Lydia Freeman
(1906 - 1998)
Lydia Cooley Freeman (1906 - 1998) was the wife of the children’s book author and graphic artist Don Freeman. Lydia co-authored several of Don’s children’s books (Chuggy and the Blue Caboose, Pet of the Met) and illustrated two children’s books (Onion Journey by Julia Cunningham, and Wind in My Hand by Hanako Fukuda).
Lydia was a fine oil and watercolor artist on her own. She began her art studies at the University of California at Los Angeles and continued them at the Art Students League where she studied with John Sloan in the early 1930’s. In fact, Don considered Lydia to be the better artist of the two! Her work has been exhibited at New York’s Whitney Museum of American Art and at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art as a one-(wo)man show.
Bibliography
Best in Children’s Books Volume 35 (1960)
An anthology of stories, poems and articles, some of which have new illustrations.
Read online at archive.org.
Margery Williams Bianco
Beverly Cleary
Lydia Freeman
Gladys Schwarcz
Et al
Maurice Sendak
Edward Shenton
Et al
Pet of the Met (1953)
A mouse who works as a page turner at the Metropolitan Opera House has only one enemy: a cat. But during a performance of "The Magic Flute," something magical happens to change their lives.
Lydia Freeman
Lydia Freeman