Lent, Blair (1930-2009), was an American author and illustrator of children’s books. Much of Lent’s work reflects his interest in folklore. He won the 1973 Caldecott Medal for his illustrations for The Funny Little Woman (1972), a Japanese folk tale adapted by the American librarian Arlene Mosel. The Caldecott Medal is awarded annually to the most distinguished picture book by an American. Lent also illustrated another Mosel book, Tikki Tikki Tembo (1968), a retelling of a Chinese folk tale.
Lent worked in a variety of media, including pen-and-ink line drawings and full-color acrylic paintings. He also made prints from cutout cardboard. Lent’s illustrations for The Beastly Feast (1998), written by the American children’s author Bruce Goldstone, combine printed designs cut from cardboard and linoleum with handmade colored paper.
Lent illustrated several of his own children’s books, including Pistachio (1964), John Tabor’s Ride (1966), Bayberry Bluff (1984), Molasses Flood (1992), and Ruby and Fred (2000). He illustrated the Russian folk tale Baba Yaga (1966) under his own name but wrote it under the name of Ernest Small.
Lent was born on Jan. 22, 1930, in Boston. He studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, graduating in 1953. Lent won an art scholarship from the museum to study in Switzerland and Italy in 1953 and 1954. He worked as a creative designer for a Boston advertising agency from 1956 to 1961. During that time, he was also a painter and printmaker. Lent became a full-time author and illustrator in 1961. He won another art scholarship in the late 1960’s to tour what at that time was the Soviet Union (now Russia). The landscape and architecture he saw during his tour strongly influenced his work. Lent died on Jan. 27, 2009.
