Tasha Tudor (1915-) Biography

Born 1915, in Boston, MA; name legally changed; Education: Studied at Boston Museum Fine Arts School. Religion: "Stillwater." Hobbies and other interests: Antique collecting, including more than 500 eighteenth-and nineteenth-century children's costumes.

Addresses

Office—Tasha Tudor and Family, P.O. Box 503, Marlboro, VT 05344.

Career

Author and illustrator of children's books, 1938—; Jenny Wren Press (small press publisher), Mooresville, IN, partner, 1989—. Exhibitions: Period clothing collection, books, and artwork featured in exhibit "A Time to Keep," at Conner Prairie Settlement in Noblesville, IN, 1991.

Member

American Primrose Society, American Goat Association, American Lilac Society, Pembroke Walsh Coral Club.

Honors Awards

Children's Spring Book Festival Younger Honor, New York Herald Tribune, 1941, for A Tale for Easter; Caldecott Honor Books, American Library Association (ALA), 1945, for Mother Goose, and 1957, for 1Is One; Chandler Book Talk Reward of Merit, 1963; Regina Medal, Catholic Library Association, 1971; The Night before Christmas named a Children's Book of the Year, Child Study Association, 1975; Chicago Book Clinic Award, 1982, for A Child's Garden of Verses; ALA Notable Book citation for The Dolls' House.

Writings

SELF-ILLUSTRATED

Pumpkin Moonshine, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1938, enlarged edition, Walck (New York, NY), 1962, reprinted, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2000.

Alexander the Gander, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1939, enlarged edition, Walck (New York, NY), 1961, reprinted Warner Books (New York, NY), 1998.

The County Fair, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1940, enlarged edition, Walck (New York, NY), 1964, reprinted, Warner Books (New York, NY), 1998.

Snow before Christmas, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1941.

A Tale for Easter, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1941, reprinted, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2001.

Dorcas Porkus, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1942, enlarged edition, Walck (New York, NY), 1963, reprinted, Warner Books (New York, NY), 1998.

The White Goose, Farrar (New York, NY), 1943.

Linsey Woolsey, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1946, reprinted, Warner Books (New York, NY)1998.

Thistly B, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1949.

The Dolls' Christmas, Walck (New York, NY), 1950.

Amanda and the Bear, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1951.

Edgar Allan Crow, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1953.

A Is for Annabelle (verse), Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1954, reprinted, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2001.

1 Is One (verse), Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1956, reprinted, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2001.

Around the Year (verse), Walck (New York, NY), 1957, reprinted Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2001.

Becky's Birthday, Viking (New York, NY), 1960, reprinted, J. Wren Press (Mooresville, IN), 1992.

(With others) My Brimful Book, edited by Dana Bruce, Platt, 1961.

Becky's Christmas, Viking (New York, NY), 1961, reprinted, Jenny Wren Press (Mooresville, IN), 1991.

First Delights: A Book about the Five Senses, Platt, 1966.

Corgiville Fair, Crowell (New York, NY), 1971, reprinted, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1998.

A Time to Keep: The Tasha Tudor Book of Holidays, Rand McNally (Chicago, IL), 1977.

Tasha Tudor's Sampler: A Tale for Easter, Pumpkin Moonshine, and The Dolls' Christmas, McKay, 1977, reprinted, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1999.

An Advent Calendar, Rand McNally (Chicago, IL), 1978.

(With Linda Allen) Tasha Tudor's Favorite Christmas Carols, McKay, 1978.

A Book of Christmas, Collins (New York, NY), 1979.

(With L. Allen) Tasha Tudor's Old-Fashioned Christmas Gifts, McKay, 1979.

The Springs of Joy, Rand McNally (Chicago, IL), 1979.

Rosemary for Remembrance, Philomel (New York, NY), 1981.

Tasha Tudor's Seasons of Delight: A Year on an Old-Fashioned Farm, Philomel (New York, NY), 1986.

Give Us This Day: The Lord's Prayer, Philomel (New York, NY), 1987.

The Tasha Tudor Cookbook, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1993.

The Tasha Tudor Sketchook Series: Family and Friends, Corgi Cottage Industries (Richmond, VA), 1995.

The Great Corgiville Kidnapping, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1997.

Corgiville Christmas, Front Street Books (Asheville, NC), 2003.

