Robert McCloskey Dies at 88

Robert McCloskey, an author and illustrator who created relatively few books but made a huge and lasting impression on children's literature, died July 2 in Deer Isle, ME, after a long illness. He was buried near his home on Scott Island, ME.

McCloskey, born in Hamilton, OH, in 1914, won the Caldecott Medal twice—in 1942 for Make Way for Ducklings and in 1958 for Time of Wonder (both Viking). His other picture books—Lentil (1940), Blueberries for Sal (1948), One Morning in Maine (1952), and Burt Dow, Deep-Water Man (1963)—have been mainstays in libraries since their publication, as have his well-known collections of stories based on his Ohio youth, Homer Price (1943) and Centerburg Tales (1951).

When Viking agreed to publish Ducklings just before World War II, McCloskey shared an apartment in New York's Greenwich Village with children's book illustrator Marc Simont. McCloskey bought four live mallards and kept them in the apartment's bathtub, asking Simont to hold the squawking ducks in various positions as he drew them.

Children's literature consultant Connie Rockman says Ducklings is one of the top picture books of all time. "It's an example of everything we need to know about picture books, and he didn't even use color—only sepia tones—because color would have overshadowed the central character of the mother duck," she adds. "[McCloskey] only wrote eight children's books, but those books are so focused. He took real-life experiences and made them larger than life for us."