Neighbors: Leonard Kessler

Leonard Kessler has just returned from a trip to the mechanic. When he opens the door to his Pelican Cove townhouse, it’s not his crop of white hair that stands out, nor his crisp blue-and-white striped shirt beneath his sport coat or even the gray pencil sketch of his sister down the hallway. It’s the fact that he’s in his 90s and his feet are laced up inside purple Converse sneakers.

“When I was a kid, I had one pair of white sneakers and that was it,” Kessler says, settling onto a couch that backs up to a wall of paintings bearing his signature. “I recall lying in bed one night, thinking, ‘If I ever have money when I grow up, I’m going to buy all kinds of shoes.’ I must have at least 40 pairs now.”

Kessler grew up in what he refers to as “smoky Pittsburgh.” Most days when he returned home from elementary school, all of the neighborhood streetlights would be on. He thinks this must be why his artwork was so dark until he moved to Florida many years later. But, of all his childhood memories, he’ll always treasure the day his grandmother, Marya Rabinowitz, handed him a box of crayons. He was 6 years old.

“She said, ‘Lenny, take these crayons, and you can go out there and make your own world,” Kessler says. “She said to do what I loved, and I loved making pictures. I’ve been doing it ever since.”

But, before Kessler could head off to the Carnegie Institute of Technology to pursue his dream, he was drafted into the Army. He worked as an intelligence scout in the 28th Infantry Division, 2nd Battalion. Aware of his desire to become an artist, Kessler’s colonel sent him behind enemy lines at dark in Normandy, France, and Germany, to sketch where the enemy was positioned.

Compass and sketchbook in hand, Kessler would make happy little drawings on his map that included the enemy, farmhouse and trees.

“The colonel would say to me, ‘I don’t want a masterpiece, just show me where the enemy is so I can send the information to the artillery,’” Kessler says. “You had to learn how to crouch as low as you could, crawl and know where the enemy was. When you peeked over a hedge, you had to be elusive.”

After he proudly served his country, Kessler returned to New York.

“In the Army, you learn what true brotherhood is,” Kessler says. “I learned to never let anything bother me for more than one day. After three-and-a-half years, you get the GI bill to go back to college, get your tuition paid and art supplies, and there’s nobody shooting at you.”

Kessler may have been set on becoming a serious painter, but when his idea for a children’s book took off, it launched a 61-year career. During that time he’s illustrated more than 200 books, many of which he also wrote. He collaborated with his late wife, Ethel, on 40 books for children. And three of his books have been named New York Times Top 10 Best Illustrated Children’s Books.

“Sometimes I sneak in some little creature, like a little ant, that will go from page to page,” Kessler says. “Or I’ll play a little game by hiding something, like a little spider. As long as you love what you’re doing, then it becomes fun.”

Leonard Kessler on ...
... Andy Warhol
“I knew Andy Warhol back when he had so little money, he’d never been to a restaurant, let alone knew what a menu was. He was living off of Campbell’s chicken soup. I ran into him one day and he says, ‘Lenny, pop art. Pop art with Campbell’s Soup cans. It’s the next big thing.’ Andy and I shared a studio for a while. His mother came to visit with her 28 Siamese cats, all named Sam. He did a little paperback book about them.”