illiam Steig wanted to be a seaman like Melville, but during the Great Depression, he needed to make money to support his mother, father, and his younger brother. He'd done some cartoons for his high-school newspaper, so he decided to try to sell cartoons. He sold a couple of them to The New Yorker, and then he submitted a cover. They said, "We like the idea but not the execution. Will you sell the idea?" He said, "Let me think about it." Then he went home and told his mother. She told him not to sell his idea. Never sell an idea. So he told The New Yorker that, and they bought the picture anyway!

And that's how it all began for Mr. Steig—he started publishing drawings in The New Yorker in 1930. But it wasn't until 1968, when he was sixty years old, that he published his first children's book, Roland the Minstrel Pig. Two years later, he won the Caldecott Medal for Sylvester and the Magic Pebble. Being one of those rare talents who could both write and draw, in addition to a Caldecott Honor for The Amazing Bone, Steig also won two Newbery Honors, one for Abel's Island and the other for Doctor De Soto.

Other awards Mr. Steig received include the Christopher Award (Dominic), the Irma Simonton Black Award (Gorky Rises), and the American Book Award (Doctor De Soto). His European awards include the Premio di Letteratura per l'infanzia (Italy) for The Real Thief, the Silver Pencil Award (The Netherlands) for Abel's Island, and the Prix de la Fondation de France for Dominic. On the basis of his entire body of work, Steig was selected as the 1982 U.S. candidate for the Hans Christian Andersen Medal for Illustration and subsequently as the 1988 U.S. candidate for Writing. His books have been published in over a dozen foreign languages.

Steig's list of publishing accomplishments doesn't end there. Dreamworks created the blockbuster movie based on Shrek!. Steig also created Made for Each Other (Joanna Cotler Books / HarperCollins 2000), Pete's a Pizza (HarperCollins 1998), Wizzil, illustrated by Quentin Blake (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), Sick of Each Other (Joanna Cotler Books / HarperCollins 2001), A Gift from Zeus by Jeanne Steig (Joanna Cotler Books / HarperCollins 2001), Toby, What Are You? illustrated by Teryl Euvremer (a sequel to Toby, Where Are You? Joanna Cotler Books / HarperCollins 2001), Which Would You Rather Be?, illustrated by Harry Bliss (HarperCollins 2002), Potch & Polly, illustrated by Jon Agee (Farrar, Straus and Giroux Fall 2002), and The New York Times Book Review Best Illustrated Book, When Everybody Wore a Hat (Joanna Cotler Books / HarperCollins 2003), Steig's last picture book based on his childhood in the early 1900s. Steig passed away in late 2003.