ILLUSTRATOR; BY HUSBAND, THOMAS LEIGHTON MCCREADY, JR.

Biggity Bantam, Ariel Books (New York, NY), 1954.

Pekin White, Ariel Books (New York, NY), 1955.

Mr. Stubbs, Ariel Books (New York, NY), 1956.

Increase Rabbit, Ariel Books (New York, NY), 1958.

Adventures of a Beagle, Ariel Books (New York, NY), 1959.

ILLUSTRATOR; BY DAUGHTER, EFNER TUDOR HOLMES

The Christmas Cat, Crowell (New York, NY), 1976, reprinted by HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2000.

Amy's Goose, Crowell (New York, NY), 1977.

Carrie's Gift, Crowell (New York, NY), 1978.

Deer in the Hollow, Philomel (New York, NY), 1990.

ILLUSTRATOR

Mother Goose: Seventy-seven Verses, Walck (New York, NY), 1944.

Hans Christian Andersen, Fairy Tales, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1945.

Robert Louis Stevenson, A Child's Garden of Verses, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1947, revised edition, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1999.

Rumer Godden, The Dolls' House, Georgian Webb, 1947, reprinted, Peter Smith (Magnolia, MA), 1995.

Juliana Horatia Ewing, Jackanapes, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1948.

First Prayers, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1952, reprinted, Random House (New York, NY), 1998.

First Graces, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1955, reprinted, Random House (New York, NY), 1997.

And It Was So: Words from the Scripture, selected and edited by Sara Klein Clarke, Westminster Press, 1958, reprinted, Westminster John Knox Press (Louisville, KY), 1996.

The Lord Will Love Thee, scriptures selected and edited by Sara Klein Clarke, Westminster Press (Louisville, KY), 1959.

Clement C. Moore, The Night before Christmas, St. Onge, 1962, revised, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2000.

Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden, Lippincott (Philadelphia, PA), 1962.

Frances Hodgson Burnett, A Little Princess, Lippincott (Philadelphia, PA), 1963, reprinted, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 1999.

Louisa May Alcott, A Round Dozen: Stories, selected and with a foreword by Anne Thaxter Eaton, Viking (New York, NY), 1963.

The Twenty-third Psalm, St. Onge, 1965, reissued as The Lord Is My Shepherd: The Twenty-third Psalm, Philomel (New York, NY), 1980.

Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows, World Publishing, 1966.

First Poems of Childhood, Platt, 1967.

More Prayers, Walck (New York, NY), 1967, reprinted, Random House (New York, NY), 2000.

Henry Augustus Shute, The Real Diary of a Real Boy, R. R. Smith, 1967.

Henry Augustus Shute, Brite and Fair, R. R. Smith, 1968.

Mary Mason Campbell, New England Butt'ry Shelf Cookbook: Receipts for Very Special Occasions, World Publishing, 1968.

Louisa May Alcott, Little Women, World Publishing, 1968.

Mary Mason Campbell, New England Butt'ry Shelf Almanac, World Publishing, 1970.

Mary Mason Campbell, Betty Crocker's Kitchen Gardens, Golden Press, 1971.

Tasha Tudor's Bedtime Book, edited by Kate Klimo, Platt, 1977.

Mary Mason Campbell, editor, A Basket of Herbs: A Book of American Sentiments, New England Unit, Inc., of Herb Society of America, Inc., 1983.

Emily Dickinson, A Brighter Garden, (verse), collected by Karen Ackerman, Philomel (New York, NY), 1989.

Joan Donaldson, The Real Pretend, Checkerboard Press (New York, NY), 1992.

Harry Davis, Forever Christmas, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 2000.

(With Mary Collier) Carolyn Strom Collins and Christina Wyss Eriksson, Inside the Secret Garden: A Treasury of Crafts, Recipes, and Activities, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2001.

EDITOR AND ILLUSTRATOR

The Tasha Tudor Book of Fairy Tales, Platt, 1961.

Wings from the Wind: An Anthology of Poems, Lippincott (Philadelphia, PA), 1964.

Tasha Tudor's Favorite Stories, Lippincott (Philadelphia, PA), 1965.

Take Joy! The Tasha Tudor Christmas Book, World Publishing, 1966.

All for Love, Philomel (New York, NY), 1984, reprinted, Simon & Schuster, 2000.

