Heading: (Autographs)
Author: Willard, Nancy
Title: The Nancy Willard collection of autographed eggs
Place Published: [Poughkeepsie, New York]
Publisher:
Date Published: c.1980-2000
Description: Approximately 110 painted and decorated models of eggs. Each about 7.5x5x4.5 cm (3x2x1¾"), some with movable parts.Nancy Willard (1926-2017) was an author, poet, professor, and perhaps less well known as an artist. She won the Newbery Medal for "A Visit to William Blake's Inn" which was a runner up for a Caldecott Medal for art (Martin and Alice Provensen, illustrators). During her time at Vassar College, where she was a Professor of English, she began collecting the signatures of visiting artists, authors and other influential individuals of the time (primarily the late 1980's - 90's).
Willard had the authors/artists sign wooden eggs that she then designed and decorated in a uniquely personal and representative fashion. The collection includes over 100 eggs and features; Julia Child; Isaac Asimov, Shel Silverstein, Eric Carle, Meryl Streep, Judy Collins, Eudora Welty, Nadine Gordimer, Jamaica Kincaid, Madeline L'Engle, Umberto Eco, Pete Seeger, Maurice Sendak, Alice Walker, Jane Smiley, Gwendolyn Brooks, and dozens more. Among the eggs are Nobel Laureates, Pulitzer Prize winners, Poet Laureates and other significant recognitions. Some of the inscriptions on the eggs were made directly to Nancy, others to her entire family, and of some note, to her son James, who reported that she was sometimes a little shy about making the request. It is of note that this unique legacy by Nancy Willard has never been publicly displayed. She kept it as a personal reminder of some of the people who were a part of her life.The collection includes eggs autographed, many with inscriptions, by: Arnolt Adoff; Isaac Asimov; Jean M. Auel; Russell Banks; Leonard Baskin; Claire Bloom; Bruce Brooks; Gwendolyn Brooks; Joe Bruchac; Ashley Bryan; Nancy Ekholm Burkert; David Byrne; Eric Carle; Julia Child; Amy Clampitt; Ben Cohen (of Ben & Jerry's); Judy Collins; Mario Cuomo; Diane & Leo Dillon; Henrik Drescher; Jane Dyer; Umberto Eco; William Finn; Mem Fox; Russell Freedman; Jean Craighead George; Mordecai Gerstein; David R. Godine; Nadine Gordimer; Virginia Hamilton; Joy Harjo; William Least Heat-moon; Edward Hoagland; Bennett Hopkins; T. R. Hummer; Trina Schart Hyman; Peter Jovanovich; Jamica Kincaid; Galway Kinnell; Howard Koch; Tedd Kooser; Maxine Kumin; Madeline L'Engle; Ursula K. Le Guin; Brad Leithauser; Denise Levertov; Mark Linn-Baker; Leo Lionni; Mickey Lolich; Phillip Lopate; Patricia MacLachlan; Gregory Maguire; James Marshall; Mary McCarthy; James Merrill; Susan Minot; Sarah Moon; Robert Morse; Barry Moser; Catherine Murphy; Howard Norman; Leslie Norris; Toby Olson; Cynthia Ozick; Grace Paley; Estelle Parsons; Katherine Paterson; Gary Paulsen; Octavio Paz; Jerry Pinkney; Daniel Pinkwater; Ilse Plume; Leontyne Price; Alice & Martin Provensen; Alice Provenson; Alberto Rios; Harry Roseman; Lewis Rubenstein; Salman Rushdie; Cynthisa Rylant; Mary Jo Salter; Ruth Sanderson; John Sayles; Pete Seeger; Maurice Sendak; Shel Silverstein; Louis Simpson; Jane Smiley; Isaac B. Singer; William Stafford; Diane Stanley; Maura Stanton; William Steig; Gerald Stern; Jimmy Stewart; Meryl Streep; Brian Swann; James Tate; Andy Towle; Ilse-Margaret Vogel; Alice Walker; Rosemary Wells; Eudora Welty; David Wiesner; Richard Wilbur; Janet S. Wong; Don & Audrey Wood; Michael Yeats; Ed Young.