About Jeanyee Wong

By her own account, Jeanyee Wong was a headstrong and pampered little girl. At the age of 10, she moved from San Francisco to the Bronx with her family. She attended Haaren High School on 10th Avenue and 59th Street. After graduating from Cooper Union, where she had studied calligraphy with George Salter, Jeanyee apprenticed to Fritz Kredel, whose German-speaking mother called her Wongchen. However, Jeanyee didn’t find her calling in wood cutting. Instead she became a successful freelance designer, calligrapher and illustrator. She did hundreds, if not thousands, of book jackets and many illustrated books, collaborating with some authors again and again. Advertising firms frequently used her prodigious skills, which allowed her to live comfortably later in life. Well into her ninties, she remained active, creatively and socially, and just as strong-willed as in her youth.