Beni Montresor

About Beni Montresor

Beni Montresor (1926-2001) was an Italian artist, stage designer and director who won the 1965 Caldecott Medal for his illustrations to Beatrice Schenk de Regniers's May I Bring a Friend? (1964).

Born on 31 March 1926, he worked in Italy as a newspaper film critic, a writer of radio plays and a set designer, collaborating with the film directors Federico Fellini, Vittorio De Sica and Roberto Rossellini. He moved to the United States in 1960 and became known as a designer of sets, lighting and costumes, especially for opera. His credits include The Last Savage at the Metropolitan Opera (1964) and a 1981 revival of The Love of Three Kings, and he was artistic director of the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma in 1988 and 1989. He also directed the films Pilgrimage (1972) and La Messe dorée (1975).

Alongside the stage, he wrote and illustrated children's books, including picture-book versions of the operas The Magic Flute and Cinderella. Italy knighted him in 1966. He died in Verona on 11 October 2001, aged 75.

For collectors

May I Bring a Friend? was published by Atheneum on 8 September 1964 and won the Caldecott Medal in 1965, the year after publication; the Atheneum first edition is the one that carries his medal-winning artwork.