Mary Chalmers
Mary Eileen Chalmers (born March 16, 1927) is an American author and illustrator best known for her children’s books about cats, especially the Harry the anthropomorphic kitten series. She often drew her own illustrations and used a distinctive layout that mixed full pages of text with drawings woven into the margins and borders.
Born in Camden, New Jersey, and raised in Haddon Heights, she grew up in an artistic environment. After graduating from Haddon Heights High in 1944, she earned a painting degree from the Philadelphia Museum College of Art and sold watercolors to pursue a career as an artist. She later worked as an illustrator for Holiday and Jack and Jill magazines, which sparked her interest in writing children’s stories.
Her first published story, Come for a Walk With Me, appeared in 1955 after several rejections and sold about 6,000 copies in three months. That year she also published Here Comes the Trolley Car, followed by A Hat for Amy Jean in 1956. Each book featured her own illustrations and stood out for its integrated mix of text and pictures rather than simple one-page illustrations.
As she continued writing, Ursula Nordstrom of Harper & Row encouraged her, inspiring the creation of the Harry series starting with Throw A Kiss, Harry. By 1967 she had ten cats and a Pomeranian who helped her with poses for drawings. In 1998 she donated a collection of her illustrations, sketches, layouts, and dummy books to the University of Southern Mississippi.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 01:25 (CET).