Jeanne Bendick papers

Jeanne Bendick was born on February 25, 1919, in New York, New York. Her father was Louis Xerxes Garfunkel, an inventor and restaurant businessman, and her mother was Amelia Maurice Hess Garfunkel, the daughter of French immigrants. Bendick attended the New York High School of Arts and Music, and graduated from Parsons School of Design with a B.A. degree in 1939. Because she was attending school during the Depression, she illustrated a children's magazine called Jack and Jill and taught a children's art class on the weekends, in order to help pay for her tuition. After her graduation, she was awarded a scholarship to study in Paris for a year. But with World War II raging in Europe, she decided against leaving home.

Bendick was most inspired by her maternal grandfather, an artist who spent many hours teaching her to draw. On many Sundays he also took her to the American Museum of Natural History. "Grandpa Charley was my hero," she once said, "a scholar and an artist, gentle, patient, full of humor, and endlessly generous with his time." Through these early experiences, Bendick conceived a lifelong interest in science and the desire to illuminate it for young readers.

An author and/or illustrator of over one hundred books, Bendick is particularly noted for her comprehensive research, clear text, and simple illustrations; her work reflects her ability to hold a reader's interest even when elucidating a complex principle or invention. Much of what she has written clarifies the areas of television, movies, time, shapes, numbers, ecology, astronomy, heredity, and science history, urging in her readers a basic understanding followed by the curiosity to learn more.

On November 24, 1940, she married Robert Bendick, a photographer who became one of the first three cameramen at the emerging CBS-TV network. This connection enabled her to work in the television field as a story editor and scriptwriter for series such as NBC-TV's The First Look from 1965-1966, and Giant Step, 1968, as well as a segment for ABC-TV's 20/20 titled "Evolution/Creation." During World War II, both Bendick and her husband offered their services full-time; he enlisted in the Army Air Forces, she joined the American Women's Voluntary Services. They continued to work jointly on projects even when he was away.

Bendick has commented, "One part of the job I set for myself is to make those young readers see that everything is connected to everything-that science isn't something apart. It's a part of everyday life. It has been that way since the beginning. The things the earliest scientists learned were the building blocks for those who came after. Sometimes they accepted earlier ideas. Sometimes they questioned them and challenged them. I want to involve readers directly in the text so they will ask themselves questions and try to answer them. If they can't answer, that's not really important... Questions are more important than answers... If I were a fairy godmother, my gift to every child would be curiosity."

(Source: Gale Literary Databases. "Jeanne Bendick." Contemporary Authors. 13 Nov. 2002. 12 July 2005.