Wednesday, October 11, 2023

A Few Details About Ed Young, Artist, Illustrator and Caldecott Medal Recipient


Ed Aite Young was born on November 28, 1931, in Tianjin (also known as Tientsin), China. The birth information is from Major Authors and Illustrators for Children and Young Adults, Volume 6 (1993). When Young was naturalized on March 28, 1966, his middle name was recorded on a number of naturalization documents.


Young’s parents were Qua-ling Young (1891–19971) and Yuen Tang (or Sai Yun Tang, 1904–2008). A family tree at Ancestry.com, said Young’s family moved in 1934 from Tianjin to Shanghai. In 1949 the Communist takeover of Shanghai caused the family to move to Hong Kong.

On November 24, 1951, four days before his 20th birthday, Young (line 12) was aboard the steamship President Cleveland when it departed from Hong Kong. He arrived at the port of San Francisco, California on December 11, 1951. 


The family tree said he spent several weeks with the family of Z.P. Tang. 

Young’s education began at City College of San Francisco in 1952. He transferred to the University of Illinois where he studied architecture from 1952 to 1954. At Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles, California, Young earned a Bachelor of Professional Arts in 1957. Later that year he moved to New York City. Young did graduate study at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, from 1958 to 1959. He was an instructor in visual communication at Pratt from 1960 to 1966. 

From 1957 to 1962, Young was an illustrator and designer at the Mel Richman Studio in Manhattan. He left the studio to pursue freelance work. Young illustrated Janice M. Udry’s The Mean Mouse and Other Mean Stories (“The Mean Party”, “The Mean Rabbit”, “The Mean Dwarf”, “The Mean Blackbird”, “The Mean Horse”, “The Mean Mouse”, “The Mean Tiger”, “The Mean Dragon”, “The Mean Troll”, “The Mean Giant”, “The Mean Witch”) which was published by Harper in 1962. The Mean Mouse was recognized by the American Institute of Graphics Arts

The first of nearly 100 books.

In Chinatown, Young studied tai chi with Cheng Man-ch’ing in 1961.

In 1962, Young and Mary McLaughlin obtained, in Manhattan, marriage license number 5962. The family tree said the marriage date was on April 7. They divorced in 1969. Young and Natasha Gorky were married in Westminster, London in June 1971 according to the family tree. In 1985 Young married Filomena Tuosto (1952–2007). 

Young used the pseudonym Yang Zhr Cheng on the 1988 book, China’s Long March: 6,000 Miles of Danger. (Maps drawn by Jeanyee Wong.) 


Young won the 1990 Caldecott Medal for Lon Po Po. Art from the book appeared on the 1991 Caldecott Calendar cover, artist page and month of July.




Young passed away on September 29, 2023, at his home in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York. 


Further Reading and Viewing
Library of Congress, Ed Young video

Jane Yolen
Pictures by Ed Young
Putnam, 1967

Kermit Krueger
Pictures by Ed Young
World Publishing Company, 1969

Mel Evans
Watercolors by Ed Young
Doubleday, 1969

Diane Wolkstein
Illustrated by Ed Young
Doubleday, 1972

Feenie Ziner
Illustrated by Ed Young
Doubleday, 1977

Diane Wolkstein
Illustrated by Ed Young
Thomas Y. Crowell, 1977

Ed Young with Hilary Beckett
Illustrated by Ed Young
Collins + World, 1978

Ed Young
Collins, 1978

Pictures by Ed Young
Doubleday, 1979

Diane Wolkstein
Illustrated by Ed Young
Thomas Y. Crowell, 1979

Ed Young
Collins + World, 1980

Priscilla Jaquith
Drawings by Ed Young
Philomel Books, 1981

Ai-Ling Louie
Illustrated by Ed Young
Philomel Books, 1982

Jean Fritz
Illustrations by Ed Young
Putnam, 1983

Ed Young
Harper & Row, 1984

Margaret Leaf
Illustrated by Ed Young
Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Books, 1987

James Howe
Illustrated by Ed Young 
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1987

Tony Johnston
Illustrated by Ed Young
G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1987
Calligraphy by Jeanyee Wong

Howard Norman
Art by Ed Young
Joy Street Books, 1987

Robert Frost
Illustrated by Ed Young
Henry Holt, 1988

Nancy Larrick
Drawings by Ed Young
Philomel Books, 1988

Jean Fritz
Illustrated by Yang Zhr Cheng [Ed Young]
Maps by Jeanyee Wong
Putnam, 1988

Richard Lewis
Illustrated by Ed Young
Atheneum, 1988

Phyllis Root
Art by Ed Young
Henry Holt, 1988

Ruth Yaffe Radin
Illustrated by Ed Young
Macmillan, 1989

Ed Young
Philomel Books, 1989

Illustrated by Ed Young
Simon and Schuster, 1989

Lafcadio Hearn, Margaret Hodges
Illustrated by Ed Young
Calligraphy by Jeanyee Wong
Little, Brown, 1989

Richard Lewis
Art by Ed Young 
Atheneum, 1991

Nancy White Carlstrom
Illustrated by Ed Young
Philomel Books, 1991

Audrey Osofsky
Illustrated by Ed Young
Orchard Books, 1992

Barbara Savadge Horton
Illustrated by Ed Young
Knopf, 1992

Mary Calhoun
Art by Ed Young 
Morrow Junior Books, 1992

Laura Krauss Melmed
Illustrated by Ed Young
Lothrop, Lee & Shepard, 1993

Adapted and illustrated by Ed Young
HarperCollins, 1993

Ed Young
Philomel Books, 1993

Eleanor Coerr
Illustrated by Ed Young
Putnam, 1993

Ed Young 
Philomel Books, 1994

Ed Young
Henry Holt, 1995

Ed Young
Philomel Books, 1995

Penny Pollock
Illustrated by Ed Young
Little, Brown, 1995

Art by Ed Young
Laura Geringer Book, 1997

Ed Young
Silver Whistle, 1997

Ed Young
Harcourt Brace, 1998

Tony Johnston
Illustrated by Ed Young
Sierra Club Books for Children, 2000

Ed Young
HarperCollins Publishers, 2001

Ed Young
Puffin Books, 2002

Ed Young
Philomel Books, 2002

Ed Young
Philomel Books, 2004

Ed Young
Atheneum Books, 2004

Andrea Cheng
Drawings by Ed Young
Lee & Low Books, 2005

Ed Young
Philomel Books, 2006

Dennis Haseley
Illustrated by Ed Young
Roaring Brook Press, 2008

Brenda Z. Guiberson
Illustrated by Ed Young 
Henry Holt, 2010

Ed Young
Little, Brown and Co., 2011

Ashley Ramsden
Illustrations by Ed Young
Roaring Brook Press, 2011

Barbara DaCosta
Art by Ed Young
Little, Brown, 2012

Ed Young
Little, Brown and Company, 2015

Ed Young
Philomel Books, 2016


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