Tasha Tudor, a children's book illustrator and author whose delicate and dreamy artwork was featured in about 80 books, including a 1944 edition of "Mother Goose" that was so successful it enabled her to buy a farm and create a lifestyle rooted in the early 19th century, has died. She was 92.
Ms. Tudor died Wednesday of complications related to old age at her home in Marlboro, Vt., her family announced.
Long admired for their charm, her books were filled with sentimental yet realistic illustrations of quaint New England settings, intricate floral borders and often barefoot children whose clothes reflected the 1830s, her favorite time period.
After publishing her first book, "Pumpkin Moonshine" in 1938, Ms. Tudor illustrated a number of childhood classics, including 1962 editions of "The Secret Garden" and "The Night Before Christmas." Her final book, "Corgiville Christmas," published in 2003, reflected her passion for the Welsh Corgi dogs she surrounded herself with and also featured in the book that was her favorite -- "Corgiville Fair" (1971).
Twice, she was a runner-up for the Caldecott Medal, in 1945 for her artwork in "Mother Goose" and in 1957 for "1 is One," her book of verse.
With the royalties from "Mother Goose," Ms. Tudor purchased a house from the 1790s in New Hampshire that had no electricity or running water. On 450 acres, she raised four children, who sometimes posed for illustrations in period garb.
Her chosen lifestyle came from "nostalgia for a day and time that was more peaceful and slow," Ms. Tudor told the Chicago Tribune in 1991. When she went to town, her children "were very careful to walk a good 10 or 12 feet behind me so that they wouldn't be associated with ... a rather different-looking woman."
She credited the commercialism of her art to the need to earn a living after divorcing her husband, Thomas L. McCready. An author and suburbanite, he was not cut out for such a rural existence.
The nearly 40 books she illustrated for others often featured popular fairy tales, nursery rhymes, prayers and scripture. Her artwork also appeared in books written by either her husband or a daughter, Efner.
Reviewers often praised the 44 books Ms. Tudor wrote and illustrated for evoking the beauty and ideals of an era long past. Often working in watercolor and pen and ink, she showed an appreciation for family life, animals and nature. Painting at her kitchen table, she wore handmade, ankle-length dresses.
She grew most of what she ate, kept a menagerie of animals, and spun and wove flax into fabrics. Her main concessions to modern convenience were telephone and a car.
In the early 1990s, Ms. Tudor announced she was going to quit making public appearances, partly because it was hard to find someone who could watch the house and knew how to milk a goat.
She was born Starling Burgess on Aug. 28, 1915, in Boston, the daughter of yacht designer William Starling Burgess and portrait painter Rosamond Tudor.
Her father called her Natasha, after a favorite literary heroine. She eventually legally changed her name to Tasha Tudor.
First Published: June 23, 2008, 4:00 a.m.
