Mercer Mayer

Mercer Mayer (born December 10, 1943 in Little Rock, Arkansas) is an American children's book writer and illustrator. He has published over 300 books using a wide range of illustrative styles (see his bibliography for a list). Mayer is probably best known for his "Little Critter" and "Little Monster" series of books.

Mayer's father was in the United States Navy, so the family moved many times during his childhood. The Mayers finally settled in Honolulu, Hawaii, where Mayer graduated from high school in 1961. After graduation, he attended school at the Honolulu Academy of Arts for about a year. During this time, he decided he wanted to be a children's book illustrator, so he created a portfolio of sketches and peddled them wherever he could. All his professors tried to discourage Mayer from following his dream, fearing the young artist would never be good enough to make a living as an illustrator.

In 1964, Mayer left Hawaii to move to New York City, where he received additional art training at the Art Students League of New York. Here he met his first wife, Marianna, an artist in her own right. He also received some excellent career advice from an art director, who told Mayer to throw his portfolio away because it was so bad. Although this blunt advice greatly angered Mayer, he did follow the suggestion. He took a day job at an advertising agency, and in his spare time created a completely new portfolio from scratch. These new sketches persuaded editors at Dial Press and Harper & Row to give him some illustration work.

Mayer published his first book, A Boy, a Dog, and a Frog, at Dial Press in 1967. It was notable for being a completely wordless picture book—one that tells its story completely through the use of pictures. Mayer was one of the first illustrators to be credited for using this format. Five more books in this series were to follow.

The book There's a Nightmare in My Closet drew on Mayer's childhood fears of monsters in his room at night. Critics compared the book, unfavorably, to Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are, but children and their parents loved the story and it became very popular.

Mayer joined Golden Publishing, creators of Little Golden Books, in 1976. Through them he has sold his "Little Critter" and "Little Monster" series, which are popular with beginning readers.