by Philip Nel
The second reason for Johnson’s endurance is Harold and the Purple Crayon, which has sold more than two million copies and been translated into fourteen languages. It and its sequels have inspired an Emmy-winning animated HBO series (2001–2), a board game (2001), and a new stage play (2009). Many creative people, including cartoonist Peter Kuper and children’s author-illustrators William Joyce and Thacher Hurd, also cite Harold as an inspiration. Harold is the ancestor of the crayon-wielding protagonists in Chris Van Allsburg’s Bad Day at Riverbend (1995) and Patrick McDonnell’s Art (2006) and the pencil-powered characters in Anthony Browne’s Bear Hunt (1979) and Allan Ahlberg and Bruce Ingman’s The Pencil (2008). In a February 2009 Sunday Zits comic, Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman show Connie Duncan finding a box of her son Jeremy’s old picture books, with five of the strip’s seven panels devoted to Harold and the Purple Crayon. Though Jeremy usually displays a teenager’s reluctance to hang out with his parents, he happily recalls the book’s plot with his mother. In the final panel, he has become a child waiting for story time: His gangly adolescent body rests in his mother’s lap, she holds the book in her hands, and he says, “Start from the beginning.”2
Crockett Johnson shows us that a crayon can create a world, while Ruth Krauss demonstrates that dreams can be as large as a giant orange carrot. Whenever children and grown-ups seek books that invite them to think and to imagine, they need look no further than Johnson and Krauss. There, they will find a very special house, where holes are to dig, walls are a canvas, and people are artists, drawing paths that take them anywhere they want to go.
NOTES
ABBREVIATIONS
AR
Ad Reinhardt
AR Papers
Ad Reinhardt Papers, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution
BD
Barbara Dicks
BP Records
Bookstore Press Records, Northeast Children’s Literature Collection, Dodd Research Center, University of Connecticut, Storrs
CJ Papers-ERK
Crockett Johnson Papers, Estate of Ruth Krauss
CJ Papers-HC
Crockett Johnson Papers, HarperCollins Publishers’ Archives
CJ Papers-SI
Crockett Johnson Papers, Mathematics Division, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
FBI-CJ
FBI file for David Johnson Leisk alias Crockett Johnson, FOIPA No. 0999494-00
IJW
Ruth Krauss, Intensive Journal Workbook, box 21, folder 691, Ruth Krauss Papers, Northeast Children’s Literature Collection, Dodd Research Center, University of Connecticut, Storrs
Kent Papers
Rockwell Kent Papers, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution
MD
Maryland Department, Enoch Pratt Free Library, Baltimore
NS
Nina Stagakis
RK
Ruth Krauss
RKA
Ruth Krauss autobiography, ca. mid-1940s, box 20, folder 698, Ruth Krauss Papers, Northeast Children’s Literature Collection, Dodd Research Center, University of Connecticut, Storrs
RK Papers-HC
Ruth Krauss Papers, HarperCollins Publishers’ Archives
RK Papers-NCLC
Ruth Krauss Papers, Northeast Children’s Literature Collection, Dodd Research Center, University of Connecticut, Storrs
SC
Susan Carr
Stroud Notes
J. B. Stroud, unpublished notes on Johnson’s paintings, in possession of J. B. Stroud
UN
Ursula Nordstrom
“Where”
Ruth Krauss, “Where Am I Going?,” box 20, folder 702, Ruth Krauss Papers, Northeast Children’s Literature Collection, Dodd Research Center, University of Connecticut, Storrs
