Berenstain, Stan, 1923-2005

Stan (1923-2005) and Jan Berenstain (1923-2012) were an American husband-wife cartoonist team best known for the Berenstain Bears children's book series. Stan Berenstain was born west of Philadelphia on September 29, 1923. Jan (Grant) Berenstain was born July 26, 1923 in Philadelphia. Both grew up in West Philadelphia but they did not meet until their first day of a drawing class at the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art in 1941. They quickly became friends and while not studying they accompanied each other to orchestra, theatre and museum events.

Like many cartoonists of this generation, WWII affected their careers. Stan ended up at an engineering school and but later became a medical artist at an Army hospital in Indiana where he drew instructions related to plastic surgery for victims of facial wounds. Jan worked for military contractors doing engineering drawings and was also a riveter. During his three years in the Army, Stan developed an interest in cartoons and sold several to the Saturday Review of Literature .

Stan and Jan got married in 1946 and soon they were submitting cartoons to magazines together. Their cartoons became regular features in Collier’s and The Saturday Evening Post . Their family humor serial feature, It’s All in the Family appeared in McCall's and later in Good Housekeeping . They also drew the newspaper strip Sister which was distributed by the Register and Tribune Syndicate.

Working out of their Bucks County, Pennsylvania studio, the Berenstains began to explore other formats and published many humor books on topics related to raising children, family and marriage. After the birth of their first child, the Berenstains decided to write and illustrate a book that addressed pregnancy and raising a baby. This book, the Berenstains' Baby Book appeared in 1951. Soon they produced other works aimed at adults on these subjects such as Lover Boy, Flipsville Squaresville and Call Me Mrs .

The Berenstains submitted a book idea to Dr. Seuss and published their first children's book The Big Honey Hunt in 1962. This book led to the very successful children's book series, The Berenstain Bears . The series' popularity led the Berenstains to explore other genres for their characters such as animation and musical theatre.

On November 26, 2005 Stan died of lymphoma in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. Jan continued to illustrate the Berenstain Bears with their son Mike, who since the late 1980s has worked on the series, until her death in 2012. Over 120 Berenstain Bears books are in print and about 260 million copies have been sold.

From the guide to the Stan and Jan Berenstain Cartoons, 1954-1965, (Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University Libraries)