OTHER

(With Richard Brown) The Private World of Tasha Tudor, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1992.

Miniature, (photographs by Jay Paul), Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1999.

Tudor's papers are collected in the de Grummond Collection, McCain Library and Archives, University of Southern Mississippi.

Adaptations

The Dolls' Christmas has been made into an audio book by Recorded Books, 2000.

Work in Progress

Sidelights

During her youth Tasha Tudor yearned to become a farmer—to experience the fulfillment that accompanies simple rural living and hard work. She was also fascinated with the lifestyle of nineteenth-century New Englanders, who lived without benefit of modern conveniences and envisioned a similar existence. Never abandoning these aspirations, Tudor followed in the footsteps of her mother, a portrait painter, by pursuing an interest in art, a penchant that eventually led to a long and successful career as an author and illustrator of children's books.

Tudor's love of the past is evident in her work as she frequently includes Victorian motifs and paints her characters in old-fashioned clothing and settings. She first published a book while in her early twenties and has since written the text and drawn the pictures for more than thirty books for children, illustrated some thirty others, and edited several more. She has retold and illustrated popular fairy tales and nursery rhymes, as well as invented the characters and situations for original stories based on actual people and occurrences. Many reviewers praise her soft watercolors, pen-and-ink drawings, and flowery prose for evoking the ideals, beauty, and sentimentality of a bygone era, and some compare her artistry to that of nineteenth-century British illustrator Kate Greenaway. Tudor's work is "always steeped … in old-fashioned romantic ambience," a Booklist reviewer observed.

"Tudor has given children a very special ray of sunshine—that of pictures which … carry the imagination of children into history, into the human heart, into the joys of family life, into love of friendship itself," assessed Ilse L. Hontz in Catholic Library World. The critic asserted that "Tudor radiates a deep appreciation of family life, animals, nature," and "brings another world of peacefulness into our consciousness." Her work reflects "charm, excellence, and tranquility," echoed Sister Julanne Good in a speech made during the Regina Medal Award presentations in 1971, reprinted in Catholic Library World. Adding that Tudor's mix of "nineteenth-century style with the realism of the story reflects a talent which is difficult to duplicate," she called the artist's style "natural and expressive, revealing a creative and imaginative personality."

Tudor was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1915, to Rosamond Tudor and yacht designer William Starling Burgess. Originally named Starling Burgess, she was nicknamed "Natasha" by her father, who admired nineteenth-century Russian writer Leo Tolstoy's heroine in War and Peace. She eventually changed her name to Tasha Tudor, legally adopting her mother's maiden name as a surname. Unenthusiastic about school in her youth, Tudor nevertheless loved to draw and read works illustrated by Edmund Dulac, Randolph Caldecott, Walter Crane, and Beatrix Potter, among others. At the age of nine, when her mother and father divorced, she was sent to live with friends of her parents in Redding, Connecticut. Her mother opted to relocate to Greenwich Village to pursue her art career and felt the free-spirited lifestyle of 1920s New York City was inappropriate for her young daughter.

Tudor's new surroundings, however, were a far departure from the formal and reserved milieu she had experienced in Boston before her parents separated. "I was dumped into the most unconventional atmosphere you can imagine," noted Tudor as quoted by daughter Bethany Tudor in Drawn from New England. Describing her mother's change in environment as "exhilarating," Bethany wrote that "in Connecticut Tudor could run wild in a state of utter relaxation from discipline. Nothing was ever on schedule at Aunt Gwen's house, except on weekends when Uncle Michael came home from his job in the city." Tudor, herself, credits her "aunt" with helping tap her creativity.

While living in Redding, Tudor became interested in theater, often dressing up in antique clothing and costumes. Together with a few friends, she presented plays written by Aunt Gwen. She also grew fond of dance, nature, and country living. She dreamed of owning a farm one day. Later, in her teenage years, Tudor rejoined her mother. Subsequently, they spent a number of winters in Bermuda and their summers on a farm Rosamond had purchased in Redding. While in Bermuda, Tudor established a nursery school in order to raise money—her goal was to obtain enough funds to purchase a cow after she returned to Connecticut. Her summers were spent developing her art as well as tending to her newly acquired cow and a flock of chickens.

