osemary Wells was born in New York City and grew up on the New Jersey Shore. Most of her childhood was spent outdoors at a time when New Jersey was still small farms and miles of woods. Her mother was a dancer in the Russian Ballet, and her father a playwright and actor. Mrs. Wells says,"Both my parents flooded me with books and stories. My grandmother took me on special trips to the theater and museums in New York.

When I was two years old I began to draw and they saw right away the career that lay ahead of me and encouraged me every day of my life. As far back as I can remember, I did nothing but draw."

Rosemary Wells attended Boston Museum School and married in her early twenties. She began her career in children's books working as a designer at Macmillan in New York, and it was there that she published her first book, an illustrated edition of Gilbert & Sullivan's I Have a Song to Sing-O.

Rosemary Wells's career as an author and illustrator spans more than 30 years and 60 books. She has won numerous awards, and has given readers such unforgettable characters as Max and Ruby, Noisy Nora, and Yoko. She has also given Mother Goose new life in two enormous, definitive editions, published by Candlewick; the second is due to be published in fall 1999.

Many times when speaking, Mrs. Wells is asked where her ideas come from. She usually answers, "It's a writer's job to have ideas." Sometimes an idea comes from something she reads or hears about, as in the case of her recent book, Mary on Horseback, a story based on the life of Mary Breckenridge, who founded the Frontier Nursing Service. But more often, books appear from everyday incidents in her life. She says, "Authors are accomplished eavesdroppers, and have wonderful selective memory." Timothy Goes to School, for example was based on an incident in which her daughter was teased for wearing the wrong clothes to a Christmas concert. Her dogs, west highland terriers, Lucy and Snowy, work their way into her drawings in expression and body position.

Mrs. Wells says, "Most of my books use animals rather than children as characters. People always ask why. There are many reasons. First, I draw animals more easily and amusingly than I do children. Animals are broader in range--age, time, and place--than children are. They also can do things in pictures that children cannot. They can be slapstick and still real, rough and still funny, maudlin and still touching.

In Benjamin and Tulip, Tulip falls out of a tree and mashes Benjamin in the mud. If these pictures were of children, they would be too close to violent reality for comfort, and all the humor would be lost."

Max and Ruby^tm and all illustrations ©1999 Rosemary Wells. All rights reserved.