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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
You should tell the audience when to clap, if they don’t know. One way is to start clapping yourself.
—RUTH KRAUSS, “A Few Rules for Giving a Show,” How to Make an Earthquake (1954)
I began this project in 1999. There are a lot of people to thank.
I am particularly grateful to those who shared their time and memories of Ruth and Dave, especially Maurice Sendak, a frequent collaborator and weekend guest in the 1950s who knew them well; Nina Stagakis, the daughter of their good friends who became like a daughter to them; the late Mary Elting Folsom, who knew Dave and his first wife in the 1930s; Betty Hahn, the wife of Ruth’s late cousin, Richard, who remained very close to her throughout her life; and the late Else Frank, Dave’s sister and my sole witness to his childhood. Maurice and Nina not only answered many questions but even read an early draft of part of the manuscript.
For sharing memories of, correspondence from, or other information about Crockett Johnson or Ruth Krauss, I thank Leone Adelson, Isabella Blake, Miriam Bourdette, Pat Brooks, Gail Cathey, Ina Chadwick, Remy Charlip, Sas Colby, Bernadine Cook, Norman Corwin, Jackie Curtis, Karen Curtis, Bianca Czaderna, Gene Deitch, Barbara Dicks, Sally Dimon, Jon Ehrlich, Dallas Ernst, Anne Eyes, David Eyes, Frank Fay, Jules Feiffer, Sally Fisher, Harley Flanders, Antonio Frasconi, Miguel Frasconi, Pablo Frasconi, Valerie Harms, Peggy Heinrich, Bet Hennefrund, David Hilberman, Susan Carr Hirschman, Syd Hoff, Ann Holmes, Lee Hopkins, Tom Hopps, Roussie Jacksina, Amy Kaiman, Leonard Kessler, Binnie Klein, Henry F. Klein, Mark Kramer, Sidney Kramer, Janet Krauss, Sidney Landau, Amos Landman, Emily Levine, Grace Lichtenstein, Sid and Doris Lund, A. B. Magil, Harry Marinsky, Ann McGovern, Bob and Helen McNell, Harriet McKissock, Alice McMahon, Elisabeth Merrett, Ben Gray Moore, Ben Gray Moore Jr., Ralph Nazareth, Wendy Newton, Maureen O’Hara, Doris Orgel, Fran Pollak, Lilian Moore Reavin, Anna Reinhardt, Dan Richter, Mischa Richter, Andy Rooney, Marge Rooney, Gilbert Rose, Warren Sattler, Morton Schindel, Marion Schnabel, Elizabeth Schneider, Gene Searchinger, Dale Shaw, Norma Simon, Marc Simont, Vicki Smith, Howard Sparber, Shelley Trubowitz, Peter Wang, Joanna Czaderna Wood, and Charlotte Zolotow.
For reading and commenting on portions of this work, I thank Todd Hignite (of Comic Art), Stephen Roxburgh and Katya Rice (of Front Street), Jennifer A. Hughes, Karin Westman, and the anonymous readers for Children’s Literature 29 (2001). For some creative-writing wisdom, I thank Katy Karlin. For excellent suggestions (many of which I’ve used) on how to revise the first five paragraphs, I thank Dan Steffan.
I could not have gained glimpses into the early lives of Crockett Johnson and Ruth Krauss without the generous assistance of Linda Graetz, Harold Frank, David Frank, and Lani Frank.
Many people have been extraordinarily generous with their time and knowledge. J. B. Stroud, who is the expert on Crockett Johnson’s mathematical paintings shared his vast knowledge. Leonard Marcus, an experienced navigator of the thickets of biographical research, has provided invaluable guidance on many occasions. My agent, George Nicholson, offered this project his enthusiastic support, read and offered suggestions to improve the first complete draft, and helped find it a home.
Particular thanks go to Kate Jackson, who granted me access to HarperCollins’s archives, and to Stewart I. Edelstein and Monte E. Frank, who granted me access to materials held by the Estate of Ruth Krauss and who have granted me permission to reproduce Johnson’s and Krauss’s works.
