Sendak said that Marshall was 'uncommercial to a fault' and, as a consequence, was little recognized by the awards committees. Marshall was a friend of the late Maurice Sendak, who called him the 'last in the line' of children's writers for whom children's books were a cottage industry. In 1999, George and Martha became the stars of an eponymous animated TV show, which aired on HBO Family and Canadian YTV.

Marshall continued creating books for children until his untimely death in 1992 from AIDS-related complications. His mother was watching Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, and the main characters, George and Martha, ultimately became characters in one of his children's books (as two hippos). It is stated that he discovered his vocation on a 1971 summer afternoon, lying in a hammock and drawing. His obituary states that he died of a brain tumor however, his sister has since clarified that he died of AIDS.

He died on October 13, 1992, three days after his 50th birthday. He lived between an apartment in the Chelsea district of New York City and a home in Mansfield Hollow, Connecticut. He returned to Texas, where he attended San Antonio College, and later transferred to Southern Connecticut State University where he received degrees in French and history. I knew I would die if I stayed there so I diligently studied the viola, and eventually won a scholarship to the New England Conservatory in Boston.' He entered the New England Conservatory of Music but injured his hand, ending his music career. Marshall said: 'Beaumont is deep south and swampy and I hated it. The family later moved to Beaumont, Texas. His mother sang in the local church choir. His father worked on the railroad and had a band. James Marshall was born in 1942, in San Antonio, Texas, where he grew up on his family's 85-acre farm. professional librarians posthumously awarded him the bi-ennial Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal for 'substantial and lasting contribution' to American children's literature. He illustrated books exclusively as James Marshall when he created both text and illustrations he sometimes wrote as Edward Marshall.

James Edward Marshall (Octo– Octo 30 years ago ( October 13, 1992)) was an American illustrator and writer of children's books, probably best known for the George and Martha series of picture books (1972–1988). American illustrator and writer of children's books (1942-1992)

George and martha by james marshall