Blair Lent

About Blair Lent

Blair Lent (22 January 1930 to 27 January 2009) was an American illustrator and writer of children's books from Boston, best known for illustrating Arlene Mosel's Tikki Tikki Tembo (1968) and The Funny Little Woman (1972), which won the 1973 Caldecott Medal.

Lent graduated from the Boston Museum School in 1953 and, after travelling in Europe, worked in graphic design, including can labels for the Container Corporation of America and bank advertising. His first book as author and illustrator, Pistachio, was published by Atlantic Monthly Press in 1964, the same year as The Wave. He sometimes wrote as Ernest Small, the name on Baba Yaga. Why the Sun and the Moon Live in the Sky: An African Folktale (1968) earned a 1969 Caldecott Honor, and Tikki Tikki Tembo, published by Holt, Rinehart and Winston, won the 1968 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for picture books. The Funny Little Woman, published by E. P. Dutton, adapts a Japanese tale collected by Lafcadio Hearn. His techniques ranged from acrylic paint and cardboard cutouts to coloured pencil and ink and wash. Later books include Bayberry Bluff (1987), Molasses Flood (1992) and Ruby and Fred (2000). He lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and died of pneumonia.

For collectors

The Dutton first edition of The Funny Little Woman (1972) is his Caldecott Medal book, and the Holt first edition of Tikki Tikki Tembo (1968) is his most widely known. Why the Sun and the Moon Live in the Sky (1968) is his Caldecott Honor title.