I’m grateful to many others who granted me access to archival material, especially Peggy Kidwell (Smithsonian Institution), Wendy Wick Reaves and Amy Baskette (Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery), Terri Goldich and Wendy Hennequin (Dodd Research Center, University of Connecticut, Storrs), Tzofit Goldfarb (HarperCollins Publishers), and John Hyslop (Long Island Division, Queens Borough Public Library).
Other people and institutions also very kindly permitted me to examine archival material: Bob E. Rutan (Macy’s Annual Events); Donna L. Davey and Andrew H. Lee (Tamiment Library, New York University); Daniel Sokolow, Rimma Skorupsky, and Susan Gormley (McGraw-Hill); Emilyn L. Brown (New York University Archives); Iris Snyder (Special Collections, University of Delaware Library); Kathleen Manwaring (Special Collections, Syracuse University Library); Bill Santin (Columbia University); Jocelyn K. Wilk (Columbiana Library, Columbia University Archives); Bill Kimmel and X. Theodore Barber (Parsons School of Design); Bob Giles
(Nieman Foundation for Journalism, Harvard University); Brian A. Sullivan (Harvard University Archives); Bob McAuley (Aviation Weekly); Mark Rosenzweig (Reference Center for Marxist Studies); Ric Grefé (American Institute of Graphic Arts); Layne Bosserman (Enoch Pratt Free Library, Baltimore); Elizabeth Schaaf (Peabody Archives, Friedheim Music Library); Kathy Cowan (Maryland Institute College of Art); Sara W. Duke and Martha Kennedy (Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress); Georgia Higley (Serial and Government Publications Division, Library of Congress); Sandy Schechter (Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art, New York); Dee Jones (de Grummond Collection, University of Southern Mississippi); Kathy Jacob and Ellen M. Shea (Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard); Helen Herz Cohen, Wendy Cohen, Elesa Nelson, Jill Zeikel, Renee Keels, Marnie Benatovich, and Trish Siembora (Camp Walden); and Lynda Claassen (Mandeville Special Collections Library, Geisel Library, University of California at San Diego).
For scanning images, I thank Nancy Crampton, Harrison Judd, Nicola Shayer (Dodd Research Center, University of Connecticut), Robert E. Thomas (Tamiment), Henry Yan (Smithsonian), and Jonathan Barli and Rick Marschall (Rosebud Archives). For helping me track down the holders of rights, assisting with related queries, or granting permission to use images, I thank Roger Adams (Rare Books, Kansas State University); Candice Bradley, Cassidy Flanagan, and Jean McGinley (HarperCollins); Jeff Dymowski (Creative Photographers); Frank J. Gerratana; Gary Johnson (Newspaper and Current Periodical Room, Library of Congress); Jack Kramer (New Haven Register); Eleanor Lanahan; Jennifer Lavonier; Joseph McQuaid (New Hampshire Union Leader); Danielle Musgrove and TaSonja Hibbler (American Cancer Society); Linda Briscoe Myers (Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin); Elisabeth Pankl (Hale Library, Kansas State University); Patrick Rodgers (Rosenbach Museum); Amy J. Staples and Kareen K. Morrison (Eliot Elisofson Photographic Archives, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian); and Jane Thiel (Kimberly-Clark Worldwide).
