Frederic G. Melcher
Melcher proposed the Caldecott Medal in 1937 to honor children's picture books. Named for British illustrator Randolph Caldecott, the medal is presented annually for the "most distinguished picture book for children".
James Marshall (author)
Marshall was a friend of Maurice Sendak, who called him the "last in the line" of children's writers for whom children's books were a cottage industry. Sendak said that Marshall was "uncommercial to a fault" and, as a consequence, was little recognized by the awards committees. (As illustrator of "Goldilocks and the Three Bears", Marshall was a runner-up for the Caldecott Medal in 1989; the "Caldecott Honor Books" may display silver rather than gold seals. He won a University of Mississippi Silver Medallion in 1992. Over his career, he was three times recognized by the New York Times Book Review as one of the best illustrated children's book of the year.) Sendak said that in Marshall you got "the whole man", who "scolded, gossiped, bitterly reproached, but always loved and forgave" and "made me laugh until I cried." In introduction to the collected "George and Martha", Sendak called him the "last of a long line of masters" including Randolph Caldecott, Jean de Brunhoff, Edward Ardizzone, and Tomi Ungerer.