Illustrator, painter, lithographer. Born in San Diego, CA on Aug. 11, 1908. Freeman studied at the San Diego School of Fine Arts and continued in 1928 at the ASL in NYC under John Sloan and Harry Wickey. Remaining in NYC, his drawings of the theater were published in the Herald Tribune, New York Times, and Theater Magazine. Most of his career was spent in NYC where he captured the spirit and essence of everyday life during the 1930’s and 1940’s. He illustrated Human Comedy (Saroyan), White Deer (Thurber) and Once Around the Sun (Atkinson). He was the author of Come One, Come All and in 1951 he began illustrating a total of 33 children’s books which he co-authored with his wife, Lydia. During his last 20 years he maintained a home in Santa Barbara, CA. He died on Feb. 1, 1978 while in NYC to meet his editor at Viking Press. Three years before his death, Mayor Lindsey presented him with the keys to the city and dubbed him the “Daumier of New York City.”
