Walter Harrison Cady (1877-1970), artist, illustrator, writer and longtime friend of Thornton W. Burgess, was a nationally known figure during the first half of the 20th century. Today, he is best remembered for his illustrations of Burgess’ story characters and his own comic strip, Peter Rabbit.

 In 1911 Cady began to illustrate some of Thornton Burgess’ stories and in 1913 provided illustrations for the Burgess Bedtime Stories. Over the next 50 years, he served as Burgess’ primary illustrator providing watercolor and pen and ink drawings for both books and newspaper bedtime stories. Although Thornton Burgess worked with a number of artists, his five decade collaboration with Cady is best known. Burgess was a master storyteller, but it was Cady who gave the stories a colorful dimension. As Burgess wrote in his autobiography, “The characters I created in text he (Cady) visualized, and then on his drawing board made loveable, each with a touch of that quaint humor in which his pen and brush are ever dipped.”

 Born in Gardner, Massachusetts, Cady was a self-taught artist who, at the age of nineteen, migrated to New York City to launch his career. Some of Cady’s first professional freelance work was done for the McLaughlin Brothers, publishers of children’s books, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle newspaper and magazines such as Truth, St. Nicholas, Harpers’ Roundtable and Life.