John Schoenherr is an American illustrator who was born in New York City, July 5, 1935. He is a graduate of Stuyvesant High School. He studied art at The Art Students League of New York with Will Barnet and at Pratt Institute.

Much of the attention he has gotten is as a science fiction illustrator. This is considerable and well-deserved, however he is also very well-known as a wild-life artist, childrens book illustrator and scratchboard artist. Most of his illustration work uses this technique and he was long known as the only commercial artist who specialized in it.

Among the books he has illustrated are The Wolfling and Rascal by Sterling North the latter of which received a Newbery Honor and The Illustrated Dune by Frank Herbert.

This last grew out of his work for Analog magazine especially under John W. Campbell, Jr. and Ben Bova. He illustrated the original magazine serializations of Dune for them, as well as doing covers for Anne McCaffrey's "Weyr Search" and "Dragonrider" which were later revised into the novel Dragonflight.

He won a Caldecott Medal for The Owl Service by Jane Yolen in 1988.

His knowledge of zoology was very useful in creating alien creatures, and he also worked for paperback and hardcover SF publishers like Ace Books and Doubleday.

He is an emeritus member of the American Society of Mammologists.

External links

• A curriculum vitae
• His Gallery's biography