Lillian Hoban (May 18, 1925 – July 17, 1998) was a children's writer and illustrator.
Born Lillian Aberman in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1925, the youngest of three siblings, she attended the Philadelphia Museum School of Art, studied dance for ten years and danced with the Martha Graham troupe, taught Modern Dance and danced professionally in the 1950s. She was married to writer Russell Hoban for thirty years, from 1945 to 1975. She learned to draw still life and began to write her own stories only after having four children of her own. She based her tales on their experiences.
Her "I-Can-Read" books about Arthur the chimpanzee and his little sister Violet, and the Frances the Badger books (illustrated by Hoban but written by her then-husband Russell; the couple later divorced) continue to be extremely popular among children as time goes by, widely considered to be classics. Charlie the Tramp, about a wayward young beaver and his family, is out of print.
Hoban illustrated the Riverside Kids series including Russell Rides Again, Elisa In The Middle, Superduper Teddy, and Busybody Nora. The last Riverside Kids book she illustrated is Ever-Clever Elisa.
Read more about Lillian Hoban: Death
Famous quotes containing the words lillian and/or hoban:
“For me, it’s enough! They’ve been here long enough—maybe too long. It’s a funny thing, though. All these years Fred was too busy to have much time for the kids, now he’s the one who’s depressed because they’re leaving. He’s really having trouble letting go. He wants to gather them around and keep them right here in this house.”
—Anonymous Parent. As quoted in Women of a Certain Age, by Lillian B. Rubin, ch. 2 (1979)
“After all, when you come right down to it, how many people speak the same language even when they speak the same language?”
—Russell Hoban (b. 1925)