About the Author and the Illustrator

RUTH STILES GANNETT wrote My Father's Dragon just a few years after her graduation from Vassar College in 1944. It was an immediate success, becoming a Newbery Honor Book, and was soon followed by two sequels, Elmer and the Dragon and The Dragons of Blueland. All three dragon stories have been continuously in print in the more than 40 years since their publication. The author's other books include Katie and the Sad Noise and The Wonderful House-Boat-Train. She is married to the artist and calligrapher Peter Kahn. They have seven daughters and seven grandchildren.

RUTH CHRISMAN GANNETT was already a well- established illustrator when she began collaboration with her stepdaughter on My Fathers Dragon and its sequels. Her pictures for these books are perhaps her most enduring work. Her illustrations may also be seen in the first edition of John Steinbeck's Tortilla Flat and in Miss Hickory by Carolyn S. Bailey Mrs. Gannett was married to the late Lewis Gannett, daily book critic for the New York Herald Tribune. She died in 1979.