INTRODUCTION
1. New Haven Office of the FBI, “David Johnson Leisk, wa. Crockett Johnson,” 10 Nov. 1950, 5, FBI-CJ.
2. Mickenberg, Learning, 15, 141–42; Mickenberg and Nel, Tales, 101, 205.
3. Marcus, Minders, 216.
4. The Simpsons, season 21, episode 22, 16 May 2010; Dove, “Maple Valley Branch Library,” 32.
5. Solomon, “Beyond Finger Paint,” 25.
6. Bader, “Ruth Krauss,” 416; Sendak, “Ruth Krauss and Me,” 287.
7. Parker, “Mash Note,” 16; Wepman, “Barnaby,” 47.
8. Waugh, Comics, 306.
CHAPTER 1
1. IJW, 17–20 Oct. 1979; RK birth certificate, Maryland State Archives; Baltimore City Directories for 1901, 1933, MD; Sanborn Maps of Baltimore, 1901–2, MD; Wertz and Wertz, Lying-In, 133.
2. Baltimore City Directories for 1892, 1901, MD; 1880 U.S. Census; Swyrich, “Ancient History”; IJW, 19 Oct. 1979.
3. Fein, Making, 134; IJW, 19 Oct. 1979; Baltimore City Directories, 1891–1921, MD.
4. “Mrs. Albert A. Brager,” Baltimore Sun, biography files, MD; 1910 U.S. Census, Maryland, Baltimore 13, Enumeration District 201; 1920 U.S. Census, Maryland, Baltimore 13, Enumeration District 204; 1880 U.S. Census, St. Louis, Missouri; IJW, 17–20 Oct. 1979. Carrie Mayer was the sister of Hollywood producer Samuel Mayer.
5. Marriage record, Baltimore City Court of Common Pleas, Maryland State Archives; Pruce, Synagogues, 126–29; William Rosenau, “Oheb Shalom Congregation,” in Blum, Jews, 65; Fein, Making, 178; IJW, 20 Oct. 1979; Baltimore City Directories, 1890–1900, MD; Bowditch, Images, 12–43; Sandler, Jewish Baltimore, 55.
6. Brian Alverson to author, 20 September 2004; IJW, 19 Oct. 1979.
7. IJW, 19 Oct. 1979; Hahn, interview.
8. RKA, 2.
9. Baltimore City Directories, 1903–15, MD; 1910 U.S. Census; Sandler, Jewish Baltimore, 44; Sanford Maps of Baltimore, 1901–2, 1915, MD.
10. “Where,” 39–40.
11. Ibid., 40.
12. IJW, 20 Oct. 1979; “Krauss, Ruth (Ida) 1911–,” in Something about the Author, 135; Baltimore Sun, index for 1913, PR.
13. “Ruth Krauss: Let Me Tell You a Story,” 3–4; Graetz, interview; “Krauss, Ruth (Ida) 1911–,” in Something about the Author, 134; Harms, “Interview,” 9.
14. Sandler, Jewish Baltimore, 43; Baltimore City Directories, 1916–18, MD; Chico, “Cone Sisters,” 82–83; “The Marlborough Apartment House” (promotional brochure), ca. 1905, MD; RKA, 2–3.
15. Klapper, Jewish Girls, 78, 90, 202.
16. RK, “Ruth Krauss,” in More Junior Authors, 126; information provided by Joan Schwartz, Alumni Office, Maryland Institute of Art, 2 June 2005; “N.Y. Artists Out for Cash,” Baltimore Sun, 30 Jan. 1917, J.O.L., “The Three Arts: Music Drama Painting,” Baltimore Sun, 4 June 1918, “Consulting Engineers in the Art of Dress,” [Baltimore Sun?], 1921, all in Decker Library, Maryland Institute College of Art; Maryland Institute for the Promotion of the Mechanic Arts, Announcement: Schools of Art and Design, Baltimore, Md., 1917–1918, 13, Maryland Institute College of Art.
17. Baltimore City Directories, 1918, 1919, 1920, MD; 1920 U.S. Census; information provided by Joan Schwartz, Alumni Office, Maryland Institute of Art, 2 June 2005; “Consulting Engineers in the Art of Dress,” [Baltimore Sun?], 1921, Decker Library, Maryland Institute College of Art; Maryland Institute for the Promotion of the Mechanic Arts, Announcement, 30.
