Richard Scarry (1919-1994) was born in Boston, Massachusetts, to shopkeeper parents. Scarry attended a business college but soon dropped out, finding it not to his liking. He then studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. He fought in the U.S. Army during World War II, and after the war worked for the art departments of various magazines before making a career breakthrough in 1949 with Little Golden Books.
He is best known for his perennially popular ‘Busytown’ books, which feature anthropomorphic animals doing a huge variety of human activities. As every parent knows, children have the capacity to pore over these books for hours and with endless repetition.
