Early Career

When his family moved to New York City in the 1920ʼs, Galdone took a variety of jobs before finding work in commercial art studios.

Galdone worked for some years in the art department at Doubleday in Garden City, N.Y., on Long Island. There he became friends with Ken McCormick who was to become editor in chief of Doubleday — one of the connections to the publishing world that helped him in establishing himself as a freelance illustrator. The transition came abruptly when he was prohibited from using the Doubleday studio to work on the freelance jobs he had been taking on. He then moved to New York City, eventually settling in an apartment on West 10th Street in Greenwich Village. There he became an independent illustrator in earnest. Working without an agent, he produced a steady stream of jackets and book illustrations.