William Pène du Bois

William Pène du Bois was born in Nutley, New Jersey in May 1916. His mother was Florence Sherman Pène du Bois who worked as a children's fashion designer until "Billy" was about seven years old. His father Guy Pène du Bois was a noted art critic and a painter known for landscapes and portraits. His older sister Yvonne (born 1913, later Yvonne Pène du Bois McKenney) would become a painter and their cousin Raoul Pene Du Bois would become a noted costume and scenic designer. Their Du Bois ancestors had moved from France to New Orleans in 1738. When William was eight the family moved to France, where he was educated at the Lycée Hoche in Versailles and the Lycée de Nice in Nice. They returned to Nutley when he was 14. After high school he was accepted by the Carnegie Technical School of Architecture, and offered a scholarship, but he sold a book that he had written and illustrated to pass the time during a vacation and pursued the creation of books rather than college. Thomas Nelson & Sons accepted Elisabeth, the Cow Ghost in 1935, when he was nineteen, and published it in 1936. == Writing career ==

By the time he entered the army in March 1941 at age 24, he had written and illustrated five more books. He spent his years in the army (1941–1945) with an artillery unit stationed in Bermuda. He worked as a correspondent for Yank magazine. He also edited the camp newspaper and illustrated strategic maps. In addition to writing and illustrating his own books, Pène du Bois illustrated books written by Jules Verne, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Rumer Godden, Claire Huchet Bishop and John Steinbeck, as well as magazine articles and advertisements. In 1960 he developed an interest in vintage cars, going to great pains and expense to refurbish a 1931 Brewster Croydon Coupe Rolls-Royce P11. He was one of the founding editors of The Paris Review along with Thomas Guinzburg, Harold L. Humes, Peter Matthiessen, George Plimpton, and John P. C. Train, and designed the publication's logo. As an illustrator he was a runner-up for the companion Caldecott Medal in 1952 for Bear Party and in 1957 for Lion. He was the illustrator for Claire Huchet Bishop's Twenty and Ten, which won the Child Study Association of America's Children's Book Award (now Josette Frank) in 1952. Some of his books including Bear Party and Lion are children's picture books with a minimum of text. The Twenty-One Balloons, however – and others including The Three Policemen, The Great Geppy, Squirrel Hotel, Peter Graves and The Giant – appeal to all ages. These books exhibit whimsical ingenuity in story and illustrations. Though not usually so classified, these books seem to qualify as science fiction. Their interest lies more in their imaginative elaboration of ideas than in their characters. Some of his fictional ideas are fantastic but many are plausible, and some such as the Balloon Merry-Go-Round in The Twenty-one Balloons may be feasible. Many show the influence of Jules Verne. Many of his papers are in the collection of the New York Public Library, Humanities and Social Sciences Library, Manuscripts and Archives Division. ==Personal life==

Pène du Bois married Jane Michèle Bouche of Manhattan, Children's book illustrator Margot Tomes was a cousin, as was theatrical costume and set designer Raoul Pene Du Bois. He died on February 5, 1993, in Nice, France, from a stroke. ==Books==

As writer • Elisabeth, the Cow Ghost (Thomas Nelson, 1936) • Giant Otto & Otto at Sea (1936) ::A giant dog named Otto (akin to Clifford the Big Red Dog) goes on a voyage. • The 3 Policemen, or, Young Bottsford of Farbe Island (1938) ::The ingenuity of ten-year-old Bottsford enables the three clownish policemen of an isolated idyllic isle to catch thieves who have been stealing the islanders' fish and fishing nets. • The Great Geppy (1940) – his fifth book published, featured on one page of a Life magazine story about his family • Otto And The Magic Potatoes (1970) ::Further adventures of Otto the giant dog. • Call Me Bandicoot (1970) :: A fast-talking young man entertains passengers on the Staten Island Ferry in exchange for food and money; serialized in ''Children's Digest'' • Bear Circus (1971) • Mother Goose for Christmas (Viking, 1973), picture book • The Forbidden Forest (1978) ::Lady Adelaide, a boxing kangaroo, helps to defeat the German army, thus becoming a heroine of the Great War. • Gentleman Bear (1985) :: A story about a London gentleman and his inseparable companion of over seventy years, his teddy bear. As illustrator only • The Mousewife, written by Rumer Godden (Viking Press, 1951) • Twenty and Ten, by Claire Huchet Bishop as told by Janet Joly (Viking, 1952), – also published by Scholastic as The Secret Cave, • The Great Dog Robbery, written by Dodie Smith, published serially in ''Woman's Day,'' June–September 1956. • Castles and Dragons: Read-to-yourself fairy tales for boys and girls, compiled by the Child Study Association of America (Thomas Y. Crowell Co., 1958), 292 pp., • A Certain Small Shepherd, Rebecca Caudill (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1965) • The Magic Finger, Roald Dahl (Allen & Unwin; Harper & Row, 1966) – later editions illustrated by Pat Mariott, Tony Ross, and Quentin Blake • The Topsy-Turvy Emperor of China, Isaac Bashevis Singer (Harper & Row, 1971) • ''William's Doll'', Charlotte Zolotow (Harper & Row, 1972) • My Grandson Lew, Charlotte Zolotow (Harper & Row, 1974) • Bear in Mind: A book of bear poems, selected by Bobbye S. Goldstein (Viking Kestrel, 1989), picture book, • Harriet, by Charles McKinley Jr. (Viking Press, 1946) == Notes ==