Marc Simont (November 23, 1915 – July 13, 2013) was a Paris-born American artist, political cartoonist, and illustrator of more than a hundred children's books.
Simont settled in New York City in 1935 after encouragement from his father, attended the National Academy of Design with Robert McCloskey,[1] and served three years in the military.
He won the 1957 Caldecott Medal for U.S. children's book illustration, recognizing A Tree Is Nice by Janice May Udry, and he was a runner-up both in 1950 (The Happy Day by Ruth Krauss) and in 2002 (The Stray Dog retold by Simont).
[2] He also illustrated The 13 Clocks (1950) and The Wonderful O (1957) by the writer James Thurber; In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson by Bette Bao Lord (1984); Top Secret by John Reynolds Gardiner (1995); My Brother, Ant by Betsy Byars (1996); and The Beautiful Planet: Ours to Lose, which he also wrote (2010), and illustrated "The Trail Driving Rooster" by Fred Gipson (1955).
Simont and writer Marjorie W. Sharmat created the boy detective Nate the Great in 1972, and he illustrated the first twenty cases, through 1998.