From: Elizabeth Partridge <ep>
Date: Wed, 1 Oct 2003 09:58:02 -0700

Dear CCBCers,

We've also lost Martha Weston this past month. A delightful friend, wonderful, whimsical illustrator and author, always ready to help other people in children's publishing.

children - including six new editions of the popular Curious George series of picture books - died suddenly and unexpectedly in her Fairfax, California home on Thursday, September 4.

 The cause, according to her family and the Marin County coroner's office, was heart disease. She was 56 year old, and leaves a husband and two children, aged 21 and 17.
 Weston began illustrating children's books in 1975. According to her website, www.marthaweston.com, her first was The I Hate Mathematics! Book, by Marilyn Burns, which is still in print. In 1981, she published Peony's Rainbow, the first of 11 picture books that she wrote as well as illustrated.

 In 2001, Weston was selected by publisher Houghton Mifflin to illustrate new versions of the Curious George series, the beloved series created 60 years ago by Margret and H.A. Rey about a mischievous monkey. Weston had illustrated six for the new series, including Curious George in the Big City, Curious George Takes a Train, Curious George Goes to a Costume Party, and Curious George Visits a Toy Store.

 Among the other children's book series she has illustrated are the NATE THE GREAT books by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat, published by Delacorte Press.

 In May 2003, Weston also published her first novel for children. Act I, Act II, Act Normal is a lighthearted look at children's theater, inspired by her own son Charley's experiences in middle school productions.

 Elizabeth Partridge, the Berkeley author of This Land is Your Land, a Woody Guthrie biography that was nominated for the National Book Award, is a longtime friend of Weston's and author of two books her friend illustrated.
"I think she was the most creative, visual person I've ever known,'' said Partridge. "She was an idea factory. Ideas were always popping out of Martha and she didn't care if she used her ideas or someone else did. They were out there to be drawn upon.''

 Friends remember Weston for her warmth, her joy and her laughter. Her goofy sense of humor carried over into her writing and her drawings, to the delight of young readers, and their parents.

 Partridge said that Weston was breaking new ground in her career. "It was amazing how much momentum she was gaining. She had just published her first novel, was working on her second. It was fantastic to see her fly like
 that."

 San Francisco children's book illustrator and author Ashley Wolff said that Weston attracted a large network of friends in the field, who were inspired by her creative energy and optimism. "She had enormous charisma. She was just a natural performer, and people were drawn to her,'' Wolff said.

Martha was born to Dr. Nelson and Patty Hairston in Asheville, North Carolina, on January 16, 1947. She spent most of her girlhood in Ann Arbor, Michigan. But her father is a retired epidemiologist for the World Health Organization, and during her childhood she also spent two years in Tacloban, in the Philippines, and a year and one half in Geneva Switzerland

 In her own words, from her website: "When I was a kid I spent hours drawing, usually fairies and princesses. Then, as now, I was fascinated by the pictures in books and the worlds created by them. For me, the best part of writing and illustrating is creating a world of my own -- generally a goofy one -- and feeling like I'm stepping into it.''

 Weston is survived by her husband, Richard, and son, Charley, of Fairfax; her daughter, Dory, of New York City.
Received on Wed 01 Oct 2003 11:58:02 AM CDT