Steig, William

▪ 2004

      American cartoonist and writer (b. Nov. 14, 1907, Brooklyn, N.Y.—d. Oct. 3, 2003, Boston, Mass.), over a period of more than 60 years, created over 1,600 drawings and 117 covers for The New Yorker magazine and became known as the “king of cartoons.” At the age of 60, he also branched out into writing and illustrating children's books, one of which—Shrek! (1990)—was made into a film (2001) that became the first winner of the Academy Award for best animated feature. In 1936 Steig began creating what he called “symbolic drawings,” line drawings in which people were in some state of emotional distress. Many of these were later collected in such books as About People (1939), The Lonely Ones (1942), and All Embarrassed (1944) and were featured on greeting cards and party goods. Steig had also by that time begun drawing what became one of his most popular series—cartoons featuring worldly, no-nonsense children whose behaviour pointed out the idiosyncrasies of the world of their elders; they were collected in Small Fry (1944). Steig's first children's book, CDB!, was published in 1968. Among the more than two dozen that followed were Roland, the Minstrel Pig (1968), Caldecott Medal winner Sylvester and the Magic Pebble (1969), Christopher Award winner Dominic, his first children's novel (1972), and American Book Award winner Doctor De Soto (1982).

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