David Macaulay was born on December 2, 1946 in Lancashire, England, but moved to Bloomfield, New Jersey when he was 11. He received a bachelor's degree in architecture from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). Before becoming an author and illustrator, he worked as an interior designer, a junior high school teacher, and instructor of interior design at RISD from 1969 to 1973. His first book, Cathedral: The Story of Its Construction, was published in 1973. His other books include City, Castle, Pyramid, Mill, Underground, Mosque, The Way Things Work, Rome Antics, and Shortcut. He has received numerous awards including a Caldecott Honor Medal in 1991 for Black and White and the Washington… Children's Book Guild Award for a Body of Non-Fiction Work in 1977.