For answering queries, sharing information, and helping me learn more about Johnson and Krauss’s lives and times, I thank Rona Ackerman, Brian Alverson, Marcia Ascher, Ann M. Ashmore, Dmitri Belser, Penny Bergamini, David Bonner, Franklyn Branley, Paul Buhle, John Caldwell, Danielle Cavanna and Alyssa Crouse (Westport Arts Center), Katie Chase (Westport Historical Society), Irwin Chusid, Dan Clowes, William Cobb, Harold Coogan, Joe D’Amico (Henry Holt and Company), Pete Dillon, Kai Erikson, Nancy Fadis (Eames Collection), Betty Fraser, Martin Gardner, Leonard Garment, Martin Garment, Si Gerson, Linda Greengrass and Kristin Freda (Bank Street College of Education), Grace A. Halsey, Charles Hatfield, Michael Patrick Hearn, Jason E. Hill, Mary Ann Hoberman, Thacher Hurd, Charles Keller, Melissa R. Klapper, Peter Leavitt, Ellen Lupton, Scott McCloud, Marjorie Melikian (Historical Committee, First Presbyterian Church, Newtown), Mike Michaels, Steffie Michaels, Julia Mickenberg, Paul Mishler, Mark Newgarden, Kirsten Nicolaysen, Susan B. Obel (Theatreworks USA), Nathan Oser, Karen Petersen, Hal Prince, Robin Lynn Rausch (Library of Congress), Meg Rich (William Sloane Papers), Stanley Rubin, Tim Samuelson, Brie Shannon, Claire Sherman, Bob Singleton, Christopher Skelly, Lane Smith, Steve Smith, Paul Solomon, Lois Redding Stranahan, Lee Talley, Hilda Terry, Mark Tonra, Terry Trilling, Chris Ware, Hedy White, Helaine White, January White, Roger Willcox, John Wolbrecht, and Matt Wood. Very special thanks go to two Barnabys for sharing details about the productions in which they starred: Jared Brown (radio, 1949) and Thomas Hamilton (stage, 1946).
For invaluable research assistance, I thank Bill Alger, Jennifer D. Askey, James M. Babcock, George Bodmer, Brad Bunnin, Amy Burr, Molly Butler, Richard Cohen, Nancy Crampton, Tony Crawford, June Cummins, Tim Dayton, Carson Demmans, Elizabeth Dodd, Dennis Duarte, Paul Fernbach, Richard Flynn, Rachel Folsom, Melissa Glaser, Liz and Tony Gott (Genealogy, Bayanne House, Yell, Shetland, Scotland), Michael Helgesen and Arthur J. Leask (of the Clan Leask Society), Irwin T. Holtzman, Martin Janal and Eve Hochwald, Micah Janzen, Michael Joseph, Arjun Kharel, Chris Lamb, Monica Langley (Charleston Public Library), Bob Leftwich, Bob Levin, Scott Lewis, Anne Longmuir, Mike Lynch, Aaron Marcus, David Margolick, Bill McCann, Jill Morgan, Peter Muldavin, Patrick Murtha, Colin Myers, Eric Nadworny, Linda Nel, Rick Norwood, Hugh O’Connell, Rachel Olsen, Shannon Ozirny, Adam Paul, Anne Phillips, Leena Reiman, D. A. Sachs, Carla Schuster, Kate Skattebol, Bill Slankard, Stephen Smith, Cliff Starkey, Jan Susina, Lisa Tatonetti, Joseph Thomas Jr., Maria Torio, Brian Tucker, David Turner, Ivan Ulz, Detlef Urbschat, Christopher Wheeler, Jerry Wigglesworth, Cari Williams, Marsha Williams, and Naomi Wood.
For institutional support at Kansas State University, I thank English department heads Linda Brigham, Larry Rodgers, and Karin Westman and administrative assistants Lisa Herpich and Mary Siegel. I thank Kansas State University for Small Research Grants in the fall 2000, spring 2001, fall 2001, and fall 2003; the University of Connecticut for a Sigmund Strochlitz Travel Grant in 2004; and the Smithsonian for a postdoctoral fellowship at the National Portrait Gallery in 2005. I also thank those who wrote letters on my behalf: Jay Cayton, Richard Flynn, Jerry Griswold, Anne Phillips, and Jan Susina. I am grateful to those who read through versions of what would become the book proposal, among them Scott Peeples, Jen Henderson, Linda Brigham, and Karin Westman.
For putting me up (and up with me), I thank Edward and Lucy Appert; Matt Dunne; Gloria Hardman (Hi, Mom!); Chris Kenngott and Melissa Songer; Darin McKeever and Perry Pearson McKeever; Terry, Bill, and Christopher Sherwin; William Speed Weed; Jake, Dave, Amanda, and Chelsea Whalen; and Ted Whitten and Sonya Hals.
