From the Mixed-up Files… (Atheneum, 1967), for which Konigsburg also provided illustrations, is perhaps her best-known and most beloved book. The story is about a girl, Claudia, and her younger brother Jamie who run away from their suburban home to New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. Their adventure leads them to unravel a mystery behind a Renaissance sculpture.

At the time of its publication, the book was reviewed by Elva Harmon for SLJ. She wrote, “[This] is the kind of book our increasingly sophisticated pre-teens ask for, and it has almost all they hope for in a book: humor, suspense, intrigue, and their problems acknowledged seriously but not somberly.” The book was adapted twice, in 1973 as a motion picture called The Hideaways with Ingrid Bergman playing Mrs. Frankweiler, and again in 1995 for television, with Lauren Bacall in the title role.

Upon accepting her Newbery for the book, Konigsburg talked about her storytelling and writing process. “[I try to] let the telling be like fudge-ripple ice cream,” she said. “You keep licking the vanilla, but every now and then you come to something richer and deeper and with a stronger flavor.”

Konigsburg once told a school librarian that the Metropolitan Museum was not pleased with her book because it gave too many children the idea of hiding in the museum and taking a dip in the Fountain of the Muses. (The fountain was removed several years ago during a renovation project and now makes its home at Brookgreen Gardens in Murrels Inlet, South Carolina.)

However, 30 years after the book’s publication, the museum finally embraced the book, dedicating an entire issue of Museum Kids to following the footsteps of the books’ characters. In the special Met publication, Konigsburg tells of her initial inspiration: her sighting of a piece of popcorn on a chair in one of the museum’s historical period room displays, which led her to imagine that perhaps someone had snuck past the velvet ropes one night.

She also defends her characters to future museum visitors: “Do you see a beautiful blue silk chair? If you do happen to spot a single piece of popcorn on that chair, I, E. L. Konigsburg, want you to know that neither Claudia nor Jamie left it there. For the past thirty-three years that their spirits have been inhabiting The Metropolitan Museum of Art, they have never been that careless. Never!”

Konigsburg’s first book for kids, Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth (Atheneum, 1967), went on to receive a Newbery Honor in 1968, the same year as her Newbery Medal for From the Mixed-up Files….  She is the only author in Newbery history to achieve that distinction. The story was inspired by the difficulty Konigsburg’s daughter had in adjusting to her family’s move to Port Chester, NY in Westchester Country. Ruth Hill Viguers, in her Horn Book review, said the book was “full of humor and of situations completely in tune with the imaginations of ten-year-old girls.”

Konigsburg also holds the distinction of longest span of time between winning Newbery Medals. In 1997, 29 years after winning her first Newbery, she was recognized for The View from Saturday (Atheneum, 1996), a story told in the four voices of members of a middle-school quiz bowl team.

Photo credit: Ron Kunzman.

“Careful prose is well adapted into a funny, realistic, caring portrait through clear and varied voices,” wrote Angela Reynolds in her SLJ review at the time. “No bells and whistles are needed to bring this winner to life, just a skilled reading.” Julie Cummins, coordinator of Children’s Services at the New York Public Library, also wrote a review, in it noting, “this sparkling story is a jewel in the author’s crown of outstanding work.”

Two of Konigsburg’s other books were nominated for the National Book Award in the children’s category, A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver (Atheneum, 1973) and Throwing Shadows (Atheneum, 1979), for which she also received an American Book Award nomination.

“She was certainly one of the giants in children’s literature,”  Pat Scales, chair of the American Library Association’s Intellectual Freedom Committee and close friend of Koningsburg, tells SLJ. “Each of her books offered readers a little something different, but always with enough humor and mystery to pull them into the larger meaning of her themes. The loss feels heavy right now, but she will live on through her books that will always be with us.”

As word of her death spread, additional tributes began to spring up online from her colleagues in the kid lit community.

“A gifted writer whose books inspired me. One of the most creative people I’ve ever met,” tweeted Judy Blume, while author John Green tweeted, “Konigsburg was one of my first favorite authors, and she remained so: I loved her 2000 novel Silent to the Bone (Atheneum) so much.”

Jo Knowles, author of See You at Harry’s (Candlewick, 2012) tells SLJ, “I don’t think a single child who read From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler ever experienced a museum the same way again,” she says. “Even now, I sometimes find myself wondering which exhibit I would sleep in if I ever got trapped inside.”

Laurel Snyder, author of Bigger than a Breadbox (Random House, 2011), loved Konigsburg as a child and now as a mother and author feels that, “The kids in her books were such complete individuals. They were so independent, defiant and adventurous, but also thoughtful.”

C.A. London, author of the “Accidental Adventures” (Puffin) series, was influenced by Konigsburg in his own writing. “She was a pioneer in capturing the unique genius in the voices of 12 year olds,” he says. “She did, of course, influence me: In the Accidental Adventures, the series starts with Oliver and Celia, upset by a perceived injustice, deciding to run away. Sound familiar?”

Konigsburg’s wry sense of humor is remembered by those who knew her. Sharron McElmeel, a literacy advocate and children’s and young adult literature specialist, remembers the time when one of Konigsburg’s children came home and told her that her book Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth had been an answer in a college bowl trivia contest. “She was thrilled to have such acclaim—until she realized it was a trivia contest,” McElmeel says.

Lee Bennett Hopkins, a poetry anthologist, recalls the time he mentioned to Konigsburg that he was invited to speak somewhere but his schedule was so full that he couldn’t make it. “Dear man,” she told him. “Never tell anyone you ‘can’t make it!’ Tell them you’ll be out of the country at that time. It sounds so much more—exotic!”

