Wendell Minor

Wendell Minor is nationally known for the artwork he has created for over fifty award-winning children’s books. His many collaborators include Jean Craighead George, Robert Burleigh, Buzz Aldrin, Tony Johnston, Mary Higgins Clark, and last but not least, his wife Florence. In 2009, Wendell and Florence’s If You Were a Penguin was chosen by Pennsylvania for their “One Book, Every Young Child” 2009 early literacy program, and they enjoyed the month they spent speaking to children in Pennsylvania’s libraries, schools, Head Start facilities, and Museums.

Wendell is also the cover artist and designer of over two thousand books for authors Pat Conroy, David McCullough, Fannie Flagg, and Nathaniel Philbrick, among many others. His portrait Truman for the cover of David McCullough’s book is in the permanent collection of the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC.

Following a productive and fulfilling career as a documentary film editor for ABC News in New York, Florence was happy to find a second, and equally fulfilling, career in publishing after she and Wendell moved to Connecticut. Her first project was co-editing a twenty-five year retrospective of Wendell’s book cover art, Wendell Minor: Art for the Written Word, while also handling the business aspects of the Minor art studio. In keeping with her lifelong love of reading and writing, and her interest in editing, the timing was perfect to begin collaborating with Wendell to create books that entertain, teach, and inspire children.

In 2013, Wendell and Florence were given the New England Independent Booksellers Association (NEIBA) President’s Award for lifetime achievement in arts and letters, and in April of 2015 they were honred at The Associates of the Boston Public Library’s 27th annual Literary Lights Dinner, which recognizes outstanding writers from the Northeast for their inspiring work.

Among the awards Wendell’s books have garnered is the Cook Prize, honoring the best science, technology, engineering and math picture book for children aged eight to ten, and the Parents’ Choice Foundation’s Silver Honor. His books have also been included on the list of Notable Children’s Trade Books in Social Studies, the ALA Booklist Children’s Choices, the International Reading Association Teacher’s Choices, the Smithsonian’s Notable Books for Children, the John Burroughs List of Nature Books For Young Readers, Bank Street College of Education’s Best Children’s Books of the Year and Publishers Weekly’s Best Books of the Year.

Wendell’s paintings have been exhibited widely throughout the country in various venues. An exhibition of 25 years of his children’s book art, Wendell Minor’s America, was on display at the Norman Rockwell Museum from November 2013 through May 2014 before traveling to other locations. A book featuring the art was published in conjunction with the exhibit, and is available through the Norman Rockwell Museum.

In 1988, Wendell was chosen as one of a six member team commissioned by NASA to document the shuttle Discovery’s return to flight. He has created paintings for Chicago’s Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum and the U.S. Postal Service.

As President of the Society of Illustrators from 1989-1991, Wendell considers one of his most important contributions the organization of an international exhibition, and the subsequent publication of the book of the same name, entitled Art for Survival: The Illustrator and the Environment. He is Trustee Emeritus of the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, is a member of the Low Illustration Committee at the New Britain Museum of American Art, and served on the Advisory Council for the Connecticut Center for the Book. Wendell received an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Aurora University in Illinois in 2004, and one from the University of Connecticut in 2010.

Wendell lectures at schools and universities across the country, frequently on environmental themes, and his books which have been featured on the PBS-TV program Reading Rainbow are used in classrooms throughout the country.

Related Exhibitions: Wendell Minor: In the American Tradition (2006)

1. National Children’s Book and Literacy Alliance. “Wendell Minor.” Our White House: Looking In, Looking Out. Accessed June 27, 2024. https://ourwhitehouse.org/wendell-minor/