Parts of this book have previously appeared, in somewhat different form, in Children’s Literature 29 (2001); in Comic Art 5 (Winter 2004); and as the afterword to Crockett Johnson’s Magic Beach (2005). I have presented other portions of this book at various conferences over the past dozen years, and I thank the audience members who listened and provided feedback to me on those occasions. In addition, my many teachers in the art of biography have included the Washington Biography Group (http://www.patmcnees.com/work16.htm).
At the University Press of Mississippi, I thank Seetha Srinivasan for her long-standing interest in this project. Walter Biggins read the first draft diligently and offered thoughtful, valuable critical advice: If the level of detail still overwhelms, that’s my fault, not his. I also thank Ellen D. Goldlust-Gingrich for her rigorous copyediting and editing.
I’ve tried to keep track of all assistance received; apologies to anyone I’ve forgotten!
Index
Abraham Lincoln Brigades, 80, 119
Abstractions of Abstractions: Schematic Paintings Deriving from Axioms and Theorems of Geometry, from Pythagoras to Apollonius of Perga, and from Desargues and Kepler to the Twentieth Century, 231–32
Academy of Poets, 182
Addams, Charles, 58, 140
Adelson, Leone, 181
Advertising Age, 81
Ahlberg, Allan, 275
Ajay, Abe, 45, 195, 225
Ajay, Betty, 195
Alabama, 47, 79
Albee, Edward, 201
Aleshire, Bunny, 157
Alger, Leclaire, 112
Alicante, 252
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, 31, 251
Alien and Registration Act of 1940. See Smith Act
Alien and Sedition Acts, 108
Alswang, Ralph, 231
Altschul, Clara, 25
American Cancer Society, 135
American Cyanamid, 197
American Friends Service Committee, 162
American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA), 178
American Library Association, 84
American Machinist, 33
American Mathematical Monthly, 238
American Society for Russian Relief, 88, 120
American Society of Magazine Cartoonists, 58, 63
American Statistical Association Bulletin, 81
Americans for Intellectual Freedom, 113
Amster, Lew, 105, 117
Anderson, Brad, 149
&nb
sp; And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, 94
“Andy Auto Body,” 205
Andy Griffith Show, 191
Anglund, Joan Walsh, 6, 165
Annand, George, 45, 59–61, 97, 143, 191
Annotated Alice,The, 238
Apollinaire, Guillaume, 248
Archimedes, 251
Aristotle, 200
Arkansas, 37, 49
Arno, Peter, 58
Arp, Jean, 181
Art, 275
Art Directors Club, 165
Art News, 231
“Art of Poetry, The,” 183
Artists Against the Axis, 58
Artists Committee for the President’s Birthday, 76
Artists Guild, 165
Ashbery, John, 183, 199, 221, 237, 239
Assembly of Men and Women in the Arts Concerned with Vietnam, 219, 230
Astypalea (Greek island), 220
Atheneum, 203, 209
Athens, 220
Atlantic Monthly, 52, 115, 137
Atomic Energy Commission, 238
Austin Tudor, 149
Australia, 10, 129, 213
Austria, 42
Authors Guild, 181
Averill, Esther, 184
Aviation, 33
“Aw, be a sport. Tell the newsreel audience you still have faith in the Lawd and good old Franklin D” (cartoon), 36
Azores, 251
Babes in Arms, 96
Backward Day, The, 121–22, 274
Bacon, Elizabeth “Betty” Morrow, 35–36
Bad Day at Riverbend, 275
Bader, Barbara, 6, 72, 164
Baker, Hannah, 61, 71
“Ballad for Americans,” 80
Baltimore, 3, 4, 9–15, 26–28, 38, 93, 95, 120–21, 255, 258, 267
Baltimore Evening Sun, 74
Bank Street School, 110–11, 114–15, 122, 126, 210
Bank Street Writers Laboratory, 83–85, 95–96, 104, 110, 202
Bantam, 201
Baraka, Amiri, 248
Barcelona, 252
Bards’ Bugle, 191
