What was high school like 90 years ago? This Newtown High School Handbook provides some sense of what it was like in Newtown, Queens in 1921, when Crockett Johnson (a.k.a. David Leisk) was a student there. No yearbooks from the Newtown class of 1924 (Johnson’s graduating class) survive, but plenty of things do: The Queens Public
This piece appeared in Comic Art in 2004.  As the magazine is now (sadly) defunct, I’m posting the article here.  Until The Purple Crayon and a Hole to Dig: The Lives of Crockett Johnson and Ruth Krauss appears in 2012, this essay is the most thorough account of Johnson’s life available.  Enjoy! Philip Nel, “Crockett Johnson and
At the risk of further alienating this blog’s modest readership, here is the second of four appendices cut from The Purple Crayon and a Hole to Dig: The Lives of Crockett Johnson and Ruth Krauss (forthcoming from University Press of Mississippi, 2012). Â As is true of Appendix A, this one also registers Johnson’s alliance with
Crockett Johnson studied typography from Frederic Goudy, Ruth Krauss learned about anthropology from Ruth Benedict, and they both knew Ad Reinhardt (who was a particular friend of Johnson’s). Â Their acquaintances with the influential typographer, anthropologist, and abstract impressionist are all in the book – The Purple Crayon and a Hole to Dig: The Lives of
An update. Shortly after yesterday’s blog post, my editor said I could go ahead and send it all in. This means either that he (or someone else) will now seek places to cut or that it’s moving ahead to the copy-editing stage. Either way, it’s off my desk until [unknown date]! With a mixture of
On Monday, I finished the eighth edit of The Purple Crayon and a Hole to Dig: The Lives of Crockett Johnson and Ruth Krauss, and sent it to my editor. I’m really happy with all of the edits I’ve made. I finally understand his advice, and have cut anything that feels purely “completist,” and focused
The good news. I’m making progress, and – currently up to Chapter 20 (of 28) – have cut far more (already) than I did on the last round of revisions. I have a clearer sense of The Purple Crayon and a Hole to Dig: The Lives of Crockett Johnson and Ruth Krauss (UP Mississippi, June 2012).
If the Drying-Paint Watchers’ Association has a website, they’re about to face some competition! I’m publishing more cuts from the biography of Crockett Johnson and Ruth Krauss (due out from UP Mississippi next year). Â Today, we’ll look at some of the notes I’ve omitted. Â I’ve also been making cuts to the body of the manuscript,
A Crockett Johnson–Ruth Krauss biography update with good news, thanks, and apologies. Â Let’s do the apologies first. Apologies. Â It was unprofessional of me to air this disagreement publicly. Â It’s one thing to blog about the editing process, and another to air one’s editorial differences in a public forum. Â I’ve already apologized to my editor (who
I haven’t blogged about the biography of Crockett Johnson and Ruth Krauss for a while because I’ve been waiting. Â I sent in the latest version of the manuscript back on the first of the year; my editor finally read it in late March, and sent it out to a reader. Â I received the reader’s report