Tasha Tudor (August 28, 1915 – June 18, 2008) was an American illustrator and writer of children's books. Biography Tasha Tudor was born in Boston, Massachusetts as Starling Burgess, the daughter of naval architect W. Starling Burgess, known as "the Skipper" and noted portrait painter Rosamund Tudor. At birth, she was named after her father, but he was an admirer of the War and Peace character Natasha, and his daughter was soon re-christened Natasha. The name was later shortened to Tasha. She spent her early years in Marblehead, Massachusetts, before her father's work relocated the family to North Chevy Chase in Maryland to help with the Wartime effort. Tasha’s parents divorced when she was nine, following her mother's rejection of the strict society in Boston in favor of a more bohemian existence as a painter in Greenwich Village. As a result of their split, Tasha went to live with friends of the family in Redding, Connecticut. This new household was far more creative and less structured, and, as a result, Tasha and the other children were largely left to their own devices. Tasha later referred to this unconventional atmosphere as “the best thing that ever happened to me.” The children spent much of their time performing scenes from Shakespeare and in plays written by "Aunt Gwen," the household matriarch. Tasha had developed a strong desire to live an agrarian lifestyle in the New England countryside, and she worked to advance her dream, even as a young person. In her teen years she hoped to own a dairy cow so earned pocket money, eventually saving enough to purchase her cow, Delilah. When socializing with her mother's friends, Tudor was usually introduced as "Rosamund Tudor's daughter, Tasha", leading others to believe that her last name was Tudor. Liking the sound of it, she adopted the name and eventually changed her surname legally following her second divorce. She married Thomas McCready in 1938 in Redding, Connecticut. Tasha and Thomas McCready purchased a large old farm in Webster, New Hampshire, where four children, Bethany, Seth, Thomas, and Efner, were raised. Her first story, Pumpkin Moonshine, was published in 1938, as a gift for a young niece of her husband. They were divorced in 1961, and her children legally changed their names from McCready to Tudor. A later marriage, to Allan John Woods, lasted only a brief time. Tasha Tudor illustrated nearly one hundred books,