New on the Shelf

Of Crockett Johnson’s two most famous creations, the comic strip Barnaby and the children’s book Harold and his Purple Crayon, it was the former that I admired and the later that I loved. In fact, my children’s GN, Adventures in Cartooning, owes a major debt to Harold as the book’s ending culminates in the main character using her pens and pencils to draw her way out of trouble and into new adventures.

Another reason for my great fondness for Johnson was that he was also was an art director for The Masses, a publication that I am both aesthetically and politically sympathetic to, so in addition to his distinction in the histories of both children’s books and cartooning, he also provides a connection to early ash can artists like John Sloan and political cartoonists like William Gropper.

I was less familiar with the work and life of Johnson’s wife, Ruth Krauss. I knew she wrote the Crockett Johnson illustrated classic, The Carrot Seed and that both she and Johnson served as surrogate parents to the young Maurice Sendak who illustrated several of Krauss’ books early in his career. So it was with great excitement that I grabbed Phillip Nel’s wonderful new dual biography of Crockett Johnson and Ruth Kraus off the Schulz Library’s New Acquisitions shelf.

Crockett Johnson and Ruth Krauss: How an Unlikely Couple Found Love, Dodged the FBI, and Transformed Children’s Literature did a wonderful job of articulating how these two artists of wildly different temperaments approached their work, followed their muses, and found success while remaining devoted and supportive to one another.

This book is a great read and the beautifully Chris Ware designed cover (is there any other type of Chris Ware cover?) just adds icing to the cake. Highly recommended!