Margaret Bloy Graham Explained

Margaret Bloy Graham (2 November 1920 – 22 January 2015) was a Canadian[1] creator of children's books, primarily an illustrator of picture books.[2] She is best known for her work on Harry the Dirty Dog (1956) and other books in the Harry series written by her then husband Gene Zion.

Early life

Graham was born in Toronto. Her father, Malcolm Robert Graham, was a physician and her mother Florence (née Bloy) was a nurse. When Graham was one, the family moved to Sandwich, Ontario (now part of Windsor), where her father became the superintendent of the sanatorium. Her childhood was spent in Ontario, but she spent her summer holidays with either her grandfather in England or an aunt in the United States. The family returned to Toronto when she was ten. She attended Saturday morning classes at the Art Gallery of Ontario.

Graham majored in art history at the University of Toronto, graduating in 1943. After graduation, she attended a summer course at the venerable Art Students League in New York City. She later supplemented her studies at the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University and also the New School for Social Research. She decided to stay in New York to establish a career as a commercial artist. From 1944 to 1945 she worked as a ship draftsman for Gibbs & Cox and in 1946 she started work in the art department of Condé Nast Publications, where she remained until 1956.

Writer and illustrator

Graham met her first husband Gene Zion (1913-1975) at Condé Nast. They were married in July 1948.

Zion was urged by his new wife and also his editor, Ursula Nordstrom of Harper and Brothers, to write children's books. He remembers that it was Graham’s sketch of children gathering apples in an orchard, done several years earlier in Canada, that inspired his first book, All Falling Down (1951).

The husband-and-wife team became famous for the Harry series of books, beginning with Harry the Dirty Dog (1956) and followed by No Roses for Harry! (1958), Harry and the Lady Next Door (1960) and Harry By the Sea (1965). The collaboration ended with their divorce in 1968.

Graham received two Caldecott Honors, one for her work on All Falling Down, the second for her work on The Storm Book.[3] Graham launched her own writing career around the time of the divorce with Be Nice to Spiders (1967). She later developed her own canine hero, Benjy, through a series of books.

Later life

Graham remarried in 1972 to a merchant-ship officer, Oliver W. Holmes, Jr.[4] She lived in retirement in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She died January 22, 2015.[5] In 2022, she was inducted posthumously into the Canadian Cartoonist Hall of Fame.[6]

Author and illustrator

TitleYearPublisher
Be Nice To Spiders1967HarperCollins
Benjy and the Barking Bird1971HarperCollins
Benjy’s Dog House1973HarperCollins
Benjy’s Boat Trip1977HarperCollins
Benjy and His Friend Fifi1988HarperCollins

Illustrator

TitleYearAuthorPublisher
All Falling Down1951Zion G.HarperCollins
The Storm Book1952Zolotow C.HarperCollins
Hide and Seek Day1954Zion G.HarperCollins
The Summer Snowman1955Zion G.HarperCollins
Harry the Dirty Dog1956Zion G.HarperCollins
Really Spring1956Zion G.HarperCollins
Dear Garbage Man1957Zion G.HarperCollins
Jeffie's Party1957Zion G.HarperCollins
No Roses for Harry1958Zion G.HarperCollins
The Plant Sitter1959Zion G.HarperCollins
Harry and the Lady Next Door1960Zion G.HarperCollins
The Meanest Squirrel I Ever Met1963Zion G.Scribners
The Sugar Mouse Cake1964Young M.B.Scribners
Harry by the sea1965Zion G.HarperCollins
The Green Hornet Lunchbox1970Shirley GordonHoughton Mifflin
The Pack Rat’s Day and Other Poems 1974Prelutsky J.Macmillan
What if?1987Minarik E.HGreenwillow
It’s spring1989Minarik E.HGreenwillow

Biographical sources

External links

Notes and References

  1. News: "Harry the Dirty Dog" Illustrator Margaret Bloy Graham Dies at 94. School Library Journal. en-US. 2017-01-18.
  2. News: Margaret Bloy Graham obituary. 28 January 2015. The Boston Globe. 24 January 2015.
  3. Web site: Caldecott Medal & Honor Books, 1938-Present . 17 July 2014.
  4. News: "Harry the Dirty Dog" Illustrator Margaret Bloy Graham Dies at 94. School Library Journal. en-US. 2017-01-18.
  5. News: Margaret Bloy Graham. The Guardian. en-UK. 2024-04-21.
  6. News: Simons . Dean . The 2022 nominees for the Doug Wright Awards are in! A return to in-person awards and the late Margaret Bloy Graham is inducted into the Canadian Cartoonist Hall of Fame. The Beat . 18 May 2022.