Thacher Hurd

John Thacher Hurd (born March 6, 1949)[1] is an American artist and the creator of children's picture books including Mama Don't Allow and Art Dog.[2]

Thacher Hurd
Born (1949-03-06) March 6, 1949
Burlington, Vermont, U.S.
Alma materCalifornia College of Arts and Crafts
Occupations
  • Children's book author
  • painter
Notable work
  • Mama Don't Allow
  • Art Dog
SpouseOlivia
Children2
Parents

Biography

Thacher Hurd was born in Burlington, Vermont,[1] the son of children's book creators Clement Hurd and Edith Thacher Hurd. He has referred in an interview to the "wonderful aura of creativity" surrounding his father and the Vermont farm that was their home.[3]

Margaret Wise Brown's 1949 My World is dedicated to the recently born Thacher by Brown. (The original dedication "to Hiram Hurd" was altered just before press to read "to John Thacher Hurd when he comes (he's here)".)[4]

After attending the California College of Arts and Crafts,[5] he turned his talents to picture books. His first book was The Old Chair, published in 1978.

In 2001, Hurd re-colored the re-issued edition of My World, by Margaret Wise Brown and Thacher's father Clement Hurd.[6] In 2008, he used his father's artwork from Goodnight Moon to produce Goodnight Moon 123: A Counting Book. Hurd's work, as well as that of his father and mother, was featured at the Stamford Museum & Nature Center in the 2004 exhibition "From Goodnight Moon to Art Dog: The World of Clement, Edith and Thatcher Hurd."

In 2012, Hurd's book Zoom City inspired the name of the American technology company Zoom Video Communications.[7]

Hurd and his wife, Olivia, live in Berkeley, California.[8] They have two sons, Manton and Nicholas.

Books
  • The Old Chair (Greenwillow Books, 1978)
  • The Quiet Evening (Greenwillow Books, 1978)
  • Hobo Dog (Scholastic, 1980)
  • Axle the Freeway Cat (Harper & Row, 1981)
  • Hobo Dog's Christmas Tree (Scholastic, 1983)
  • Mystery on the Docks (Harper & Row, 1983)
  • Hobo Dog in the Ghost Town (Scholastic, 1985)
  • Mama Don't Allow (Reading Rainbow Books, 1984)
  • The Pea Patch Jig (Crown, 1986)
  • Blackberry Ramble (Crown, 1989)
  • Tomato Soup (Crown, 1992)
  • Watercolor for the Artistically Undiscovered (Klutz Press, 1992) — with John Cassidy
  • Art Dog (HarperCollins, 1996)
  • Santa Mouse and the Ratdeer (HarperCollins, 1998)
  • Little Mouse's Birthday Cake (HarperCollins, 1992)
  • Zoom City (HarperCollins, 1998)
  • Cat's Pajamas (HarperFestival, 2001)
  • Moo Cow Kaboom! (HarperCollins, 2003)
  • Sleepy Cadillac: A Bedtime Drive (HarperCollins, 2005)
  • Bad Frogs (Candlewick Press, 2009)
  • The Weaver (Farrar Straus Giroux, 2010) — with Elisa Kleven
  • Bongo Fishing (Henry Holt & Co., 2011)

References
  1. Princeton Alumni Weekly. Vol. 49. 1948. p. 16.
  2. MacPherson, Karen (January 21, 1998). "Hurd's zany, colorful children's books zoom to prominence". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved 2010-03-07.
  3. Leonard S. Marcus (1997). "Meet Clement Hurd". Enter the World of Margaret Wise Brown. HarperCollins Children's. Retrieved 2014-10-01. Apparently citing Marcus's book, Dear Genius, The Letters of Ursula Nordstrom.
  4. Hurd, Clement. "Remembering Margaret Wise Brown." Horn Book Magazine Vol 59(5). Oct 1983. 553 - 560. 558.
  5. Koehler-Pentacoff, Elizabeth (2003). The ABC's of Writing for Children. Quill Driver Books. p. 130. ISBN 9781884956287.
  6. Review of My World.'" Publishers Weekly (2001).
  7. Loeb, Steven (26 March 2020). "When Zoom was young: the early years". VatorNews. Retrieved 7 September 2020.
  8. "Changing how kids play at Berkeley's Peaceable Kingdom". Berkeleyside. August 20, 2013. Retrieved April 5, 2015.
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