written by Byron Preiss in a book he edited in 1981, entitled The Art of Leo & Diane Dillon. They once described their work as incorporating motifs derived from their respective heritages. This can be demonstrated in their work for Margaret Musgrove's Ashanti to Zulu, which used tribal motifs and combined historical with contemporary styles. On May 28, 2012, Ellison reported on his website his reception of a phone call from Diane announcing Leo's death at the age of 79 from lung cancer two days prior. Spectrum Fantastic Art, an annual art competition and art book project of which the couple were general managers, confirmed Leo's death on its website. The obituary of Leo in The New York Times praised the Dillons jointly as "one of the world's pre-eminent illustrators for young people, producing artwork — praised for its vibrancy, ecumenicalism and sheer sumptuous beauty — that was a seamless amalgam of both their hands", also noting the ethnoracial diversity of characters in the Dillons' work in the 1970s, "until then, the smiling faces portrayed in picture books had been overwhelmingly white." The Dillons had one surviving son. Lee (Lionel John Dillon III), born 1965, became an artist and collaborated with his parents several times, including the illustrations for Pish, Posh, Said Hieronymus Bosch by Nancy Willard (1991). Both Leo and Diane lived in the Cobble Hill neighborhood at the time of Leo's death. Picture books illustrated by Leo and Diane Dillon 1970 The Ring in the Prairie, written by John Bierhorst / Dial Press 1972 Honey, I Love, Eloise Greenfield / Viking 1973 Blast Off, Linda C. Cain and Susan Rosenbaum / Xerox 1974 Whirlwind Is a Ghost Dancing, compiled by Natalia Maree Belting / Dutton 1974 Songs and Stories from Uganda, W. Moses Serwadda, Hewitt Pantaleoni / World Music Press 1974 The Third Gift, Jan R. Carew / Little Brown 1975 The Hundred Penny Box, Sharon Bell Mathis / Viking 1975 Song of the Boat, Lorenz B. Graham / Crowell 1976 Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears, Verna Aardema / Dial Press 1977 Ashanti to Zulu: African Traditions, Margaret Musgrove / Dial Press 1977 Who's in Rabbit's House: A Masai Tale, Verna Aardema / Dial Press 1980 Two Pair of Shoes, P. L. Travers / Viking Press 1980 Children of the Sun, Jan R. Carew / Little Brown 1985 Brother to the Wind, Mildred Pitts Walter / Lothrop,