Trina Schart Hyman (1939-2004) Biography

See index for SATA sketch: Born April 8, 1939, in Philadelphia, PA; died of complications from breast cancer November 19, 2004, in Lebanon, NH. Illustrator and author. Hyman was a Caldecott Medal-winning illustrator of children's books. She studied art and illustration at the Philadelphia Museum College of Art and the Boston Museum School of the Arts in the late 1950s. She also attended the Konstfackskolan in Sweden from 1960 until 1961. Upon her graduation, she immediately began publishing her work in children's books, with her debut in Hertha Von Gebhardt's Toffe och den lilla bilen (1961). Except for working as an artist and then art director for the children's magazine Cricket during the 1970s, Hyman spent most of her career as a freelancer. She contributed her illustrations to well over one hundred titles by such contemporary children's authors as Virginia Haviland, Donald J. Sobol, Kathryn Lasky, Eleanor Cameron, Myra Cohn Livingston, Betsy Hearne, Eric Kimmel, and Lloyd Alexander. Her illustrations were also published in editions of classics by the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen, J. M. Barrie, and Mark Twain. Hyman, who was particularly noted for illustrating classics of folklore and fairy tales, also published seven of her own authored books, including How Six Found Christmas (1969), a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood (1983), and The Alphabet Game (2000). Her numerous awards include three Caldecotts, the Dorothy Canfield Fisher Award, several Boston Globe-Horn Book honors, and many others.