18. Cohen, interview.
CHAPTER 2
1. Nicholson, Shetland, 11, 16, 44–45, 135; Gott, Shetland Family History; Linklater, Orkney and Shetland, 189; Scotland Online, Scotland’s People; Thomson, “Population and Depopulation,” 151; Else Frank, interview.
2. 1900 U.S. Census, Buffalo, Ward 11, Erie, New York; Else Frank, interview.
3. Newtown Register, 13 May 1915, qtd. in Seyfried, Corona, 53, 50–51, 70–71; Else Frank, interview.
4. Else Frank, interview; “May Go to the Grand Jury”; Seyfried, Corona, 55.
5. Seyfried, Corona, 67–68; Fitzgerald, Great Gatsby, 27.
6. Hopkins, “Ruth Krauss [and] Crockett Johnson,” 124; Else Frank, interview. At varying time
s, Crockett Johnson gave different reasons for having changed his name. On one occasion, he said that “Leisk was too hard to pronounce” (Hopkins, “Ruth Krauss [and] Crockett Johnson,” 124), and according to “O’Malley for Dewey,” “Crockett Johnson dropped his real name, David Johnson Leisk (pronounced Lisk) because he got tired of spelling it out.”
7. Else Frank, interview.
8. Ibid.; Fisher, “Barnaby and Mr. O’Malley.”
9. Else Frank, interview.
10. John Hyslop to author, 19 Nov. 2006; Seyfried, Corona, 65–66.
11. Theodore Roosevelt, America, 392–93; New York State Census, 1915, 1925; Seyfried, Corona, 52.
12. Else Frank, interview; “Cushlamochree!,” 102, 104; Leslie Howard, “What’s in a Song?”
13. Newtown High School Handbook, 9, 12, 18, 108, 82–83, 42–62.
14. Else Frank interview; Newtown High School Lantern, May 1922, cover, May 1923, cover; H[annah] B[aker], “Crockett Johnson,” 1.
15. Else Frank interview; “Newtown High Decides to Play,” 10; “Newtown Swamps Schools,” 8; “27 Newtown High Students,” 12; “Corona & Elmhurst,” 12; Doggett, Newtown High School, 29.
16. “Newtown H.S. Graduates,” 12; “Newtown Loses Baseball Stars,” 14; Norris, “Meet the Man,” 24; “Newtown High School, Elmhurst,” 5.
CHAPTER 3
1. “Walden Past”; Camp Walden, Denmark Maine, 1917, 4, Camp Walden Papers, Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies; Cohen, interview.
2. Splash, 1920, Camp Walden Archives, Denmark, Maine; Cohen, interview.
3. Cohen, interview; “Brief History”; Camp Walden, Denmark Maine, 1917, 11; RK to UN, [Mar.–Apr. 1963], RK Papers-HC.
4. Cohen, interview; Splash, 1919, Camp Walden Archives.
5. Ibid., 1920.
6. RK student records, Peabody Archives, Friedheim Music Library, Peabody Institute.
7. Ibid.
8. Hahn, interview; Graetz, interview; Baltimore City Directories, 1923, 1924–25, 1926, 1927, MD.
9. RKA, 3.
10. “Necessary Information for Inquiring Students,” in New York School of Fine and Applied Art: General Prospectus, 1927–1928, 44–45, 47–48, Parsons School Archives, Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Archives Center, Parsons School of Design, New School University; Marjorie F. Jones, “History,” 117; “Necessary Information for All Who Are Inquiring,” in New York School of Fine and Applied Art (Parsons): General Prospectus, 1928–1929, 40, Parsons School Archives.
10. Ibid.
11. Marjorie F. Jones, “History,” 91–92; Gropius, qtd. in Read, Art and Industry, 40; Parsons, qtd. in Marjorie F. Jones, “History,” 297, 361.
