Corinne Malvern

Corinne Malvern was an American commercial artist, active as a children's book illustrator between 1939 and her death in 1956. She is best known for her illustrations in the Little Golden Books series, including Heidi, Frosty the Snow Man (also known, incorrectly, as "Frosty the Snowman"), The Night Before Christmas, Doctor Dan the Bandage Man, and Nurse Nancy. She illustrated 32 books, 17 for Little Golden Books. She also collaborated as co-writer on Little Golden Books published under the pseudonym Annie North Bedford. Her last book, "Five Pennies To Spend," was published in 1955.


She was born sometime around 1901 in Newark, New Jersey. Her mother, Cora Malvern, worked as a wardrobe mistress for theatre companies, and Corinne and her older sister Gladys worked as child actresses in plays and operas. By 1910 they were working in movies, Gladys as an ingenue and Corinne as "fairies, babies, witches, and other funny little people." In 1915 the young adult Corinne appeared in a motion picture, "The Luring Lights," as the character Rose Malleen.

She turned away from the theatre and studied at the Art Students League of New York, in New York City. By 1932, she was working as a commercial artist in Los Angeles, while continuing her studies and establishing her reputation as an artist. Working primarily in tempera, pencil, pastel, and watercolor, she created magazine covers and fashion illustrations, and exhibited her work, mostly portraits and figure studies, in galleries. She collaborated with her sister, Gladys, who was becoming established as a professional writer, and the two of them launched their careers in the field of childrens books with "Brownie, the Little Bear Who Liked People" for McLoughlin Bros., Inc., in 1939.

Neither Gladys nor Corinne ever married. They continued to collaborate professionally and their 1943 book "Valiant Minstrel," a biography of the Scottish entertainer Sir Harry Lauder, won the $1250 Julia Ellsworth Ford Prize. They were living together in Weston, Connecticut when Corinne moved to a convalescent home, where she died on November 9, 1956 after a long illness.