Richard Scarry author page

Richard Scarry biography

Richard Scarry was a children’s author and illustrator who was born in 1919 and died in 1994. He was raised and educated in Boston, Massachusetts, then spent five years drawing maps and designing graphics for the US Army before moving to New York to work in commercial art.

Scarry’s early assignments for Golden Books included Little Golden Books featuring characters such as Winky Dink, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Smokey the Bear. He later created his own characters, including Lowly Worm and Huckle Cat; Nicholas, a rabbit in red overalls, appeared in I Am a Bunny.

Scarry illustrated more than 150 books during his career. His work focused closely on the words, objects and concepts of early childhood, and Richard Scarry’s Best Word Book Ever uses labelled pictures to teach vocabulary, including everyday objects, letters, numbers, colours, shapes, sizes, professions and weather.

His books for young children include Richard Scarry’s Best Word Book Ever, Richard Scarry’s Best Little Word Book Ever and Richard Scarry’s Best Storybook Ever. Richard Scarry’s Best Little Word Book Ever follows Huckle Cat, Lowly Worm and Goldbug through a point-and-learn journey about words, and its hardcover edition was published by Golden Books on 1 February 2001.

Richard Scarry’s Best Word Book Ever was published by Golden Books on 1 September 1999 in a 72-page hardcover edition for children aged 3–7, and Scarry received a posthumous Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society of Illustrators in 2012.