BIOGRAPHY
Tasha Tudor was an American illustrator and writer of children's books. She was born August 28, 1915 in Boston, the daughter of naval architect W. Starling Burgess and portrait painter Rosamund Tudor. She was born with the first name Starling, but soon her father, a fan of Natasha in War and Peace, re-christened her as Natasha.
In early years, Tasha lived with her mother in Redding, Connecticut. In 1937 she became engaged to Thomas McCready. Around that time she wrote her first book, Pumpkin Moonshine, a story about a girl and her runaway pumpkin. Tasha gave birth to Bethany and Seth while in Connecticut. In 1944, she illustrated the children's classic Mother Goose which was selected as a Caldecott Honor Book for 1945.
The income from Mother Goose enabled Tasha and Thomas to buy a large farm in Contoocook, New Hampshire. Son Tom was born in 1945, and daughter Efner in 1949. It was in Contoocook that Tasha began writing stories and painting pictures about family, animals and birds, gardens, fields, landscapes. Besides the books she wrote, Tasha illustrated numerous well-known children’s classics, often completing two or three a year. Her career with the American Artists Group began with Hans Christian Anderson in 1945 and ended with Little Women in 1969. After her divorce from Thomas in 1961, she and her children officially changed their surname to "Tudor".
In 1971, with her children grown, she moved to Marlboro, Vermont. After the success of one of her best known classics, Corgiville Fair, she was in a position to buy land on a secluded hilltop. Her son Seth cleared the land and built the farmhouse known as Corgi Cottage, as well as a barn various outbuildings. She continued to illustrate books until 2003, ending her career with Corgiville Christmas. In her last years she had more time to do what she enjoyed, including hosting teas and dances, knitting, quilting, putting on marionette shows, baking homemade bread. She continued her passion for gardening, choosing flowers and vegetables which were likely to thrive at the higher altitudes of Marlboro.
Tasha became better known to the public in the 1990s after she had several books published about life in rural Vermont. I met her at a book signing in Boston and she signed one of her books for me. She passed away on June 18, 2008.
Incidentally, my husband Edward Gray is a cousin of hers, and during the 1960s received several invitations to dinner at her house in Contoocook. His paternal grandmother was Mary Tudor, a relative of Tasha and her mother Rosamund.
THE CACHE
This cache is NOT at the posted coordinates, and is not far from Tasha’s former home on a back road in Marlboro. Unfortunately, the house is not visible from the road, as it is on a private drive. You may find the coordinates by solving the following puzzle.
The cache is at N42° 53.ABC W072° 42.DEF where
- Mother Goose was selected as a Caldecott Honor Book in 194A
- Tasha moved to Marlboro, Vermont in 19B1
- Tasha died in June 20C8
- The last book which Tasha illustrated was in D003
- Tasha was born in 19E5
- Tasha illustrated Little Women in 19F9