Marc Simont was born in Paris, France on November 23, 1915. His parents were from the Catalonia region of Spain, and his childhood was spent in France, Spain, and the United States. He attended art school in Paris, at the Académie Julian, Académie Ranson, and the André Lhote School, and in New York, at the New York National Academy of Design.
During his lifetime, he illustrated nearly 100 books including The Philharmonic Gets Dressed by Karla Kuskin, In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson by Bette Bao Lord, How to Get to First Base: A Picture Book of Baseball by Red Smith, and The 13 Clocks by James Thurber. He also wrote and illustrated around ten of his own works including The Goose That Almost Got Cooked. He won a Caldecott Honor in 1950 for illustrating The Happy Day by Ruth Krauss, a Caldecott Medal in 1957 for illustrating A Tree Is Nice by Janice May Udry, and a Caldecott Honor in 2002 for illustrating his book The Stray Dog. He died on July 13, 2013 at the age of 97.
030