Mary Eleanor Jessie Knox née Shepard (25 December 1909 – 4 September 2000)[1] was an English illustrator of children's books. She is best known for the Mary Poppins stories written by P. L. Travers (1934 to 1988).[2] She used her married name Mary Knox outside the publishing industry.[1]
She was the daughter of E. H. Shepard, a famous illustrator of children's literature including Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne in the 1920s and a 1931 edition of The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame. She was the illustrator for the U.S. publisher Lippincot's 1937 edition of Pigeon Post by Arthur Ransome.[3]
Shepard graduated from the Slade School of Art. She was 23 when her father was too busy to illustrate Mary Poppins and Travers discovered her work on a Christmas card.[1]
She married E. V. Knox, 28 years her senior, in 1937. He was editor of Punch and father of the writer Penelope Fitzgerald.[1][2][4]
Shepard died on 4 September 2000, at the age of 90.