Like Walking on Red Hot Embers and Broken Glass

Four years ago I posted a short biographical sketch of William Steig, the author-illustrator loved for his fine children’s books like  the Caldecott Award winning Sylvester and the Magic Pebble and (more well-known now, I’d think) Shrek! Recently Letters of Note posted a copy of a letter Steig wrote that describes his fear of public speaking. Caldecott winners, you see, were expected to give a short acceptance speech, and William Steig had an extreme fear of “formally [addressing] a group of people larger than two in number,” which, he says, “for me will be like walking on red hot embers & broken glass.”

Despite his fear, Steig managed to give a charming acceptance speech. You’ll find the text of that at the link above, too.

Comments

[kim from hiraeth]

Glad you linked to that! It crossed my mind to do the same yesterday but that post got away from me.

I love Abel's Island. Until yesterday, I had no idea he had created Shrek.

[rebecca]

I loved that letter—and the speech, too.