William Steig -- born on this date in 1907

The noted cartoonist and author died in 2003 at the age of 95 -- (biographical paragraph by Garrison Keillor for Writer's Almanac)

 It's the birthday of cartoonist and author William Steig, born in New York City (1907), a cartoonist for The New Yorker for many years. He's best known for his children's book Shrek! (1993), about an ugly green ogre who hears the prophecy of a witch that he will marry a princess even uglier than he. It was made into an animated movie in 2002. William Steig said, 'If I'd had it my way, I'd have been a professional athlete, a sailor, a beachcomber, or some other form of hobo, a painter, a gardener, a novelist, a banjo-player, a traveler, anything but a rich man.'