Not for Tots?Īt the time it was published some critics expressed concern that Stuart Little was 'bad for children'-the story too open-ended, the main character too independent. White made suggestions and comments, in one letter expressing delight that Williams had drawn shoes that are 'just right for a mouse's feet.' White himself found a model for Harriet Ames (a character who does not appear in the movie) in a clipping from a Sears catalogue. White and Williams discussed every detail of the illustrations. White's editor complained that 'it is terribly difficult to draw ATTRACTIVE mice' and went through no less than eight illustrators before signing up Williams, a prize-winning sculptor. It was also the first book illustrated by renowned artist Garth Williams. Some twenty years later he expanded and collected the stories as Stuart Little, published in 1945. White wrote a few episodes about this boy who looked like a mouse and then tucked them away in a drawer, thinking he might one day share them with his nieces and nephews. The character of Stuart Little first appeared in a dream to famed essayist E. White called the 'shy, pleasant manner of a mouse.' Dreaming It Up

Fox, who provides the character's screen voice, than the little hero who had what creator E. Some think the cinematic Stuart was modeled more after Michael J. Williams is survived by his wife, Leticia five daughters, Fiona Hulbert of Brussels, Bettina Shore of Toronto, Jessica Rose of New York City, Estyn Williams of Newport, R.I., and Dilys Williams of Guanajuato and a son, Dylan, of New York City.įuneral service arrangements were not known.Infoplease Staff The Story Behind Hollywood's Big Mouse by Holly HartmanĪfter more than half a century as a quietly beloved literary figure, Stuart Little has become a cash cow of a mouse-the grinning, computer-generated star of a $90 million movie and the subject of seven new books, as well as a line of products that includes plush toys, games, and a mouse-shaped backpack. He later did the art work for Wilder’s ``Little House on the Prairie″ and Selden’s ``The Cricket in Times Square.″ The book was a such a hit that in 1952 White and Williams collaborated on ``Charlotte’s Web,″ a book about a spider who saves a pig by weaving words into her web.

He had limited success, but struck up a relationship with an editor at Harper and Row who gave him the assignment of illustrating E.B. His family later moved to a farm in New Jersey, where he was surrounded by the sort of bucolic scenes and farm animals that he would depict in his drawings.Īfter World War II, Williams tried to break in as a cartoonist at The New Yorker. Williams was born in New York City to a pair of artists _ his father was a cartoonist, his mother a landscape painter. humor, responsibility, respect for others, interest in the world at large.″ Williams once said he tried in his pictures to ``awaken something of importance.

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