Robert Lawson was born in New York City on October 4, 1892, and spent his early years in Montclair, New Jersey. Lawson attended the New York School of Fine and Applied Arts from 1911-1914, then served in France as a camouflage artist during World War I. After the war, Lawson returned to New York to work as a freelance illustrator. In New York he met fellow artist and illustrator Marie Abrams and they married in 1922, moving to Westport, Connecticut a year later. To pay off their house they designed a new greeting card each day for three years, until the Great Depression forced them to sell the house and return to New York to find work. In addition to his commercial work designing greeting cards and advertising, Lawson illustrated his first children's book, The Wonderful Adventures of Little Prince Toofat, in 1921-1922. A gap of eight years followed its publication, during which Lawson concentrated on his commercial work. After 1930, Lawson began to focus almost exclusively on illustrating children's books. In 1936 he achieved his greatest recognition with the illustrations for The Story of Ferdinand, by Munro Leaf. In 1939 Lawson branched out to authoring and illustrating his own children's books. His first book, Ben and Me, told the story of Benjamin Franklin and his mouse, Amos. Lawson received the Caldecott Medal in 1941 for the patriotic They Were Strong and Good, and twice received Caldecott Honors: one in 1938 for Four and Twenty Blackbirds and one the following year for Wee Gillis, written by Munro Leaf. One of his most famous works, Rabbit Hill, won the Newbery Medal in 1945, and he received a posthumous Newbery Honor in 1958 for his final book, The Great Wheel. Lawson illustrated more than sixty books in his lifetime, and many of his books remain widely read.
From the description of Frederick R. Gardner Collection of Robert Lawson, 1900-1983. (Franklin & Marshall College). WorldCat record id: 352887286
