Connecticut to Paris
Esther Holden Averill was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, in 1902, and drew cartoons for a local newspaper as a teenager. She graduated from Vassar with honors in 1923, worked briefly at Women's Wear Daily, and in 1925 moved to France.
Domino Press
In 1931 she and Lila Stanley founded Domino Press in Paris to publish picture books by young artists. Its first title, Daniel Boone, was illustrated by Feodor Rojankovsky, who later won the Caldecott Medal. Domino published until 1938.
Greenwich Village and the Cat Club
Averill settled in Greenwich Village in 1941 and worked in the children's department of the New York Public Library. Harper published The Cat Club in 1944, the first of thirteen Jenny Linsky books. The cats were based on ones she owned or knew. Jenny's Birthday Book was named a New York Times Best Children's Book of the Year.
Her legacy
Averill died in New York in 1992 and left her literary rights to the Library of Congress, where the royalties support children's literature. Beginning in 2003, the New York Review Children's Collection brought the Cat Club books back into print.