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About the Author
Photograph Used With Permission From Penguin Young Readers Born in Hamilton, Ohio in 1914, McCloskey was encouraged by his parents to explore his interests. “I took piano lessons from the time my fingers were long enough to play the scale,” he was once quoted. McCloskey also played the harmonica, drums and oboe. He tinkered with the mechanics of old electric motors, clocks, and even built trains and cranes with remote control. “The inventor’s life was the life for me, that is, until I started making drawings for the school paper,” he said in an early interview. The Hamilton High School graduate won a scholarship to the Vesper George Art School in Boston, which closed in 1984 While living in Boston, McCloskey often fed the ducks while walking through the city’s Public Gardens on the way to art school; but the young idealist’s mind was full of Greek mythology, Oriental dragons and the classic building blocks of art education. McCloskey’s urban encounters with mallard ducks, much like other early experiences, would come to life again when he became a children’s book author. His second and perhaps best-known book, Make Way for Ducklings, won the prestigious Caldecott Medal in 1942. In the story, a mother duck searches the streets of Boston for a safe place to raise her young. McCloskey began the book by recalling the hilarious scenes of ducks crossing grid-locked Boston streets. To illustrate the detailed movements of his characters with authenticity, McCloskey bought a half dozen southern mallards at a city market from a poultry dealer. He spent the next few weeks crawling around his studio, sketching the ducks and cleaning up their droppings. McCloskey put them in a bathtub to sketch their swimming movements. And when they waddled too fast for him to draw, McCloskey fed the ducks red wine to slow them down. Evident from the richly detailed charcoal illustrations, McCloskey returned to Boson to sketch the book’s background alive with parks, bridges, fences, streets, people, and cars. Other Books written and illustrated by Robert McCloskey include Lentil, Homer Price, Blueberries For Sal, Centerburg Tales, One Morning in Maine, Time of Wonder,and Burt Dow: Deep Water Man. Other Resources: Horn Book Obituary and Tribute – Anita Silvey Ohioana Author Page dedicated to Mr. McCloskey
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