During her late teens Tudor decided on a career as an illustrator after reading The Vicar of Wakefield, illustrated by Hugh Thompson. "I just loved … Thompson's work, and right then and there decided, I would be an illustrator!," declared Tudor in Drawn from New England. Bethany added, "My mother was not particularly fond of writing, but in order to have something to illustrate, she began to write little stories for children, often based on real incidents she had observed." She created her first book—an unpublished story of a farm girl—at age nineteen.

In 1938 Tudor married fellow Redding resident Thomas Leighton McCready, Jr., who had been raised in the New York City area. Described by Bethany as "a suburbanite at heart," McCready agreed to help his new bride realize her dream of farming. He also encouraged Tudor to find a publisher for a book, Pumpkin Moonshine, that she had originally written and illustrated as a gift for his English niece Sylvie Ann, who serves as the story's main character. The volume, which charts the young girl's adventures as she seeks and later carts home the largest pumpkin on her grandmother's property, was rejected by numerous New York publishers. The manuscript was finally accepted by Oxford University Press, however, and the house published several of Tudor's subsequent titles. Pumpkin Moonshine was still in print more than fifty years after its 1938 publication.

Tudor managed to find time to write and illustrate in addition to her farm duties. By the mid-1940s Tudor had borne two children and longed to resettle in a more rustic environment. The family found such a locale in Webster, New Hampshire. Tudor, meanwhile, began work as an illustrator of books by other authors. The royalties from her work on a 1944 version of Mother Goose helped her purchase the rural home, which was in need of renovation. The family eventually increased by two more children. In time all of the Tudor offspring were trained to run various aspects of the old farm. Devoid of many modern conveniences, including running water and electricity, the homestead was restored and filled with antique furnishings. Various facets of nineteenth-century living were observed in the Tudor-McCready home. For example, Tudor washed clothes by hand, became proficient in spinning and weaving flax, made bread from scratch, sewed much of her children's clothing, and planted a vast garden of flowers and vegetables.

"My mother often said she wanted to live a life similar to that of New Englanders in the past century," explained Bethany in Drawn from New England. "So that is what our family did, in a way, for many a year. It was not easy, but the rewards were most satisfying. One could say my mother's whole career has been inspired by her lifestyle, plus the farm pets and animals." The family kept a number of cows, geese, ducks, chickens, corgi dogs, horses, cats, and other animals. Many of these "pets" accompanied the family on picnics; some appeared as subjects of Tudor's books, including Alexander the Gander, Thistly B., and Edgar Allan Crow.

Tudor often drew pictures of her children in their youth, dressing them in period clothing. "Sometimes, after being sketched, we were allowed to keep on the dresses and enjoy an afternoon tea party in the best parlor of the farmhouse," recalled Bethany. "We felt as if we were actually living some of the wonderful old fairy tales and stories my mother read to us so constantly." Tudor frequently included illustrations of her children in her books, most often in real-life situations and occurrences. For example, one of Bethany's birthday parties is recreated in Becky's Birthday, and the family custom of Easter egg tree decoration is depicted in A Time to Keep.

Tudor also acquainted her children with her world of fantasy. She passed on her love of acting out plays and playing with dolls—two pastimes that had broken the monotony of boarding school in her youth. Together, Tudor and her children devised a number of activities for their dolls, holding fairs and parties, making miniature Christmas presents for them, sending letters and parcels through their own special mail service called the "Sparrow Post," and even staging a doll marriage. The dolls themselves have been featured in Tudor's books, including The Dolls' Christmas and A Is for Annabelle.

Tudor's unusual lifestyle and special brand of fantasy are evident in her other books as well. Many critics have delighted over her simple stories as well as her sentimental, "Victorian" pastel illustrations. Among her more notable volumes are the award-winning A Tale for Easter and 1 Is One, which she wrote and illustrated. The former work describes through text and pictures the days preceding Easter. A New York Herald Tribune Books reviewer described the tale as "a jewel of prettiness," while Ellen Lewis Buell in New York Times Book Review praised the volume for exuding an "unforgettable air of joy." 1 Is One, named a Caldecott Honor book, helps youngsters learn to count.

