10, 1920, in Burlington, Iowa. He began his career as a free lance commercial artist at the age of 15, and worked until he joined the U. S. Army Field Artillery in 1941. His syndicated comic strip, King Aroo, was distributed internationally from 1950-1565, but in 1965 he returned to r\free-lancing as a cartoonist and humorist. He began writing and illustrating children's books in 1968, and continued to do so until he died of leukemia in 1985. He received an award from the Chicago Graphics Association and from the Chicago Book Clinic for Just Only John, and his Mr. Meebles was named an outstanding picture book of the year in 1976, by the New York Times.

From the guide to the Jack Kent Papers, 1953-1985, (University of Minnesota Libraries Children's Literature Research Collections [clrc])