**Ellen Raskin ** (March 13, 1928 – August 8, 1984) was an American children's writer and illustrator. She won the 1979 Newbery Medal for The Westing Game, a mystery novel, and another children's mystery, Figgs & Phantoms, was a Newbery Honor Book in 1975. In 2012 The Westing Game was ranked number nine all-time among children's novels in a survey published by School Library Journal, a monthly with a primarily-U.S. audience.

Life

Raskin was born in Milwaukee, where she grew up during the Great Depression. She was educated at the University of Wisconsin with a major in fine art. Raskin was an accomplished graphic artist. She worked in New York City as a commercial artist for about 15 years. Among other things, she designed more than 1000 dust jackets for books, including the first edition of Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time, the 1963 Newbery Medal winner. In 1957, she married graphic designer Roy Kuhlman, but they soon divorced. In 1960 she married Dennis Flanagan, editor of Scientific American. Raskin died at the age of 56 on August 8, 1984, in New York City, as a result of a connective-tissue disease.

Education

At the age of 17, Raskin entered the University of Wisconsin with the intention of majoring in journalism. However, after visiting an art exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago, she changed her major to fine arts.

Works

Children's picture books

Raskin wrote and illustrated twelve picture books, published by Atheneum Books except as noted.

Children’s novels

Raskin wrote four novels, all published by E. P. Dutton.

As illustrator

Raskin also illustrated more than twenty books by other writers.