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[caption id="attachment_51999" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Hilary’s illustration of his work/studio at his East Hampton home. Annette Hinkle photos.[/caption]
By Annette Hinkle
Everyone knows that Eloise, the precocious six-year-old girl who has been making mischief in books that bear her name since 1955, lives at the Plaza Hotel in New York City.
[caption id="attachment_52000" align="alignleft" width="300"]
Hilary Knight in his East Hampton studio.[/caption]
But did you know that author and illustrator Hilary Knight, the man who created Eloise’s memorable visage, lives much closer? In East Hampton, as a matter of fact, where for the last 30 years he has created much of his memorable work in his home studio on Squire’s Path off Stephen Hands Path.
It’s an unassuming house that sits in a quiet neighborhood. But the inside of his home and the amazing garden out back is a veritable wonderland for fans of Mr. Knight’s work. A stylized illustration of his home studio hangs on the wall of the room where he works, while the walls and ceiling of a first floor bathroom are adorned with a hand painted jungle theme featuring images of an orangutan dressed in Eloise inspired clothing (fans of his 1964 book “Where’s Wallace” might notice that the ape bears a striking resemblance to that of the book’s title character).
But now, Mr. Knight, who divides his time between East Hampton and Manhattan, is moving on. After three decades, he has decided it’s time to downsize. He’s selling his Squire’s Path home and moving to a smaller residence elsewhere on the East End.
“I can’t do it anymore,” he admits of his current home. “It’s two floors, packed with merchandise, books and records.”
This Saturday afternoon, Mr. Knight hosts a gala open house, estate sale and book signing at his home. Though Eloise is his best know character, she’s not Mr. Knight’s only contribution to children’s literature. He has illustrated over 50 books, nine of which he also wrote. Fans of his work will be pleased to know that in addition to antique and hand-crafted furniture, novelties, and decorations, the estate sale will include Eloise memorabilia and books such as “Where’s Wallace.”
Visitors will also be invited to explore Mr. Knight’s whimsical backyard sanctuary, which would look quite at home in one of his books. Created over the course of 30 years with the help of his talented landscape designer, Wilson Lopez, the pastoral property features a duck pond with lily pads and a dock, a gazebo overlooking the swimming pool and something Mr. Knight calls “Cocktail Island,” a sculpted little environment perfect for a drink by the lagoon with friends.
The property was the setting for Lena Dunham's 2015 HBO documentary, "It's Me, Hilary: The Man Who Drew Eloise” (Ms. Dunham is a big fan and has an Eloise tattoo on her back). Eloise is such a household name, it’s hard to believe that Mr. Knight and Kay Thompson collaborated on only four Eloise books, all of them in the 1950s after which Ms. Thompson pretty much lost interest in the project.
In the ‘60s, the two briefly teamed up again to create “Eloise Takes a Bawth,” but Ms. Thompson would not allow the book to be published and for many years, isolated herself from Mr. Knight and others. Ms. Thompson died in 1998 and in 2002, the book was finally published.
“Kay and I did Eloise very much together. Kay didn’t always agree with that,” explains Mr. Knight. “Joint collaboration is very odd and it doesn’t often happen in children’s books. But from the beginning, it was both of us.”
Eloise was also very much about Ms. Thompson’s personal life, which Mr. Knight says was always somewhat mysterious — though he got hints through his work on Eloise.
“There were very secret things about Kay, things I didn’t quite understand,” he says. “I never really knew about her father.”
Which is why there’s never a father mentioned in the Eloise books. In 2015, Mr. Knight wrote and illustrated “The 365 Days of Eloise: My Book of Holidays” and in it, he references Eloise’s mysterious non-present parent.
“The book is about holidays, so we had to say something about Father’s Day,” says Mr. Knight. “ She’s sitting in a chair with photos and looking wistfully at a little oval picture though you can’t see what it is. The mother is drifting by, and she’s saying ‘Father’s Day is an invention.’ Which it is. Eloise has obviously asked about her father and misses him.”
Mr. Knight concedes that this multi-faceted complexity of personality may be what makes Eloise so endearing and keeps her so enduring more than 60 years after her creation.
“She has real depth, problems and history,” says Mr. Knight who has plans for several new Eloise books. “In one, I’m almost sure Eloise will unlock her secret diary. I’m the keeper of the character. It’s going to be more mine now. I know more about Eloise than anyone else does, and I have much stronger feelings about it.”
But first, Mr. Knight has some technical issues to work through.
“I’m in a very peculiar period with Eloise,” he admits. “It’s stalled, totally stalled because of Kay Thompson’s estate. I thought ‘Let Eloise take a very long nap’ and that’s what she’s doing. We’ll have some fantastic things coming up – I’ve got some ideas about what could happen with her, but it will take time.”
While Eloise may be taking a rest, Mr. Knight certainly isn’t. Coming up for him is an Eloise-themed exhibit at the New York Historical Society as well as a show at Lincoln Center featuring his theater-related work, including posters and portraits of theater sets.
But for now, even though he’s downsizing, Mr. Knight is happy he’s staying close to his favorite spot on the East End.
“Sag Harbor is the most amazing place. That can’t go away,” he says. “Everything is getting glamorous. We don’t need more dress shops. We need great restaurants, and I would hope cheaper restaurants.”
“All the time I’ve been here, I’ve wanted an Indian restaurant,” he adds. “I’m an Indian nut. My plan is to go to Rajasthan, join a gypsy encampment and spend my last days there.”
Just imagine what kind of book Mr. Knight could create about that experience.
Hilary Knight opens his house at 1 Squire’s Path in East Hampton on Saturday, June 11 from 1 to 4 p.m. In addition to selling many of his personal items, he will also sign copies of his books, including “Where’s Wallace” which will be available at the event.
on Jun 9, 2016