12. Marjorie F. Jones, “History,” 141; Hambidge, Practical Applications, intro., 3, 20.
13. RKA, 4.
14. IJW, 17–20 Oct. 1979; RKA, 3–4.
15. Kimmel, interview; “Costume Design, Construction and Illustration,” in New York School of Fine and Applied Art (Parsons), 16; “Georges Lepape”; Jewell, “Students,” 10; Yohannan and Nolf, Claire McCardell, 19–21; Valerie Steele, “McCardell’s American Look,” in Yohannan and Nolf, Claire McCardell, 13.
16. IJW, 17–20 Oct. 1979; Kimmel, interview; Jackie Curtis and Maureen O’Hara, interview; Valerie Harms to author, 5 Aug. 2002; Chadwick, interview; Noguchi, Sculptor’s World, 19; Torres, Isamu Noguchi, 311.
17. RKA, 4; Harms, “Interview,” 8.
18. “Albert A. Brager to Wed,” 7; “Albert A. Brager Married,” 3; “Albert A. Brager’s Funeral,” 18.
19. “Lionel White 1905–”; Hedy White, interview; Helaine White, interview; IJW, 19 Oct. 1979.
CHAPTER 4
1. Else Frank, interview; Miller, interview.
2. Leach, Land of Desire, 22; Fisher, “Barnaby and Mr. O’Malley”; Hungerford, Romance, 90–91, 93, 176.
3. Lears, Fables, 226; Norris, “Meet the Man.”
4. Norris, “Meet the Man,” 24; Else Frank, interview; “Ice Business,” Donnelley’s Red Book Classified Telephone Directory: Queens, Winter Issue 1927–1928, Dec. to June, Long Island Division, Queens Borough Public Library; Folsom, interview; Searchinger, interview; Trubowitz, interview.
5. “Looking Back at 1927,” 22–25, 50–54; Burlingame, Endless Frontiers, 265.
6. “Leisk, David Johnson,” in Something about the Author (1971), 141; “Leisk, David Johnson 1906–,” 505; “Leisk, David Johnson,” in Something about the Author (1983), 141–44; “Crockett Johnson,” 152–53; MacLeod, “Johnson, Crockett,” 499; “Johnson, Crockett,” 346; Film Designers, promotional brochure, box 28, folder 857, RK Papers-NCLC; New York University Department of Fine Arts: Announcements for the Summer Term, 1926—Fall Term, 1926–1927—Spring Term, 1927, 9, New York University Archives; Goudy, introduction, 20; Boone, “Type,” 114; Orton, Goudy, 27; “Johnson, Crockett, pseud.,” 126.
7. “Pioneer Manufacturer,” 1049; McGraw, “Why McGraw-Hill Desires to Serve,” 629; H[annah] B[aker], “Crockett Johnson,” 2; Fisher, “Barnaby and Mr. O’Malley”; “Cushlamochree!,” 104; “Editorial: Styled for Today,” 769; Burlingame, Endless Frontiers, 291, 267–68, 271, 273.
8. 1930 U.S. Census; Else Frank, interview; Folsom, interview; 1930 U.S. Census; New York City 1933 Directory H–R, 287, New York Public Library.
9. Folsom, interview.
10. Chandler, America’s Greatest Depression, 5–6; “Treasury’s Position,” 22; “Milk Strike,” F21; Denning, Cultural Front, xiii, 200.
CHAPTER 5
1. “Writer Is Rescued,” 32; “Recovering from Submersion,” 17; Hahn, interview.
2. Helaine White, interview; “Lionel White 1905–”; Hedy White, interview; “Books and Authors,” 18; RK to Miss Coker, 27 Mar. 1944, RK Papers-HC; Goulart, Cheap Thrills, 13; Georgia M. Higley to author, 11 July 2005. Decades later, White’s detective novels would become classic films: Stanley Kubrick adapted Clean Break (1955) as The Killing (1956), and Jean-Luc Godard filmed Obsession (1962) as Pierrot le fou (1965).
