Robert McCloskey (1915 - June 30, 2003) was an American author and illustrator of children's books. His most famous was Make Way for Ducklings.

The 1941 book tells of a mallard family that comes to live in a pond in the Public Garden in the center of Boston, Massachusetts, and how a friendly policeman stops traffic when the mother takes her eights ducklings across the street.

The story has become an institution in Boston. In 1987, sculptor Nancy Schon created a bronze version of Mrs. Mallard and the ducklings in the Public Garden, which are climbed on by thousands of children every year. The park is also the site of an annual "Make Way for Ducklings" parade on Mother's Day, featuring hundreds of children dressed in the costumes of their favorite characters.

McCloskey is also the author and illustrator of the "Homer Price" stories, featuring a boy in a small Midwestern city whose curiosity and ingenuity leads him to foil bank robbers, find the world's largest weed, and repair a doughnut machine so well that it can't be shut off.

Biography

Born in Ohio, McCloskey came to Boston after winning a scholarship to the Vesper George Art School in Boston in 1932. He often told reporters that when returned to Boston several years later, he spotted a family of ducks amid traffic near Charles Street, an image that he tucked away in his mind.

During World War II, he married Margaret (Peggy) Durand, daughter of children's author Ruth Sawyer. They had two daughters and settled in New York City, spending summers on Scott Island, Maine , the setting for another well-known book, Blueberries for Sal .