Raymond Briggs, author of 'The Snowman,' dies at 88

Author Raymond Briggs poses for media in Hyde Park, May of 2008. (Photo by Anthony Devlin - PA Images via Getty Images) LONDON - British children’s author and illustrator Raymond Briggs, whose creations include "The Snowman" and "Fungus the Bogeyman," has died.

He was 88.Briggs' family said he died Tuesday, and thanked staff at Royal Sussex County Hospital, near his home in southern England, "for their kind and thoughtful care of Raymond in his final weeks.""We know that Raymond’s books were loved by and touched millions of people around the world, who will be sad to hear this news," the family said in a statement released Wednesday through Publisher Penguin Random House.Born in London in 1934, Briggs studied art and briefly worked in advertising before starting a decades-long career as a children’s illustrator.

He won a Kate Greenaway Medal — considered the Oscars of children’s publishing — in 1966 for illustrating a book of nursery rhymes, "The Mother Goose Treasury."He tweaked a fairy-tale story with "Jim and the Beanstalk," published in 1970, and won a second Greenaway award for "Father Christmas." Published in 1973, it featured a grumpy but genial Santa Claus and — like many of Briggs' books — was adapted for television."Fungus the Bogeyman," which charted a day in the life of a scary subterranean monster, disgusted and delighted children in equal measure after its publication in 1977.The next year came "The Snowman," a bittersweet story in which a boy’s wintry creation magically comes to life.