Reed, Philip, 1959-....

Philip Reed was born January 17, 1908 in Park Ridge, Illinois. He spent his youth in Park Ridge and later studied graphic design at the Art Institute of Chicago. At the Art Institute he studied the works of such illustrators as Howard Pyle and Randolph Caldecott who would later influence his own work. In 1930, he established his first printing company, the Broadside Press, and over the next decades Philip Reed gained a reputation using "fine quality work". Most of "his work has been engraved" and Philip Reed worked using "a great deal of color". Philip Reed designed and illustrated many books for children and critics praised his "detailed color wood prints." In 1958, he illustrated a new edition of James Thurber's classic Many Moons and in 1963 published Mother Goose and Nursery Rhymes which received many awards and honors and his work has been displayed at the Library of Congress in Washington, the Victoria and Albert Museums in London and other institutions.

Biographical sources: Something About the Author, volume 29, pp 166. Illustrators of Children's Books: 1957-1966, pp 163.

From the guide to the Philip Reed Collection, 1935-1964, (University of Minnesota Libraries Children's Literature Research Collections [clrc])