Vera B. Williams

Self-Sacrifice - Delaying what you would like for one individual or for the benefit of many.

Vera B. Williams’s birthday is on January 28th.

Vera B. Williams grew up in New York City, nurturing her artistic career at Bronx House, where she was encouraged to tell stories, act, dance, and paint. On Saturdays she painted with the much-admired progressive art director Florence Cane. Vera graduated from New York City’s High School of Music and Art and earned a degree in graphic arts from Black Mountain College in North Carolina.

Vera taught at alternative schools in New York and Ontario, and for almost 20 years at the Gate Hill Cooperative, which she had helped to found. Vera has also managed a bakery, planted corn, made butter, worked on a printing press, and helped to build her own house. Among her many adventures was a 500-mile canoe trip on the Yukon River.

Vera illustrated her first picture book at the age of 46 while living on a houseboat on English Bay in Vancouver, British Columbia. Of her work, she has said, “I have always liked to teach and have taught art, cooking, writing, and nature study for nursery age on. So far I’ve found children’s books a wonderfully accommodating medium where any of my various activities might pop up.”

Vera B. Williams has three children and lives in New York City.