Category: Childrens

Allan W. Eckert

Born: January 30, 1931Died: July 7, 2011 Ohio connection: Resident Bellefontaine Allan W. Eckert was born in Buffalo, New York, and was raised in and around Chicago, Illinois. Eckert was a child with an intense love of nature. “I remember crawling about in the gangways between buildings or in vacant lots, overturning boards and pieces of tin …

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James Flora

Born: January 25, 1914Died: July 9, 1998 Ohio connection: Birth Bellefontaine Mixing the pathos of surrealism with the impishness of cartoons, James Flora was the master of hand-drawn album cover art before the record industry’s switch to photographic covers in 1956. In the 1940s, Flora was one of the first artists to design and illustrate album covers, thereby …

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Leclaire Alger

(Sorche Nic Leodhas) Born: May 20, 1898Died: November 14, 1969 Ohio connection: Birth Youngstown Born Leclaire Gowans on May 20, 1898, in Youngstown, Ohio, to Louis P. and Anna Gowans. Leclaire Alger wrote most of her books under the Gaelic pen-name Sorche Nic Leodhas (pronounced approximately like “sorsha nick leoh-as”), which means “Claire, daughter of Louis.” Writing under …

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Jaime Adoff

Born: 1951 Ohio connection: Resident Yellow Springs Author, poet, musician, and educator Jaime Adoff was born in New York City, NY. Adoff, son of acclaimed authors Virginia Hamilton and Arnold Adoff, was raised in Yellow Springs, Ohio. Jaime Adoff received a Bachelor of Music degree in 1990 from Central State University, Wilberforce, Ohio, where his focus was …

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Jan Adkins

Born:  1944 Ohio connection: Birth Gallipolis Born in Gallipolis and raised across the river in Wheeling, West Virginia, author, designer and illustrator Jan Adkins describes himself as “an explainer, a storyteller with words and images, an advocate for young minds, a resource for images, and a dinosaur holdout for simplicity and grace in illustration, design …

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