MICHAEL PATRICK HEARN is America’s foremost man of letters specializing in children’s literature and its illustration. The author of The Annotated Huckleberry Finn, The Annnotated Wizard of Oz, The Annotated Christmas Carol, and The Art of the Broadway Poster, and the editor of The Andrew Lang Fairy Tale Book, he has also provided introductions to such classics as At the Back of the North Wind, Peter and Wendy, The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, and Little Wizard Stories of Oz. His articles have appeared in the New York Times Book Review, the Washington Post Book World, the Nation, Graphis, American Artist, the Ladies’ Home Journal, and other publications. He is also the author of an original fairy tale, The Porcelain Cat, with illustrations by Leo and Diane Dillon.
Michael Patrick Hearn teaches the history of children’s book illustration at Columbia University. He is currently writing Classics Reconsidered, a study of the masterworks of juvenile literature, as well as a biography of L. Frank Baum, author of The Wizard of Oz.