Louis Wain (1860 1939) was an English artist best known for his drawings of anthropomorphic cats and kittens. His fame became established with the publication of his first cat drawing, A Kitten's Christmas Party, in the 1886 Christmas edition of The Illustrated London News. By 1890, he was a household name, and, in acknowledgment of his expertise on cats, was elected president of the National Cat Club. In the1890s, he turned his hand to illustrating children's books; over his lifetime there would be more than 100 beautiful books such as this. He also drew the first ever screen cartoon cat, "Pussyfoot," but the cartoons were not a cinema success. Never becoming wealthy, he spent his life supporting his mother and five sisters. In his later years he suffered a head injury and was committed to the pauper's ward in a mental hospital where he continued to draw and paint. Though Wain never seems to have had a break in life, Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald wrote, "Probably no artist has given a greater number of young people pleasure than he has."
