Leontyne Price was the first African American to have a successful career as a diva in the European operatic tradition. Her performance as Tosca in 1955 created a sensation, partly for this reason, but more for her marvelous voice and ability. She had already been singled out by Virgil Thomson and performed in the premiere of Samuel Barber's Prayers of Kierkegaard. She has given wonderful performances as A?da, Madame Butterfly, Donna Anna, Pamina, and Cleopatra in Barber's Anthony and Cleopatra, and also as a concert artist. Price's honors include 19 Grammy awards, including the Lifetime Achievement Award, numerous honorary doctorates, three Emmy awards, the National Medal of the Arts, and… the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Price recently expanded her talents to include writing. In 1990 she brought the world of opera to young readers with her award-winning retelling of A?da.
Leo Dillon was born in Brooklyn, New York on March 2, 1933. He attended Parsons School of Design in New York City, where he met his wife Diane (Sorber) Dillon. They graduated in 1956, married in 1957, and soon became a husband and wife team of illustrators. During his lifetime, they published over 40 children's books including Hakon of Rogen's Saga by Eric Hagard, The Ring in the Prairie by John Bierhorst, The People Could Fly: American Black Folktales by Virginia Hamilton, and If Kids Ran the World. They won the Caldecott Medal in 1976 for Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears by Verna Aardema and in 1977 for Ashanti to Zulu: African Traditions by Margaret Musgrove. They also won a Coretta… Scott King Award and five Coretta Scott King Honors. In 2002, they published the first picture book they wrote themselves, Rap a Tap Tap: Here's Bojangles-Think of That! They also created cover designs for adult science fiction books. He died from complications of lung surgery on May 26, 2012 at the age of 79.
Diane Dillon is director of scholarly and undergraduate programs at the Newberry Library.