Hilary Knight, Original Plaza Hotel portrait of Eloise (1956)- Fine Books and Manuscripts Sale, Bonhams, New York, 5 December. Estimate $100,000-$150,000: Eloise, an adventurous girl who lives on the “tippy-top” floor of New York’s Plaza Hotel in Kay Thompson’s children’s books of the same name, came alive through Hilary Knight’s illustrations; his portrait of Eloise was created for Thompson as a gift. The work, however, has had a life as mischievous as Eloise herself. After hanging in the Plaza’s hallway for three years, it was stolen in 1960. Knight got an anonymous tip that led him to the drawing, abandoned in a skip two years later....

Artist and author Hilary Knight has illustrated more than 70 books, eight of which he wrote, and many Broadway musical posters, but he is most famous for his drawings of Eloise, that precocious 6-year-old who lived at the Plaza hotel with her nanny; her dog, Weenie; and her turtle, Skipperdee. Knight envisaged Eloise as a glorious mess: She combed her flotsam hair with a fork, and, best of all, she had full run of the Plaza to do whatever she pleased. Eloise sprang from the imagination of the actor, singer, dancer, and author Kay Thompson, who also lived at the Plaza when she wrote the first of four Eloise books in the mid-1950s. Thomps...

New York− On December 5, Bonhams Fine Books and Manuscripts sale includes The World of Hilary Knight featuring his original Plaza Hotel portrait of Eloise, (estimate: $100,000-150,000), a portrait that captures the irrepressible spirit of one of the most influential children's book characters in history.

Toting a history as lively as its inspiration, this portrait was painted as a birthday gift by Hilary Knight for Eloise co-creator Kay Thompson in 1956, on the eve of Kay's appearance on Edward R. Murrow's Person to Person on CBS, where she proudly displayed the painting to guest host Jerry Lewis. Shortly thereafter, she l...

A selection of illustrator and writer Hilary Knight’s artwork, including the original portrait of Eloise, will be auctioned at Bonhams New York on Dec. 5. It’s estimated to fetch between US$100,000 and US$150,000.

Depicting whimsical Eloise—one of the most influential children’s book characters—in black, white, and pink, the portrait was painted by Knight as a birthday gift for Eloise’s co-creator Kay Thomson in 1956, on the eve of her appearance on Person to Person on CBS, where Thomson showed the painting to the program’s guest host Jerry Lewis.

Shortly after, Thomson, a resident at The Plaza Hotel where her fictional character Elo...

A chronology of books from childhood to the present.

I’ve been a bookworm since I can remember. But whether I was naturally attracted to novels that reflected my latent feminism, or the books I happened to read helped shape the values I have today, here is a chronology of the books—from Eloise to Jane Eyre—that have inspired my strong sense of girl power.  

Eloise is a little girl living the dream at The Plaza Hotel in New York City with her nanny, her dog Weenie and her turtle Skipperdee. She is not yet pretty but she is already a Person and she is interested in people when they are not boring. For a precocious girl like myself...