Teacher and blogger Monica Edinger recalls being fortunate enough to meet Konigsburg a few times. “She was definitely one of the classiest and smartest people I have ever read or met,” Edinger says. “I hope that her books will continue to provide the same intellectual and aesthetic pleasure for others that they have for me.”

Konigsburg was born February 10, 1930, to Adolph Lobl and Beulah Klein Lobl. She grew up in Farrell, PA, and graduated with a degree in chemistry from Carnegie Mellon University.  In 1952, she married Dr. David Konigsburg and moved to Jacksonville, FL. The family relocated several times during Dr. Konigsburg’s career, but eventually retuned to Jacksonville and settled at Ponte Vedra Beach.

Konigsburg wrote and painted throughout her life. In addition to her 16 children’s novels, she illustrated three picture books and published a collection of her speeches. Her work has been translated into over a dozen languages, according to her family. She was a featured speaker at schools, universities, and libraries. She is survived by her three children, Paul, Laurie and Ross; five grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren. Donations may be made in her honor to the American Heart Association or the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.

McDermott’s career spanned a 49-year period and included such acclaimed and diverse folktales as Anansi the Spider: A Tale from the Ashanti (Holt, 1972), a Caldecott Honor book and an animated film; Arrow to the Sun (Viking, 1974) the Caldecott Medal winner and also an animated film; and Raven: A Trickster Tale from the Pacific Northwest, (Harcourt, 1993), a Caldecott Honor book and Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Award winner. The film version of Anansi won the Blue Ribbon at the American Film Festival when it debuted, and Wilson Library Bulletin called it one of “the two most popular children’s films” produced that year.

From the beginning of his career, those who worked with McDermott recognized his talent.

“He was a totally independent voice at the time, and his technique and training in film taught him a tightness of scale, bravura use of color, and use of symbolism which was utterly unlike other illustrators of the period,” George Nicholson, McDermott’s editor on Arrow to the Sun, tells SLJ.

And after a long career filled with high-caliber works from start to finish, “There is still no one who equals him in my view,” Nicholson says.

Nicholson was head of children’s publishing at what was then Holt, Rinehart & Winston when he first discovered McDermott at a film festival in 1970, at which he was screening Anansi and another film, The Magic Tree, a folktale of the Congo. Nicholson immediately envisioned the possibilities of transforming both works into beautiful picture books.

“I was bowled over by the several films I saw there which were unlike anything I had even seen,” says Nicholson, who is currently a senior agent at Sterling Lord Literistic. “I was so taken with both Anansi and The Magic Tree that after serious discussions with Gerald about how these films might become books I bought them both.”  They soon realized, however, that—though the American picture book was deeply cinematic in its structure—McDermott had to reconceive the art altogether to capture the pacing and dynamism of the film, he says.

When Nicholson moved to Viking, he worked with McDermott on Arrow to the Sun, which scored a picture book’s most prestigious honor. Notably, winning the Caldecott Medal for the book was something McDermott felt was an honor for both book and film, says Nicholson.

“Gerald was a marvelous storyteller,” Regina Hayes, former publisher of Viking Children’s Books, tells SLJ. “He had a deep knowledge of folklore and myth, and he also had the ability to adapt his artistic style to suit each story, from Native American legend to Irish tall tales.”

McDermott also added many more picture book titles to his expansive global “Trickster Tales” series: Papagayo: The Mischief Maker (Windmill/Wanderer, 1980; reissued by Harcourt, 1992 ), a Brazilian folktale; Zomo the Rabbit: A Trickster Tale from West Africa (Harcourt, 1992); Coyote: A Trickster Tale from the American Southwest (Harcourt, 1994); Jabuti the Tortoise: A Trickster Tale from the Amazon (Harcourt, 2001); Pig-Boy: A Trickster Tale from Hawaii (Harcourt, 2009); and Monkey: A Trickster Tale from India (Harcourt, 2011).

“Gerald McDermott’s trickster tales always worked magic with my 2nd graders. The engaging, accessible text and bright art pulled reader-listeners in,” remembers Mollie Welsh Kruger, former 2^nd grade teacher and current graduate faculty of Bank Street College of Education. “One year, my class created their own stage production of Zomo the Rabbit that left the lower school in stitches.”

Considered in his lifetime an expert in mythology and folktales, McDermott was a disciple of the famed mythologist and writer Joseph Campbell, one friend recalls.

Says Arnold Adoff, children’s poet and husband of the late Virginia Hamilton, award-winning children’s author, “When Virginia and I first entered the world of children’s books, Gerald was one of the first people we met. [He] was…unguarded and open…expansive and excited…as he talked about his ground-breaking visual efforts…he and Virginia talked Joseph Campbell long and deep into the night.”

McDermott was the first Fellow of the Joseph Campbell Foundation, and a leader of the “Mythological  Toolbox” workshop at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California. “Dream weaver, tale spinner, portrayer of visions, interpreter of the human spirit,” the institute says of McDermott on its website. “Through his bold, graphic renderings of timeless tales from around the world, Gerald communicated his deep understanding of the transformative power of myth.”

Another friend, children’s author and editor Lee Bennett Hopkins, remembers McDermott as “infectious, witty, dashing” and “brilliant about the art of bookmaking.” They first met in 1973 when Hopkins worked for Scholastic, and the fledgling artist McDermott was looking for freelance work. “I was lucky to have Gerald as a friend in my life for over forty years,” Hopkins tells SLJ.

Hopkins, among several others who knew and worked with McDermott, has already posted an online tribute to him, though many remembrances are sure to come from those whose lives McDermott touched in the worlds of publishing, filmmaking, and education.

Fans are confident his storytelling legacy will live on, they say. Adds Kruger, “What McDermott did with words and illustrations will continue bringing stories to life in classrooms.”