My Uncle Ed the illustrator

A Little Golden book by my Uncle Ed

 I discovered online, entirely by accident, that my Uncle Ed had illustrated a little golden book that I'd never seen before - Captain Kangaroo and the Panda.

And a few weeks later it arrived. My Uncle, Edwin Schmidt, was an illustrator who lived outside Philadelphia back in the 50's and 60's. He was my hero. I used to see his name in print in various books and I'd think he was famous. He always sent the best Christmas presents. He went to the Museum School in Philadelphia and he lived in Valley Forge.

I recently did a panda book too.

My Uncle Ed's wife was a painter too - she was also a model and covergirl on some magazines. She moved to Camden Maine later. I did get to meet her when I was living in NYC. She was sooo thrilled that I had succeeded an illustrator.

I only met Ed once, for an afternoon when I was in high school. But it made a lasting memory.  Sadly, neither of them lived to the age of 50.

It's ironic that I recently did a panda book too. I was thrilled to see that both my Uncle Ed and I were listed in the Little Golden Book 50th Anniversary directory that came out a while back.