Michael McCurdy (1942-2016) was an award-winning artist, illustrator, author and publisher who worked from his red barn studio in the hills of Great Barrington for twenty-five years before retiring to Springfield, Massachusetts. Born in New York City in 1942 and raised in New Rochelle, New York and Marblehead, Massachusetts, he attended the school of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston (which provided him with a traveling scholarship in 1966), and Tufts University in Medford.
From 1968-1985, under the auspices of Penmaen Press Books, Michael published many small-press first editions for leading American and European writers and poets, including William Saroyan, Joyce Carol Oates, Howard Norman, William Stafford, Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and the Nobel Prize-winning poet Vicente Aleixandre. He has also authored numerous publications himself, including his most recent book, An Algonquian Year: The Year According to the Full Moon.
Mr. McCurdy was the recipient of numerous awards and accolades, twice receiving the New York Times Best Illustrated Books Award. He was featured in Who’s Who in American Art, Who’s Who in America, Contemporary Authors, and Something About the Author. Michael served on the Housing Authority and on the Arts Lottery Commission in Great Barrington. He passed on his skill to others through various adult printmaking courses and has taught at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and Concord Academy in Concord.
His depiction of downtown Great Barrington appears on the face of each BerkShare note.
Great Barrington, scratchboard drawing, 7″ x 11″, 1999
