John Steptoe

John Steptoe was born in Brooklyn, New York, and grew up in Bedford–Stuyvesant with his sister and two brothers. Their father laid tracks for the precursor of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Steptoe began drawing as a young child and attended the High School of Art and Design in Manhattan, where he was taught by Norman Lewis. However, he dropped out three months before graduation because he didn't find school practical: "It wasn’t my thing. I was getting sick on the train fighting all those people when it wasn’t that important for me to get where I was going."^[1][2]

Steptoe later attended the Vermont Academy, where he studied under the sculptor John Torres, and William Majors, a widely acclaimed painter.^[3]

John Steptoe began his first picture book, Stevie and Me, at age 16.^[4] In 1967, while a high school student, he showed up to the Harper & Row office unannounced with his portfolio. His art impressed a staff member, and Steptoe returned several days later for a meeting with Ursula Nordstrom, director of the children's books. Following their conversation, Steptoe received a letter offering a contract and an advance as soon as he had a rough draft.^[5] Nordstrom wrote, "We think you are tremendously talented and we are delighted to think that your first book will be for us."^[6]

In 1969, 18-year-old Steptoe published the children's book Stevie, which was met with outstanding critical praise. Life magazine printed the book in its entirety and heralded it as "a new kind of book for black children."^[7] Steptoe explained that "the story, the language, is not directed at white children" and that instead he wanted a book that black kids "could read without translating the language, something real which would relate to what a black child would know."

Steptoe went on to illustrate 15 more picture books, including 10 he also wrote. The American Library Association gave a Caldecott The Jumping Mouse in 1985 and Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters in 1988 Caldecott Honor. He won the Coretta Scott King Award for illustration in 1982 for Mother Crocodile written by Rosa Guy, as well as in 1987 for Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters.

All of Steptoe's work involve the African American experience. Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters is based on a 19th century African folk tale, and writing it caused Steptoe to study African culture in more depth than ever before, igniting a pride in his heritage. He hoped that his books would lead African American children to feel similar pride in their origins.^[8] When accepting the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award for Illustration, he said "I am not an exception to the rule among my race of people ... There are a great many others like me where I come from."

Caldecott Honors for Illustration

• 1985 Story of Jumping Mouse-A Native American Legend
• 1988 Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters

Coretta Scott King Award for Illustration

• 1982 Mother Crocodile
• 1988 Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters

Steptoe had two children whom he raised largely as a single father. Bweela, who is one of the models for many of Steptoe's books including Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters, and son Javaka Steptoe, who is an author–illustrator of children's literature as well, and won the 2017 Caldecott Medal for Radiant Child: The Story of Young Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat.^[9]

John Steptoe died of AIDS on August 28, 1989, at St. Luke's Hospital in Manhattan.^[10] He was 38 years old. At the time of his death, Steptoe was among the few African American artists who made a career in children's literature. Following his death, the American Library Association established the John Steptoe Award for New Talent, which is given to affirm new talent and excellence in writing and/or illustration.^[11]