Around the World in 80 Picture Books

Join renowned historian Leonard Marcus and journalist Eve Kahn in conversation about his recently published book Pictured Worlds.  In this wide-ranging illustrated talk Leonard will share some of his favorite discoveries about the first books we know in life and how the genre of the illustrated children’s book developed and flourished around the world across nearly 300 years.

Books will be available for purchase in the SI Museum Shop.

$15 general, $10 members, $7 students and seniors

Photo credit: Sonya Sones

Leonard Marcus is one of the world’s leading writers about children’s books and the people who create them.  He has more than 25 award-winning books including Margaret Wise Brown: Awakened by the Moon; Dear Genius: The Letters of Ursula Nordstrom; You Can’t Say That!; and most recently Pictured Worlds: Masterpieces of Children’s Book Art by 101 Essential Illustrators from Around the World. Leonard is a founding trustee of the Eric Carle Museum and was the curator of the NY Public Library’s landmark exhibition “The ABC of It: Why Children’s Books Matter.” He lives in Brooklyn and speaks about his work to audiences across the world. Visit his website: leonardmarcus.com.

Eve M. Kahn, former weekly Antiques columnist for The New York Times, is an independent scholar specializing in art and architectural history, design, and preservation. She contributes regularly to the Times, The Magazine Antiques, and Apollo magazine, and she serves on the boards of scholarly institutions including the Grolier Club, CUNY’s Women Writing Women’s Lives, and the Victorian Society’s New York chapter. Her 2019 biography of the painter Mary Rogers Williams (1857-1907) from Wesleyan University Press won prizes from groups including the Connecticut League of History Organizations. Her biography under contract for Fordham University Press is provisionally titled Queen of Bohemia Predicts Own Death: The Forgotten Journalist Zoe Anderson Norris, 1860-1914.

Photo credit: Katherine Lanza