Cindy Wheeler

Montgomery native Cindy Wheeler (1955- ) is an American writer, illustrator, and fine arts painter. Her most recent work as a fine arts painter blends impressionist and realist techniques, especially in her landscape pieces. However, she is best known for her children’s books, particularly the Marmalade series, which chronicles the adventures of an orange cat. She has authored and illustrated more than a dozen books and has also illustrated several books for other writers. She received the Alabama Author Award from the Alabama Library Association in 1986 for Marmalade’s Christmas Present. 

Wheeler was born on May 17, 1955, in Montgomery, Montgomery County, to Kenneth Bradford Wheeler and Joanne Dingus Wheeler, who both worked as educators. She lived in Auburn, Lee County, for the first three years of her life. Afterward, she spent much of her childhood in the Appalachian regions of Virginia and North Carolina, where she developed an early interest in art and storytelling. Wheeler returned to Alabama to attend Auburn University, where she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1977. She wrote and illustrated her first book, A Good Day, a Good Night, for a senior-year project at Auburn. She based the book on her aunt’s unpublished short story about a cat named Marmalade. Her professor was impressed by it and encouraged her to send it out to publishers, but none initially published it.

After finishing her bachelor’s in fine arts, she moved to Nashville, Tennessee, where she worked at Zibart’s Bookstore as a children’s book buyer and salesclerk from 1977 to 1978. There, she met her future husband, Patrick Lee, who also worked at the bookstore; the two married in 1980 and would eventually have two children. Both Wheeler and Lee left their jobs at the bookstore to move to New York, and, within three months of their move, the publisher Lippincott agreed to publish A Good Day, a Good Night. After a short stint as a waitress, Wheeler worked as an editorial secretary in the juvenile department at publisher Alfred A. Knopf in New York City from 1977 to 1980. She also continued her studies, completing several graduate courses at the School of Visual Arts in New York City in 1980. 

A Good Day, a Good Night was released in 1980. Aside from a period in the mid-1980s when she worked as an assistant to the art director at publisher Lothrop, Lee & Shepherd, Wheeler spent much of her career throughout the next two decades writing and illustrating children’s books. She subsequently published several other Marmalade books, including Marmalade’s Snowy Day (1982), Marmalade’s Yellow Leaf (1982), Marmalade’s Nap (1983), Marmalade’s Picnic (1983), and Marmalade’s Christmas Present (1984), which received the Alabama Author Award in 1986. Her other books, which include Rose (1985), Sally Wants to Help (1988), and Early Easter Morning (1997), have frequently featured animals, especially cats, and focused on everyday experiences that are accessible to young readers. She also produced coloring books, including Spring Is Here! (1986) and A Day on the Farm (1987). In 1995, she published Simple Signs, a picture book introduction to sign language, in honor of her son, who relied on sign language to communicate in his early years; Wheeler published a second children’s book on sign language three years later. 

In addition to writing and illustrating her own books, Wheeler illustrated works by several other authors. These include One Step, Two (1981) by Charlotte Zolotow, That Olive! (1984) by Alice Schertle and What’s in Your Basket? (1998) by Jane Gerver, among others. Her work as an illustrator typically combines simple line drawings with color and is used to support and clarify the text for young readers. In 1988, Wheeler and her husband opened The Book Store on Wall Street in Asheville, North Carolina. The shop focused on children’s books and general interest books, and was home to two real-life cats, one of whom was named Marmalade, after the beloved character. The bookstore closed in 2001, when the family relocated to Marin County, California.

In more recent years, Wheeler has prioritized fine art painting, with a focus on mountain landscapes and wildlife subjects. Many of her wildlife paintings feature cheetahs, a species which she came to love when she traveled to South Africa in 2006 to volunteer with the nonprofit Cheetah Outreach. Having eventually returned to North Carolina, Wheeler currently lives and works in Asheville, where her paintings feature prominently at several local galleries.

Selected Works

A Good Day, a Good Night (1980)

Marmalade's Snowy Day (1982).

Marmalade's Christmas Present (1984)

Rose (1985)

Sally Wants to Help (1988)