SUBMITTED BY Timbo

October 6, 2003 — The man who wrote the book that inspired the movie "Shrek" and its sequel died last Friday at the age of 95. The Washington Post takes a more detailed look at the life of this talented author.

Less macabre than Charles Addams, more stinging than James Thurber, Mr. Steig sketched all variety of woebegone adults and too-wise children. He drew masochistically inclined men literally being stomped on by women they want and sprightly, slightly mean tots who talked back to their supposed superiors.

One cartoon showed a mother trying to persuade her youngster to eat his broccoli. The kid replies, "I say it's spinach, and I say the hell with it."

He took everyday utterances and common despairs and gave them a delicate ironic spin. One of his first pieces for the New Yorker showed two men in jail, one complaining to the other how hard it was to keep his kid in line.

With early aspirations toward seafaring and beachcombing, Mr. Steig used his illustrations to show his sympathies laid with uninhibited children far more than their silly parents. But his work in children's books did not start until he was 60, out of financial necessity to support his ex-wives and his parents.

Read the rest at the link below.