Marilyn Hirsh, a children’s author and illustrator, incorporated her Peace Corps experience in India and her Jewish heritage into much of her work, written and visual. Her interests in art and history also surfaced at the Indian art courses she taught at two New York colleges. In 1988, she died of cancer at the young age of 44.In 1978, Hirsh received both the Asian Cultural Center UNESCO prize and the Noma Concours Award for children’s picture book illustrations for "The Elephants and the Mice". The next year, she won the Sydney Taylor Body-Of-Work Award, and in 1986 "Joseph Who Loved The Sabbath" earned the Sydney Taylor Children’s Book Award. She garnered several other awards for her writing and illustrating before her death in October 1988.