Wendell Minor  

Wendell Minor is nationally known for the paintings he has done for the jackets of many bestselling books. He is the cover illustrator/designer for David McCullough’s books, and has created numerous covers for books by Sherman Alexie, Pat Conroy, David Herbert Donald, James A. Michener, and Doris Kearns Goodwin among others. A retrospective of twenty five years of Mr. Minor’s book cover art, Wendell Minor: Art For the Written Word was published by Harcourt. He is the illustrator of over 40 picture and chapter books for children, several of which he has also authored, in addition to collaborating with his wife Florence. 
 
Wendell researches thoroughly each environment, or period in history that he illustrates. He has traveled from the tropical Everglades of Florida to Barrow, Alaska in the Arctic Circle, and throughout the United States. His interests in nature, history, science, and landscape painting are successfully brought together in one place to create children’s books which have consistently exhibited his love for the land and environment, and celebrated inspirational historical figures as noteworthy as Abraham Lincoln, Rachel Carson, John James Audubon, Sitting Bull, and Dr. Buzz Aldrin. He has had the good fortune to work with such renowned children’s book authors as Jean Craighead George, Eve Bunting, Robert Burleigh, Ann Turner and Charlotte Zolotow. 
 
In 2003 and again in 2005 Wendell was invited to speak, and sign his books (America the Beautiful and Reaching For the Moon with astronaut Buzz Aldrin) at the National Book Festival in Washington, DC. The paintings from America the Beautiful were exhibited at the Norman Rockwell Museum in 2003 and after a two year exhibition tour have become part of the permanent collection of the Library of Congress. The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art has acquired the paintings from another of Wendell’s books, Into the Woods: John James Audubon Lives His Dream, for their permanent collection. 
 
In 1988 Wendell was chosen as one of a six member team commissioned by NASA to document the shuttle Discovery’s return to flight. He has also created paintings for Chicago’s Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum and the U.S. Postal Service. His work has been exhibited widely throughout the country at various other venues including The Bruce Museum in Greenwich, Connecticut, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Boston Public Library, and the Chautauqua Institution’s Center for the Visual Arts. In addition to The Library of Congress and The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art his work can be found in the permanent collections of many museums, including the Norman Rockwell Museum, the New Britain Museum of American Art, the Mazza Museum at Findlay University, Illinois State Museum, Muskegon Museum of Art, Mattatuck Museum and NASA.

 
Wendell and Florence live and work in Washington, Connecticut. Visit them at www.minorart.com.