3. RK to Miss Coker, 27 Mar. 1944, RK Papers-HC; RK to Dorothy Warner, 10 Dec. 1986, folder 42, box 2, series I, RK Papers-NCLC; IJW, 19 Oct. 1979; Lionel White and RK, marriage certificate, Orphans’ Court Division, Court of Common Pleas of Bucks County, Pennsylvania; Hahn, interview.
4. IJW, 19 Oct. 1979; Hahn, interview; “Where,” 122; RK to Miss Coker, 27 Mar. 1944, RK Papers-HC.
5. Hahn, interview; “Wife and Children,” 36; RK, “Poem for the Depression,” 1960, folder 33, box 2, series I, RK Papers-NCLC.
6. IJW, 19 Oct. 1979; Graetz, interview.
7. RK, “The House,” 1, 16, 17–18, 14, 20, 21, box 19, folder 690, RK Papers-NCLC.
8. “Where,” 72.
9. Ibid., 72–73; RK to Miss Coker, 27 Mar. 1944, RK Papers-HC.
10. “Where,” 69–71.
11. Hahn, interview.
CHAPTER 6
1. Mischa Richter, interview.
2. Bergman, We’re in the Money, 115–20.
3. Denning, Cultural Front, 9.
4. “To Our Readers”; Lerner, “American League,” 31; Klehr, Heyday, 116; “With the Readers,” 5.
5. Magil, interview; “Johnson, Crockett,” 346; News Letter of the American Institute of Graphic Arts 40 (July 1936), American Institute of Graphic Arts, New York; Joe Freeman to Granville Hicks, 6 June 1936, box 44, folder: New Masses, 1936–1939, Granville Hicks Papers, Syracuse University Library, Special Collections Research Center; Joe Freeman to Rockwell Kent, 24 July 1936, Rockwell Kent to Joseph Freeman, 29 July 1936, reel 5217, frames 0934–35, Kent Papers; “Rockwell Kent Biography.”
6. CJ, qtd. in Hemingway, Artists, 105.
7. Dutt, “Britain and Spain,” 3; “Challenge and the Answer,” 20; “Cement,” 10.
8. Joe Freeman to Granville Hicks, 6 June 1936, box 44, folder: New Masses, 1936–1939, Hicks Papers; Mischa Richter, cartoon, New Masses, 19 Oct. 1937; AR, cartoon, New Masses, 14 July 1936; Abe Ajay, cartoon, New Masses, 8 Sept. 1936; Lee Hall, Abe Ajay, 3
1; “With the Readers,” 5; AR, artist’s chronology, reel N69-99, frame 115, AR Papers; Anna Reinhardt, interview; NS, interview; McMahon, interview; Landau, interview; Alice McMahon, biographical sketch of George Annand (1980), George Annand Papers, in possession of Alice McMahon.
9. AR, artist’s chronology; Anna Reinhardt, interview.
10. CJ to Rockwell Kent, 11 May 1937, reel 5217, frame 0971, Kent Papers; Syd Hoff to author, 8 July 2000.
11. Mickenberg, “Pedagogy.”
12. Magil, interview; Browder, “Isolationist Front,” 3–4; Browder, “Historic Report,” 3–4.
13. Magil, interview; Communist Party U.S.A. Records, Library of Congress; Linder, “Samuel Liebowitz”; Klehr and Haynes, American Communist Movement, 79, 86; Harold Strauss to William Gropper, 20 Oct. 1936, roll 3501, frame 556, William Gropper Papers, Syracuse University Library, Special Collections Research Center.
14. McCloud, Understanding Comics, 30, 37.
15. “Public Speaking Zooms”; Cobb, Radical Education, 36, 148, 204, 116, 63; Randolph, “Utopia in Arkansas,” 147; Oser, interview.