Knight would sometimes come into the studio in the morning and find his rough sketches meant for a fifth volume, Eloise Takes a Bawth, destroyed by Thompson.
The collaboration between author and artist ended, however, after Thompson withdrew a fifth Eloise book because she felt the Eloise phenomenon had become too big. Knight was even commissioned by the Plaza Hotel to paint a picture of Eloise that to this day adorns the first floor (albeit a second edition, as the original painting vanished after a rowdy fraternity convened at the hotel). The success of Eloise (1955), Eloise in Paris (1957), Eloise at Christmastime (1958), and Eloise in Moscow (1959) led to a big blitz in Eloise merchandising. Soon Thompson and Knight were collaborating on four books about Eloise and her adventures with her nanny her dog, and her pet turtle. After meeting Thompson in the mid-1950s, Knight sent her a Christmas card of a little girl named Eloise riding with Santa. Kay Thompson created the idea of Eloise, a bratty, loquacious six-year-old, but it was Knight who gave Eloise form. A 1930 painting by Knight’s mother, showing a young girl with a saucy attitude and stance, influenced Knight s own artistic creation of Eloise. Knight is the son of artist-writers Clayton and Katharine Sturges Knight, active in the 1920s and 1930s. Although the possessive phrase “Kay Thompson’s Eloise” appears on the front cover of the Eloise books, it would be hard to imagine the stories of the little girl who lives in New York’s Plaza Hotel being half as successful without the contribution of Hilary Knight.
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