Fables, the collection that Arnold Lobel wrote and illustrated, won the Caldecott Medal in 1981, a recognition that came near the end of a career spanning more than two decades of children's books.

Lobel was born in Los Angeles on May 22, 1933, and later studied at Pratt Institute, where he trained as an artist. He worked in English as a children's writer, illustrator, picture book writer, commercial artist, and painter. Before his own projects took center stage, he illustrated books for other authors, including Sam the Minuteman, written by Nathaniel Benchley and published in 1969. Through the 1970s, he authored the Frog and Toad series, which ran from 1970 to 1979 and became his most sustained creative effort. He also authored Mouse Soup in 1977, adding to a growing body of work he produced across those years.

Fables arrived in 1981 and brought Lobel the Caldecott Medal, one of the most prominent awards in American children's book illustration. That same body of work earned him the Silver Brush and the Zilveren Griffel, two additional awards he received during his career. The dual role of writer and illustrator, which he took on across much of his output, ran through Fables just as it had through the Frog and Toad series.

Lobel died in New York City on December 4, 1987, at the age of fifty-four. Among the last formal honors his work received were the Silver Brush and the Zilveren Griffel, awards that pointed to recognition reaching beyond his home country of the United States.