Author and illustrator Marie Abrams Lawson was born in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1894. She was educated at the Sweet Briar Institute in Virginia, and studied at the New York School of Fine and Applied Art. She wrote and illustrated four books for young people ( Hail Columbia, Dragon John, The Sea is Blue, and Strange Sea Stories ) and authored a volume for Random House's Landmark Series of juvenile histories. Many of her stories are simple retellings of old legends or fanciful tales, and her illustrations have a gentle, two-dimensional quality. Her distinctive black and white decorations add grace and beauty to the five volume botanical series by Vernon Quinn. Marie Lawson died 13 June 1956 in Norwalk, Connecticut. She was survived by her husband Robert Lawson, the Newberry and Caldecott Award-winning children's author and illustrator.
Biographical source: http://www.lib.uconn.edu/online/research/speclib/ASC/findaids/Lawson/MSS20020127.html#d0e66 , 2008
From the guide to the Marie (Abrams) Lawson Papers, 1931, (University of Minnesota Libraries Children's Literature Research Collections [clrc])
