Partner Howard Weiner
Queer Places:
Pratt Institute, 200 Willoughby Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11205
603 3rd St., Brooklyn, NY 11215
Howard's End, 5 Winslow St, Provincetown, MA 02657
Arnold Stark Lobel (May 22, 1933 – December 4, 1987) was an American author of children's books, including the Frog and Toad series and Mouse Soup. He wrote and illustrated these picture books as well as Fables, a 1981 Caldecott Medal winner for best-illustrated U.S. picture book. Lobel also illustrated books by other writers, including Sam the Minuteman by Nathaniel Benchley published in 1969. Lobel came out in 1974, four years after the first "Frog and Toad" book was published. In an unusual scenario for the time, his family accepted and embraced his decision.
Lobel was born in Los Angeles, California, to Lucille Stark and Joseph
Lobel, but was raised in Schenectady, New York, the hometown of his
parents.[1] Lobel's childhood was not a happy one, as he was frequently
bullied,[2] but he did love reading picture books at his local library.[3] He
attended the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. In 1955, after he graduated, he
married Anita Kempler, also a children's writer and illustrator whom he'd met
while in art school. The two worked in the same studio[4] and collaborated on
several books together.[5] They had two children: daughter Adrianne and son
Adam Lobel, and three grandchildren. Following college, Lobel was unable to
support himself as a children's book author or illustrator and so he worked in
advertising and trade magazines, which he did not like.[6] In 1974, he told
his family that he was gay.[7][8] In the early 1980s, he and Anita separated,
and he moved to Greenwich Village.[9]
The Frog and Toad All Year came out in 1976. It’s also the only one
dedicated to a man: James Marshall,
another famous children’s book author/illustrator, also a gay man, who died in
1992, also from complications relating to AIDS (described as a “wicked angel,”
by contemporary Maurice Sendak).
ARNOLD LOBEL (1933-1987).
"There was Frog."
Pen and ink over graphite, with printed text onlays. 300x225 mm; 11 3/4x9 inches on 15x11-inch sheet. The page is numbered 29 in pencil indicating that it may have been used for the Frog and Toad Coloring Pages series. Circa 1975.
Lobel, the famous children's book author, came out in 1974, four years after the first "Frog and Toad" book was published. In an unusual scenario for the time, his family accepted and embraced his decision.
Provenance: The Estate of Arnold Lobel.
By 1979 he had met Howard Weiner, 5’4” to Arnold’s six foot something (look
at how tall Frog is next to his Toad, your heart will break if you think about
it too much). Later Weiner managed Howard's End, a B&B in Provincetown and he
named one room The Frog and Toad Room.
He died of cardiac arrest on December 4, 1987, at Doctors Hospital in New York, after suffering from AIDS for some time.[10][11][12][13]
My published books:
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