Leonard S. Marcus

Writer | Critic | Historian | Curator | Editor

Education: BA, magna cum laude, Yale University; MFA University of Iowa Writers Workshop in Poetry

Author

Helen Oxenbury: A Life in Illustration; 100 Years of Children’s Book Week Posters; The ABC of It: Why Children’s Books Matter; The Annotated Phantom Tollbooth; Listening for Madeleine: A Portrait of Madeleine L’Engle in Many Voices; The Kairos Novels of Madeleine L’Engle; Randolph Caldecott: The Man Who Could Not Stop Drawing; Maurice Sendak: A Celebration of the Artist’s Life and Work; Golden Legacy: The Story of Golden Books; The Making of the Runaway Bunny: A 75th Anniversary Retrospective; Minders of Make-Believe; A Caldecott Celebration: Seven Artists and Their Paths to the Caldecott Medal; Pass It Down: Five Picture-Book Artist Families Make Their Mark; Side by Side: Five Favorite Picture-Book Teams Go to Work; Funny Business: Conversations with Writers of Comedy; The Wand in the Word: Conversations with Writers of Fantasy; The Making of Goodnight Moon: A 50th Anniversary Retrospective; Dear Genius: The Letters of Ursula Nordstrom; Margaret Wise Brown: Awakened by the Moon. Contributor: New York Times Book Review, Horn Book magazine; Publishers Weekly, Meng

Curatorial works include

“Out of the Box: The Graphic Novel Comes of Age” Eric Carle Museum; “Garth Williams: Artist of the Century,” National Center for Children’s Illustrated Literature (NCCIL), “The  Picture Book Re-Imagined,” Pratt Manhattan Gallery; “Glorious Flights: The Illustration Art of Alice and Martin Provensen, NCCIL; “Children Should Be Seen: The Image of the Child in American Picture Book Art,” Katonah Art Museum; “Growing Every Which Way But Up: The Children’s Book Art of Jules Feiffer,” Eric Carle Museum; “The ABC of It: Why Children’s Books Matter,” New York Public Library; “Golden Legacy: 65 Years of Original Art for Golden Books,” NCCIL (and national tour)

Consultant

Everafter Books (Beijing), Chen Bochui Foundation (Shanghai), Fondacion SM (Mexico City) Bank Street College of Education, Whitney Museum of American Art, Ezra Jack Keats Foundation, National Book Foundation, All for Kids Foundation, Arne Nixon Center (Fresno State U.), Norman Rockwell Museum, dPictus (UK), Book Globe Ltd (Japan), National Center for Children’s Illustrated Literature

Awards and Honors

Recipient: Honorary doctor of Humane Letters, Bank Street College of Education; Chen Bochui Foundation Award for special contributions to Chinese children’s literature; First Prize for Books, Children’s Literature Association; Best Picture Book Prize, Independent Publishers Association: New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Judge: Eric Carle Museum Carle Honors Awards (founder, director, judge), New York Times Book Review Best Illustrated Books of the Year Awards; National Book Award; Ezra Jack Keats Foundation New Writer and New Illustrator Awards; Bologna Book Fair Ragazzi Prize; Sendak Fellowship; Chen Bochui Picture Book Award (chair); Parenting magazine Reading Magic Awards (director and judge); dPictus/Frankfurt Book Fair juried exhibition; Catalogo Ibero-America Ilustra (Mexico City); Scholastic Asia Book Award (Singapore); Boston Globe/Horn Book Awards; Society of Illustrators Original Art Exhibition and Gold Medal.