Tudor's love of Corgis, a type of short-legged Welsh herding dog, has also inspired a number of books. The author's interest in the breed began during a trip to England when her son, Thomas, decided to purchase one of the dogs. Though Tudor and her family returned home, Thomas stayed overseas to earn money and attend boarding school. In The Private World of Tasha Tudor, the author recalled, "My very first corgi was bought by my son Tom for ten guineas from a Reverend Mr. Jones, a vicar in Pembrokeshire, who shipped him over in a tea chest. It was love at first sight and I was determined I had to have more. I've had up to thirteen or fourteen at one time, which causes a lot of commotion underfoot, especially when people come to call." She added, "They are my trademark." In 1971 Tudor published the self-illustrated work Corgiville Fair, which she describes as her favorite book; in fact, Corgiville Fair is the only work for which Tudor has kept all of her original sketches intact. The story concerns the annual fair taking place in Corgiville, a town populated by dogs, cats, goats, boggarts, and rabbits, and focuses on young Caleb Corgi's attempt to win the big goat race against his nemesis, Edgar Tomcat. In a later title, The Great Corgiville Kidnapping, Caleb investigates the disappearance of the town's prize rooster, Babe. When he learns that Babe has been taken by a band of raccoons, Caleb plans a daring rescue. "This is a clever story told by a master storyteller," noted Booklist contributor Helen Rosenburg, who also praised the "charming illustrations for which Tudor is known." Tudor returned to Corgiville once more for the 2003 tale Corgiville Christmas, a "reverent homage to yester-year," observed a critic in Kirkus Reviews. In the work, Tudor provides a tour of the village, showing how the residents prepare for the holidays. "Gentle nostalgia from a timeless master," commented Susan Patron in School Library Journal.

Tudor's illustrations for other authors' texts have also received much critical praise. Her drawings for Mother Goose, another Caldecott Honor book, were lauded by many reviewers. A writer for the New York Herald Tribune observed that the reader feels that Tudor "has seen deeper into the character than many of her predecessors." Tudor's drawings for Clement C. Moore's The Night before Christmas were also well received by both the public and reviewers, as were her illustrations for fairy tales, Christmas narratives, biblical verses, and bedtime stories. In addition to re-illustrating popular works like Robert Louis Stevenson's Child's Garden of Verses, Tudor has also lent her artistic vision to texts written by family members, including first husband McCready and daughter Efner.

Amid the success of Tudor's books she was able to realize another life-long dream—that of living in Vermont. In the early 1970s Tudor purchased property adjoining that of her son Seth, who built his mother a new home, modeled after a nineteenth-century farmhouse. According to Biblio contributor Richard Brown, who visited the Tudor residence, the author's home is "a magical place 'east of Vermont and west of New Hampshire,' caught in the year 1830, idealized yet clearly real, as the strong scent of buck goat and the drying wash that fluttered on the line in the distance attested. The weathered rambling farmhouse and outbuildings were nested into the hillside and softened by the vines, clinging roses, and lilacs that nearly engulfed them. A handful of floppy-eared goats grazed in the barnyard, doves strutted and preened along the roof ridge, and a brightly colored flock of chickens wandered about, squabbling and scratching in the dirt." Brown added, "The scene before me looked like a nineteenth-century farmscape by George Henry Durrie or Winslow Homer, or, of course, an illustration by Tasha Tudor." Tudor continues to heed old-fashioned mores and belongs to a group dedicated to nineteenth-century living called "Stillwater." She told Angela Taylor in the New York Times, "We are great venerators of nature, believe in peaceful living, in live and let live, and discipline for children."

In addition to her farming and children's book activities, Tudor became a partner with Mrs. David Mathers in the Mooresville, Indiana-based Jenny Wren Press, a small press publisher, in 1989. Tudor has continued to be active creatively, running her own "cottage" industry of crafts and illustrations and giving the occasional lecture. As Brown noted, the artist's intricate watercolors "are only the best-known part of Tasha's multi-faceted inventiveness. There are also the precisely crafted dolls and their meticulously furnished three-story house and the dozens of marionettes made over the years, each brimming with personality and liberal touches of her humor. Also an adept weaver and spinner, Tasha patiently threads her loom with hundreds and hundreds of the finest flax threads, which she weaves into beautifully textured linen, and Sunday afternoons are always spent sewing new dresses." In a 1996 interview with Beverly Fortune in the Lexington Herald-Leader, Tudor said, "It's wonderful to grow old. You can get away with murder. Everyone takes great care of you. And they're afraid of offending you. You can say the most outrageous things and get away with it. I fully believe old age is one of the most delightful periods of my life."