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TASHA TUDOR
Tasha Tudor (August 28, 1915-June 18, 2008) is one of
America's most fascinating and beloved illustrators. Her
works celebrated her Victorian-era lifestyle, the holidays,
family and her love for children. Her first story, Pumpkin
Moonshine, originally written as a Christmas present for her
niece, was published in 1938. Over her lifetime, Tasha
illustrations graced the pages of nearly 100 books,
including such renowned classics as Mother Goose (1944);
Fairy Tales from Hans Christian Andersen (1945); Clement C.
Moore's The Night Before Christmas (1962); Frances H.
Burnett's Secret Garden (1962) and Little Princess (1963);
and Louisa May Alcott's Little Women (1969).
Tasha Tudor received praise and many honors for her soft
watercolor and ink illustrations that evoked the
sentimentality of a bygone era, often being compared to
British illustrator Kate Greenaway. Two of her books were
named Caldecott Honor Books: Mother Goose in 1945 and 1 is
One in 1957. Tasha's favorite of all her books was
Corgiville Fair, one of several she wrote about the Welsh
corgi dogs she kept as pets, sometimes 13 or 14 at once.
Many of her books are printed in foreign languages and
distributed around the world. She also created thousands of
Christmas cards, Advent calendars, valentines, posters, and
other works throughout her illustrious 70-year career.
Born Starling Burgess, Tasha legally changed both her names
to Tasha Tudor. A calico-clad throwback, she went barefoot,
spun flax into linen for her own clothing, raised Nubian
goats for their milk, made her own tea and lived out her
days in a replica of a late 18th-century New England
farmhouse, replete with antique utensils and tiny windows.
Books, videotapes, magazine articles and television shows
illuminated her gardening and housekeeping ideas.
She was born in Boston to well-respected parents. Her
mother, Rosamond Tudor, was a portrait painter, and her
father, William Starling Burgess, was a yacht and airplane
designer who collaborated with Buckminster Fuller. She was
originally nicknamed "Natasha" by her father, after
Tolstoy's heroine in War and Peace. This was shortened to
Tasha. After her parents divorced when she was 9, she
adopted her mother's last name. Tasha quit school after
eighth grade, married twice and raised her children, part of
the time as a single mother. Royalties from her illustrated
edition of Mother Goose helped her buy a rambling 17-room
Webster, New Hampshire farmhouse, where the family lived
with no television, no radio, and no electricity, only oil
lamps.
As a young child, Tudor was exposed to the illustrations of
Walter Crane, Randolph Caldecott, and Beatrix Potter. Her
decision to become an illustrator came when her mother gave
her a copy of The Vicar of Wakefield, illustrated by Hugh
Thompson. Tasha drew her life around her, her country home,
her children, the animals-both wild and domestic-and the
plants and vegetation outside her door.
Tasha's style resembled her 19th century lifestyle. Her
studio was her kitchen table where she sat, balancing her
work in her lap. In the words of Tasha Tudor herself,
"Motivation was the wolf at the door and four small children
to raise and educate. I draw almost entirely from my
surroundings-the children are either mine or my
grandchildren and the animals are all the animals I own or
have had the privilege of caring for. Everyone who likes my
illustrations says, 'Oh, you must be so enthralled with your
creativity.' That's nonsense. I'm a commercial artist, and
I've done my books because I needed to earn my living."
In 1972, Tasha sold the old New Hampshire farm and moved
near her son Seth in Marlboro, Vermont, where he built her a
new 'old house' of her own design, completely by hand,
unreachable by car. Her Vermont home, though only 30 years
old, feels as though it was built in the 1830's. While her
'new' house had electricity, it did not have running water.
Tasha died in 2008. She lived to the ripe old age of 92. In
addition to her son Seth, Tasha is survived by her daughters
Bethany Tudor and Efner Tudor Holmes; son Thomas; eight
grandchildren; four step-grandchildren; three
great-grandchildren; and her half-sister Ann. The family of
Tasha Tudor continues her legacy to this day. |
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