Most readers meet a book’s words and pictures as though they came from one mind, even when they didn’t. Some writers, though, picked up the pencil or brush themselves and handled both jobs. The results often carry a particular coherence, since the same person decided what the sentence says and what the page shows.
The six below span roughly a century and a very wide range of styles. Each one is a well documented case of an author who drew for their own work.
Beatrix Potter
Potter wrote and illustrated The Tale of Peter Rabbit, which began as a picture letter in 1893 to the child of a former governess. After publishers turned it down, she privately printed it in 1901, and Frederick Warne and Company issued a trade edition in 1902. Her watercolors drew on close observation of animals and the countryside.
She went on to produce more than twenty small format tales, designed to suit little hands. Her careful natural history studies, including work on fungi, fed the accuracy you can see in her animals and plants. The books remain in print, and the originals are cared for by institutions in Britain.
Dr. Seuss
Theodor Seuss Geisel wrote under the name Dr. Seuss and drew every book himself. His first children’s book, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, appeared in 1937. Before that, he worked as a cartoonist and advertising artist, which shaped his loose, bendy line.
The Cat in the Hat followed in 1957 and used a deliberately limited vocabulary. His distinctive creatures and tilting architecture are unmistakable, and nobody else could have drawn them the same way. The Seuss estate still manages his legacy, and the books continue to sell worldwide.
Maurice Sendak
Sendak illustrated many authors’ books, but he wrote and drew Where the Wild Things Are himself, published in 1963. The book won the Caldecott Medal in 1964. Its cross hatched ink and watercolor art grew in size across the pages as the story’s wildness built.
That layout choice is a good example of text and image working as one design. The picture margins shrink and then expand, and a few pages carry no words at all. He later completed companion titles, In the Night Kitchen and Outside Over There, which form a loose trilogy.
J. R. R. Tolkien
Tolkien is known for his prose, but he drew as well. He illustrated The Hobbit, first published in 1937, with ink drawings, maps, and the runic map of Thror. He also painted watercolors for the story, such as scenes of Smaug and Rivendell.
Some of this art appeared in the first editions, while later editions added more. The Bodleian Library in Oxford holds much of his original work. His 2011 book, The Art of The Hobbit, collected these pieces for readers who wanted to see them.
Shaun Tan
Tan, an Australian author and illustrator, created The Arrival, a wordless graphic novel published in 2006. It follows a migrant arriving in a strange new city, told entirely through detailed pencil drawings. The book earned wide critical praise and has been translated into many languages.
In 2011, he won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film for The Lost Thing, adapted from his own picture book. He also received the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award in 2011. His work shows that an author’s illustration can carry a story without any text.
Quentin Blake
Blake is best known for illustrating Roald Dahl, yet he also wrote and drew his own titles, such as Mister Magnolia, published in 1980. That book won the Kate Greenaway Medal. His scratchy, energetic pen lines gave his characters a lively, slightly untidy look.
He served as the first Children’s Laureate in the United Kingdom, from 1999 to 2001. In 2013, he was knighted for services to illustration. He kept making his own picture books for decades alongside his collaborations.
