Louis Darling was born 4/26/16 in Stamford, Connecticut. He studied art at the Grand Central School of Art in New York City in 1936-37, and also studied privately. He began his career as an artist in the 1940s, doing both commercial and fine art, and also began illustrating children's and young adult books. Throughout his prolific career he illustrated several dozen books, both fiction and non-fiction, by many authors, as well as his own works. He also collaborated frequently with his wife, Lois Darling, on both juvenile and adult works; they jointly did the illustrations for Rachel Carson's classic, Silent Spring .
Louis Darling worked in both black and white, and full color, and in a variety of media including pencil and tempera, suiting his style and medium to the individual title. His interest in nature and conservation were reflected in his books and illustrations, which are noted for their accuracy, realism, and attention to detail. In 1966 he was awarded the John Burroughs Medal for The Gull's Way . He is also well-known for his illustrations for Beverly Clearly's series of books dealing with the adventures of Henry Huggins, Beezux and Ramona Quimby and their friends and neighbors. In the illustrations for these books, Louis Darling vividly brought to life the characters' unique personalities and feelings; his illustrations also brought out the humor inherent in many of the situations in which the characters found themselves. Louis Darling died on 1/21/70.
Biographical Sources: Something About the Author, vol. 3, 23
From the guide to the Louis Darling Papers, 1946-1970, (University of Minnesota Libraries Children's Literature Research Collections [clrc])
