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Hilary Knight
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Hilary Knight Q&A
Q: What has the reaction been like from Eloise fans since the three original sequels were re-released in 1999/2000?
HK: Everyone (including me) is thrilled they are back in print. Whenever I do signings, the most asked question (after "Do you get writer's cramp?" . . . I don't) is when will we get the other books back --- including Bawth. Now they are all available at last.
Q: When and for how long did you and Kay Thompson first work together on ELOISE TAKES A BAWTH?
HK: Off and on, beginning in 1963 through 1968. Kay and I did many versions of Eloise's Bawth. We began in Rome (where Kay lived at the time), and what you see today is based on writings and sketches we created together in the Eternal City.
Q: How was Mart Crowley selected as the writer to piece together the existing fragments of Kay Thompson's original text?
HK: Mart first knew Kay when he visited Rome in the early 1960s. I met him after his first play was produced in New York City. He was a master of dialogue and understood Kay's particular "sound." Who better to collaborate with than a friend of both of us --- and Eloise?
Q: Why did you feel it was necessary to create all new illustrations for ELOISE TAKES A BAWTH? How closely do the new drawings resemble your original sketches?
HK: The drawings were worked over many times. I think we had been "soaking" too long in the tub. In going back to the original sketches and text the freshness of our original idea was preserved. I based the new art on the original sketches because they were fresh and spontaneous. I think the newest 2002 version reflects that.
Q: As an artist, who has had the greatest influence on your work?
HK: I grew up in a great period, the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s. Commercial and decorative art were at their inventive height, and my parents [artists Katharine Sturges and Clayton Knight] being part of it helped me decide that was the direction I wanted. In their library and on my bookshelves were the books that inspired me --- illustrations by Edmund Dulac and Ernest Shepard made me want to be an illustrator.
Q: How did you end up being the one to illustrate ELOISE originally?
HK: It was Kay and me from the beginning. Our mutual friend (and my neighbor), a fashion editor at Harper's Bazaar, D. D. Dixon, got us together and we became an instant team. It was a thrilling part of my life.
Q: Eloise is the quintessential six-year-old. Is she modeled after a real little girl?
HK: Eloise is the alter ego of Kay Thompson, but was visually inspired by a painting my mother had done in the 1930s. "Quintessential" suggests that there are more like her out there --- that's just not possible.
Q: For ELOISE IN PARIS, you and Kay Thompson actually traveled to France together. Can you talk a little bit about that trip?
HK: All of the Eloise books were done in close collaboration from the start. Kay and I worked night and day at The Plaza in New York, then in hotels in Paris and Moscow. If you love laughing a lot, eating delectable meals, and having the best time of your life, it was absolutely great --- it certainly wasn't work.
Q: Have you ever stayed at The Plaza Hotel?
HK: I'm waiting for Eloise to ask me for a weekend.
Q: Did you have any pets when you were a child, such as a dog or a turtle like Eloise?
HK: I cannot recall a moment in time when my family didn't have pets --- dogs, cats, finches, gerbils, and turtles. I think they are a vital part of life, as Weenie and Skipperdee are to Eloise.
Q: Do you have a pet now?
HK: My cat Ruff is astounding and brilliant. Right now I am teaching him to draw so that I (at seventy-five) can plan an early retirement.
Q: How much research did you do at The Plaza Hotel before you illustrated the first ELOISE book?
HK: I have sketchbooks bursting with drawings and notes. If The Plaza should vanish one day for some mysterious reason, come to me¾I'll reconstruct it for you.
Q: What have you been up to besides illustrating ELOISE TAKES A BAWTH? Where else have your drawings appeared?
HK: I've kept at it. I love work. I have illustrated over fifty books that do not feature Eloise (nine of which I also wrote), and I've done greeting cards, CD covers, Broadway show posters, and lots of magazine illustrations. I've also contributed to Neiman Marcus' catalogue, "The Book," and regularly to Vanity Fair magazine.
Q: Your name is unusual for a man. Is there a story behind the origin of your name?
HK: When I was born in the 1920s, Hilary was a man's name. My father, a pilot in World War I, had a good friend and fellow flyer named Hilary. He liked the name and passed it on to me in 1926.
Q: What do you say to people who insist that Eloise is a "girls' book"?
HK: Any boy or girl can respond to another child who has the great luck to have an entire hotel as a playground. And boys love ELOISE IN MOSCOW --- lots of spies and mystery and not a trace of pink.
Q: What do you tell kids when they ask you if Eloise really lives at The Plaza?
HK: Of course she lives at The Plaza! But she is a free spirit and exceedingly nimble ---just when you think she's in the lobby, you hear from the elevator operator that she's on the top floor. That's Eloise.
© Copyright 2002, Simon and Schuster. All rights reserved.
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BIO:
Hilary Knight, son of artist-writers Clayton Knight and Katherine Sturges, was born in Hempstead, Long Island and grew up in the town of Roslyn. When he was six the family moved to Manhattan where he has lived ever since. In the past twenty years he has maintained an apartment in the center of New York City which doubles as his studio and houses his collection of books, programs, and recordings of theatre and film music. His first published work appeared in Mademoiselle magazine in 1952, followed by drawings in House and Garden, Good Housekeeping, and Gourmet magazines. This led to a meeting with Kay Thompson, the singer/vocal arranger who was then apperaring in her own night club act at the Plaza Hotel. She had invented a precocious hotel child named Eloise who existed only as a telephone voice Miss Thompson used to entertain her friends. With the help of Mr. Knight they transformed the voice into words and pictures and their first book ELOISE was published in 1955, which soon became a bestseller. Mr. Knight has illustrated over fifty books, nine of which he also wrote. Besides books, his work has included note and greeting cards, children's fashion advertisings, illustrations for Cricket magazine, record album covers and posters for the Broadway musicals Half A Sixpence, Hallelujah Baby!, No, No Nanette, Irene, and Gypsy- all of which were included in a one-man show at Triton Gallery in New York City in 1974.
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• ELOISE by Kay Thompson and Hilary Knight
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