Sheilah Beckett (1913-2013) brought to life dozens of stories for Golden Books in her long career as an illustrator, including The Nutcracker (which she illustrated at age 99), The Twelve Days of Christmas, The Twelve Dancing Princesses, and Snow White and Rose Red. She was an American illustrator, known for her work on the Little Golden Books series, and lived to be 100 years old doing what she loved.
"Sheilah never attended art school... she is entirely self-taught. She began working immediately when she graduated from high school. Her first job was creating advertising artwork for a Portland area department store. From there she quickly moved on to Los Angeles and landed a contract to illustrate a series of Gilbert & Sullivan books." - as quoted by leifpeng
Sheilah Beckett's most popular book is "The Twelve Days of Christmas" (Little Golden Book) - Amazon.
When television became popular, there wasn’t as much illustration happening as before. This led to the loss in business of the Charles E. Cooper Studio. She had steady assignments with Necco Wafers and Whitman's Chocolates but preferred illustrating children's books and Christmas cards. One of her longest running clients was the American Artist Group greeting cards. - Wiki
The Twelve Dancing Princesses #194 (1954)
Rapunzel (Classic Fable) #207-57 (1991)
My Christmas Book #298 (1957)
Twelve Days of Christmas
Photo courtesy of her son, Sean Smith
via her Facebook Dedication page.
Born: September 5, 1913, Vancouver, Canada
Died: November 17, 2013 (age 100 years), Ossining, NY.
Learn More...
Love for Books lists a few of the 70 books Sheilah has illustrated and shows several more examples of her artwork.Sheilah Beckett: A Fairy Tale Career"— The one constant of Sheilah Beckett's varied career was her tremendous love for creating fairy tale pictures and children's stories." FemaleIllustrators
Illustration History - Norman Rockwell Museum
Todays Inspiration - In Memory of Sheilah Beckett. Focuses on her Twelve Days of Christmas illustrations
Sheilah Beckett (1913-2013) A Fairy Tale Career - Enid Blyton Society
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