Born in 1936, Ralph Steadman began his creative life drawing cartoons, but quickly spread his far-reaching... uh... reach... into several other areas of creativity, several of which are actually legal. He has published illustrated versions of several books, including Animal Farm, Alice in Wonderland, and Treasure Island. In addition to illustration, Steadman has also written and illustrated several books of his own, including a biography of Sigmund Freud, a farsical and fantastic biography of Leonardo da Vinci, and The Big I Am, which is a sort of a biography of God.
In collaboration (of a sort) with wildman, junkie, freak, and occasional writer Hunter S. Thompson, Steadman was midwife to the birthing of what became Gonzo journalism, and illustrated Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, considered by many to be the high-water mark of the genre. He has more recently become interested in printmaking, and has completed a terrific and hilarious series of etchings on writers from Sidonie Gabrielle Colette to William Shakespeare to William Burroughs to Franz Kafka.
He has published several collections of memories, musings, beautiful lies and horrible truths, including Tales of the Weirrd and Scar Strangled Banger. In 1983, he published That's My Dad and C'est Mon Papa (the French translation). During the 1990's, Steadman wrote and illustrated several children's books, No Room to Swing a Cat, That's my Dad, and Teddy Where Are You?. Even more recently came the publication of two books: The Grapes of Ralph and Still Life With Bottle, an illustrated history of (surprise, surprise!) whisky. The University of Kent awarded him an honorary Doctorate of Literature, though no one seems to know why. In 2003 he published You Can't Get to East Kilbride From Here: Poems 1968-2003, which is actually really impressive, in a typically scatterbrained way. He has been married for 31 years and spends most of his time in New York City.
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