Western Daily Press (Saturday)
Acclaimed American children’s illustrator
AWARD-WINNING US children’s book author and illustrator Floyd Cooper has died aged 65.
Cooper’s mission to offer candid and positive images of black history included subjects ranging from Frederick Douglass and the civil rights movement to Venus and Serena Williams.
Author Carole Boston Weatherford, whose Becoming Billie Holiday and Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre were illustrated by Cooper, said he had died after being ill with cancer for several months.
“His cinematic illustrations brought stories to life and held readers close,” Weatherford said.
“A devoted family man and genuine friend, Floyd was a gifted illustrator and truth-teller. His legacy will continue to enlighten and to inspire for generations to come.”
Cooper was a Tulsa, Oklahoma, native who drew upon his grandfather’s memories in illustrating Weatherford’s book on the 1921 tragedy.
He grew up poor, and spoke of moving around so often in Tulsa that he attended 11 different elementary schools.
But he showed an early gift for drawing and received a scholarship to attend the University of Oklahoma.
After working on greeting cards for the Hallmark company in Kansas City, he moved to New York City and illustrated his first published book, Eloise Greenfield’s Grandpa’s Face, which came out in 1988.
He later settled in Easton, Pennsylvania, with his wife and agent, Velma, and two sons.
He illustrated dozens of books and his work on Joyce Carol Thomas’s
The Blacker the Berry brought him the Coretta Scott King Award in 2009 for achievement by a black illustrator.
He also collaborated with such top authors as Weatherford, Nikki Grimes, Walter Dean Myers, Jacqueline Woodson and Howard Bryant, whose Sisters & Champions, about the Williams sisters, was illustrated by Cooper.
“Floyd was a wonderful artist and a fantastic collaborator,” Bryant said.
“I remember when I first received his initial pages for Sisters & Champions I was just blown away. For my first children’s book, I was so proud to share a project with him and really looked forward to doing so again. This is an enormous loss.”
Cooper prided himself on the bold, dramatic images he produced through what he called “oil erasure,” a style dating back to his childhood for which he used an eraser to form shapes on a canvas.
When taking on a book, he would read the manuscript over and over until pictures began to appear in his mind.