Leonard Everett Fisher (b. June 24, 1924 in New York City) is an American artist who has illustrated about 260 books for young readers since 1955, authoring 90 of these. Among these is his 19 volume "Colonial American Craftsmen," "The Great Wall of China," "Cyclops," "William Tell," "Don Quixote and the Windmills," and "Blackbeard's Last Fight." He has also designed 10 United States postage stamps including 8 Bicentennial issues and the 1978 commemorative "Legend of Sleepy Hollow." He is also a noted painter. Raised in the Sea Gate section of Brooklyn, he began his formal art training with his Brooklyn-born father, Benjamin M. Fisher, a designer of naval vessels, who contributed to the construction of Simon Lake submarines in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and such US Navy fighting ships as the "USS Arizona," USS Honolulu", and the "USS North Carolina." Between 1932-1942, Leonard Everett Fisher continued his training at the Heckscher Foundation (NY), with Moses and Raphael Soyer (NY), with Reginald Marsh at the Art Students League (NY), and Serge Chermayeff at Brooklyn College. His paintings, drawings and illustrations are in the collections of the Library of Congress (DC), the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Postal History (DC), the New York Public Library (Donnell), the New Britain Museum of American Art (CT), the Butler Art Institute (OH), Mount Holyoke (MA), Bluffton (OH), and Union (NY) colleges, the Society of Illustrators Museum of American Illustration (NY), the Housatonic Museum of Art (CT), the Norwalk Transportation Authority (CT), Brown University (RI), Mazza Museum of Findlay University (OH), the universities of Connecticut, Appalachia State (NC), Oklahoma, Minnesota, Oregon, and Southern Mississippi. His art has been seen in exhibitions nationwide including those at the Brandywine River Museum, Chadds Ford (PA), the Art Institute of Chicago (IL), the Rochester Institute of Technology (NY), the Buell Museum (CO), among others. A veteran of World War II (1942-1946), he served at home and overseas with the US Army's 30th Engineer Topographic Battalion, participating in the tactical mapping of Mediterranean, European and Pacific Ocean invasions and campaigns. Following the war he attended the Yale School of Art receiving BFA and MFA degrees (1949,1950), the John Ferguson Weir Prize, and William Wirt Winchester Traveling Fellowship. In 1950 he received the Pulitzer Award for Painting. Among his other honors is the 1968 Premio Grafico Fiera Internazionale di Bologna; the 1979 Medallion of The University of Southern Mississippi; the 1991 Kerlan Award of the University of Minnesota; the 1991 Regina Medal of the Catholic Library Association; a National Jewish Book Award (1980); the Christopher Medal for Illustration (1981); and the American Library Association's 1994 Arbuthnot Citation, and Westport's (CT) Lifetime Achievement Award for the Visual Arts, among others. He serves on the advisory board of the master of fine arts program of Western Connecticut State University; is a member of the Lowe Committee of the New Britain Museum of American Art (CT); and is dean emeritus of the Paier College of Art (CT). He is a member of the Society of Illustrators (NY), P.E.N.; and the Authors Guild. In addition he is a Lifetime Member of both the Silvermine Guild of Artists (CT) and the New Haven Paint and Clay Club (CT). He lives in Westport, Connecticut with his wife, Margery, a retired school librarian, and member of New York's Bank Street College of Education's Childrens Book Committee. They are the parents of three children and the grandparents of six.
