Background

Stephen Gammell grew up in Iowa. His father, an art editor for a major magazine, brought home periodicals that gave Stephen early artistic inspiration.

Career

In 1982 he was a runner-up for Where the Buffaloes Begin by Olaf Baker. He is self-taught. He started his career with freelance commercial work, but became interested in children's book illustration. His first picture book was published by G. P. Putnam's Sons in 1973: A Nutty Business by Ida Chittum, featuring a "war" between squirrels and a farmer.

That same year he illustrated The Search (Harper & Row, 1973), a juvenile biography of Leo Tolstoy by Sara Newton Carroll. Since then, he has illustrated nearly sixty titles. Gammell is particularly well known for the surreal, unsettling illustrations he provided for Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, a series of horror short stories by Alvin Schwartz that is still an adolescent favorite.

He works daily in his studio, located over a restaurant.

Achievements

• He won the 1989 Caldecott Medal for U.S. picture book illustration, recognizing Song and Dance Man by Karen Ackerman.

Works

Works Gallery

• book

  • Saint Thaddeus and the King of the Assyrians: Aramaic and the Origins of Christianity

    (According to ancient manuscripts written in the Aramaic l...)

  • Flash and the Swan

    (Returning to the summer home on Long Island Sound where h...)

  • Flash and the Swan

    (Returning to the summer home on Long Island Sound where h...)

  • The Beverly Hillbillies: A Fortieth Anniversary Wing Ding

    ( Come and listen to the story 'bout a man named Jed"" an...)

  • Hawks of Chelney

    (The superstitious people of an isolated coastal village o...)

  • Hawks of Chelney

    (The superstitious people of an isolated coastal village o...)

  • Git Along, Old Scudder

    (Old Scudder, traveling through the West with his dog Pilg...)

  • Git Along, Old Scudder

    (Old Scudder, traveling through the West with his dog Pilg...)

  • Demo and the dolphin

    (A dolphin takes Demo back through time to ask the oracle ...)

  • Demo and the dolphin

    (A dolphin takes Demo back through time to ask the oracle ...)

  • Halloween Poems

    (Eighteen poems celebrate the holiday of pumpkins, black c...)

  • Halloween Poems

    (Eighteen poems celebrate the holiday of pumpkins, black c...)

  • Meet the Werewolf (The Eerie Series)

    (The origins, habits, myths, legends, and famous case hist...)

  • Meet the Werewolf (The Eerie Series)

    (The origins, habits, myths, legends, and famous case hist...)

  • Halloween Poems by Livingston, Myra Cohn, Gammell, Stephen (1989) Library Binding

    (1st)

  • Flash and the Swan
  • Where the Buffaloes Begin
  • Beverly Hillbillies, The * A Fortieth Anniversary Wing-Ding
  • Old Black Fly SIGNED By the Author
  • Song and Dance Man ; Caldecott Winner (Book & Audio Cassette)
  • The Beverly Hillbillies : a Fortieth Anniversary Wing Ding - Revised/Expanded
  • Flash and the Swan
  • Old Black Fly SIGNED By the Author

• Other Work

  • Author, illustrator: Once Upon MacDonald's Farm, 1981, Wake Up, Bear-It's Christmas!, 1981 (Children's Choice award 1982), The Story of Mr. And Mistress Vinegar, 1982, Git Along, Old Scudder, 1983. Illustrator: A Nutty Business, 1973, The Search: A Biography of Leo Tolstoy, 1973, Let Me Hear You Whisper, 1974, The Glory Horse: A Story of the Battle of San Jacinto and Texas in 1836, 1974, Thunder at Gettysburg, 1975, Nabby Adams' Diary, 1975, Ghosts, 1976, Meet the Werewolf, 1976, The Kelpie's Pearls, 1976 (American Library Association notable book 1976), A Furl of Fairy Wind, 1977, Alice Yazzie's Year, 1977, The Ghost of Tillie Jean Cassaway, 1978 (South Carolina Children's book award 1982), Day of the Blizzard, 1978, The Hawks of Chelney, 1978, Leo Possessed, 1979, Stonewall, 1979 (New York Times Outstanding Book of Year 1979, Boston Globe/Horn Book award honor book 1980, American Library Association notable book 1980), A Net to Catch the Wind, 1979, Meet the Vampire, 1979, Yesterday's Island, 1979, Whitepaws: A Coyote-Dog, 1979, Stream Runner, 1979, Terrible Things: An Allegory of the Holocaust, 1980, And Then the Mouse.
    
    : Three Stories, 1980, The Real Tom Thumb, 1980, Blackbird Singing, 1980, Flash and the Swan, 1981, Where the Buffaloes Begin, 1981 (Boston Globe/Horn Book award honor book for illustration 1981, New York Times best illustrated book 1981, New York Times Outstanding Book of Year 1981, Parent's Choice award Parent's Choice Foundation 1981, Caldecott honor book 1982, American Book award nomination 1982), Demo and the Dolphin, 1981, Scary Tales to Tell in the Dark, 1981 (Arizona Young Readers award 1987, Buckeye Children's book award 1987), The Best Way to Ripton, 1982, The Old Banjo, 1983, More Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, 1984, Waiting to Waltz: A Childhood, 1984 (American Library Association notable book 1984, Society Midland Authors award 1985), Thaddeus, 1984, The Relatives Came, 1985 (New York Times best illustrated book of year 1985, Child Study Association of America's Children's books of year 1985, Caldecott honor book 1986, Boston Globe/Horn book award honor book 1986), Thanksgiving Poems, 1985 (Child Study Association of America's Children's book of year 1985), Who Kidnapped the Sheriff? or, Tales from Tickfaw, 1985, A Regular Rolling Noah, 1986, Old Henry, 1987 (Boston Globe/Horn book award honor book 1987), The Great Dimpole Oak, 1987, Song and Dance Man, 1988 (Caldecott medal 1989), Airmail to the Moon, 1988, Dancing Tepees: Poems of American Indian Youth, 1989, Will's Mammoth, 1989, Halloween Poems, 1989, Wing-a-Ding, 1990, Come a Tide, 1990, The Wing Shop, 1991, Scary Stories Three: More Tales to Chill Your Bones, 1991, Old Black Fly, 1992, Monster Mama, 1993.