William Wallace Denslow

Humpty-Dumpty and The Three Bears, written and illustrated by William Wallace Denslow. William Wallace Denslow, known professionally as W. W. Denslow, was an American illustrator and caricaturist remembered for his work in collaboration with author L. Frank Baum, especially his illustrations of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. He was born in Philadelphia on May 5, 1856. Although he attended schools for brief periods, Denslow was primarily a self-taught artist. He traveled through-out the United States working as an artist and newspaper reporter and eventually settled in Chicago, where he met and began his collaboration with L. Frank Baum, author of the Oz books. W. W. Denslow revised and adapted several of the best-known classical, fairy tales, removing the elements of cruelty and anything that might frighten little children and illustrated them with pictures of action and fun in brilliant colors.