The British illustrator and author Raymond Briggs is dead. The publisher Penguin Random House announced, citing Briggs’ family, that he died yesterday at the age of 88. The Brit is best known for his illustration of a snowman in the children’s book of the same name, which was published in 1978 and sold 5.5 million copies worldwide.
Briggs hung drawings of fans, especially children, on his wall and treasured them, the family said. “He has shared his humor and weirdness with his family and circle of artist friends—at get-togethers, dress-up parties, and summer picnics in the garden.”
In the 1980s, in addition to the children’s books, Briggs’ work “When the Wind Blows” about the fate of an elderly couple before and after a nuclear disaster caused a sensation.
