As writer: It's a Gingerbread House (1978) A Chair for My Mother (1982)
Spouse
Paul Williams (−1970)
Children
Sarah Jennifer Merce
Vera Baker Williams (January 28, 1927 – October 16, 2015) was an American children's writer and illustrator. Her best known work, A Chair for My Mother, has won multiple awards and was featured on the children's television show Reading Rainbow.[1]
Vera Baker was born January 28, 1927, in Hollywood, California.[4] She has one sister, Naomi.[5] As a child, her family moved to the Bronx, New York, where her father was frequently absent during her early childhood. In New York City, she danced, acted, and painted at the Bronx House, a local community center.[6] Her book Scooter, published in 1993, is based on her childhood in the Bronx.[7]
While at Black Mountain College, she married fellow student Paul Williams. The couple divorced in 1970. Together they had three children:
Sarah Williams
Jennifer Williams
Merce Williams
She has five grandchildren:
Hudson Williams
August Williams
William Babcock
Rebecca Babcock
Clare Babcock
Career
Williams was a co-founder of the Gate Hill Cooperative Community and served as a teacher for the community from 1953–70. She taught at alternative schools in New York and Ontario throughout the 1960s and early 1970s. Following her divorce, she emigrated to Canada, where she committed to becoming a children's author and illustrator.
Most recently, Ms. Williams resided in New York City and remained active in local issues such as The House of Elder Artists[8] and participated in the 2007 PEN World Voices literary festival.[9] She died on October 16, 2015.[10]
United for Libraries Literary Landmark dedicated by the Empire State Center for the Book
Philosophical and political views
Williams long supported nonviolent and nuclear disarmament causes. She contributed artwork for several covers of Liberation magazine.[11][12]
In 1981 she spent a month in Alderson Federal Prison Camp following arrest at a women's peaceful blockade of the Pentagon.[13] She served on the executive committee of the War Resisters League from 1984 to 1987. Asked about her arrest record, she responded:
I don't make a point of ending up in jail, but if you try to put your hopes and beliefs for a better life into effect, arrest is sometimes a hazard. I am asked if I think any of his helps or works. I say, in the short run, we can't know, but many things we take for granted have been gained by the similar actions of people like myself: the end of child labor, more rights for black people, the vote for women, the end of the Vietnam War are a few. As a person who works for children, who raised three children...I have been able to say I did something to try to save our planet from destruction. It is my faith that we will.[14]
Legacy
On May 4, 2019, the Vera's Story Garden at Ethelbert B. Crawford Library in Monticello, New York, was named a United for Libraries Literary Landmark in honor of Vera B. Williams. It was dedicated by the Empire State Center for the Book.[15]
1995: Family, Friends, and Community: The Art of Vera B. Williams, Library of Congress[22]
2024: Vera B. Williams / STORIES: Eight Decades of Politics and Picture Making, Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center, Asheville, North Carolina, January 26 – May 11, 2024.[23]
^Dunn, Alec (July 18, 2023). "Hope in the Midst of Apathy: Liberation magazine and the Covers of Vera Williams". Signal: A Journal of International Political Graphics and Culture. 8. PM Press. ISBN9781629635668.
^Williams, Vera B. (December 12, 2001). "Vera B. Williams". KidsReads.com (Interview). Interviewed by Molly McVeigh. Retrieved October 10, 2007.
^Conroy, Caitlin A. "Vera B. Williams". Pennsylvania Center for the Book. Retrieved January 27, 2024.
