Ed Emberley’s Drawing Book of Animals

Today marks the birthday of Ed Emberley. Ed was born in Malden, Massachusetts, graduated from the Massachusetts School of Art, and then painted signs for the army and worked in commercial illustration. In the late fifties he began publishing books with the then-Boston firm of Little Brown and Company. For Ed Emberley, working on books was a family affair; he collaborated with his wife, Barbara, and his son, Michael, and daughter, Rebecca, have continued the fine family tradition.

Although Ed Emberley won the Caldecott Medal for Drummer Hoff, his fame and fortune really began in 1970 when he published Ed Emberley’s Drawing Book of Animals. Dedicated to “The boy I was, the book I could not find,” this book, and the subsequent volumes, make it possible for any child—and for that matter, any adult—to believe he or she can become an artist. Emberley breaks familiar animals into shapes and shows even the most artistically challenged how to create donkeys, deer, and unicorns.  As an adult, I worked through the entire book and believed that I might have a career as a children’s book illustrator! Probably others have been similarly misled, but the joy of drawing from this book should not be missed. More than forty years later the book, now in an attractive paperback edition, still delights children and helps them create and analyze shape in art.

In the fall of 1970, against all odds, I managed to get hired by Ralph Woodward, publisher of the children’s book department of Little Brown and one of the nicest men in the industry. For Ralph, Ed Emberley always stood as the poster child for a great book creator. Professional, intelligent, with a sound sense of book design and illustration principles, Ed delivered one great book after another to his publisher—on time and without drama. Forty years later he remains for me the model of how a professional author should act; for children he has become the best drawing teacher they will ever find.

Happy birthday, Ed. And thank you from your many fans for all those great drawing lessons.

Here’s a page from Ed Emberley’s Drawing Book of Animals: