Note: The Crockett Johnson Homepage is an archived site. The links below almost certainly do not work. If you want to see where they once led, try copying the links and entering them into The Wayback Machine.

Likewise, the text below is neither current nor being updated.

— Philip Nel, 1 Feb. 2022

Thanks!

I’d like to thank those who’ve provided a link to the Crockett Johnson Homepage, and to extend a generous round of applause to people who’ve been particularly helpful in locating information about Crockett Johnson and his many works. The “Researchers of Renown” list includes many who have (a) helped locate sources for, (b) consented to an interview for, or (c) otherwise contributed to my biography of Crockett Johnson and Ruth Krauss (published in 2012) and, as such, constitutes an early version of the biography’s “Acknowledgments” page. So, to all of you: thanks!

Researchers of Renown: Monica Langley; Dan Clowes; Paul Fernbach; David Turner; Molly Butler; Ivan Ulz; Bob Levin; Linda Nel; Jan Susina; Terri Goldich and Wendy Hennequin (of the Dodd Research Center, University of Connecticut, Storrs); Peggy Kidwell (Smithsonian Institution); J. B. Stroud; Leena Reiman; Dennis Duarte; Gloria Hardman; Dee Jones (de Grummond Collection, University of Southern Mississippi); Susan B. Obel (Theatreworks USA); Bill McCann; Marsha Williams; Brian Tucker; Bill Slankard; Rick Norwood; Stewart I. Edelstein and Monte E. Frank (Estate of Ruth Krauss); Matt Dunne; Tim Samuelson; Leonard Marcus; Eric Nadworny; David Eyes; Anne Eyes; Tom Hopps; Gail Cathey; Bob and Helen McNell; Harriet McKissock; Bob E. Rutan (Macy’s Annual Events); Bernadine Cook; Edward and Lucy Appert; Terry Trilling; Tzofit Goldfarb (HarperCollins Publishers); Sidney Kramer; Betty Fraser; Dr. Gilbert Rose; Frank Fay; Sid and Doris Lund; David Bonner; Franklyn Branley; Marc Simont; Syd Hoff, Dallas Ernst; Dr. Shelley Trubowitz; Peter Leavitt; Andrew H. Lee (Tamiment Library, New York University); Daniel Sokolow, Rimma Skorupsky, Susan Gormley (McGraw-Hill); David Margolick; Amos Landman; Jules Feiffer; Antonio Frasconi; Andy Rooney, Marge Rooney; Gene Deitch; Howard Sparber; Harry Marinsky; Richard Cohen; Harold Frank, David Frank, Lani Frank, and Else Frank; Binnie Klein; Lee Hopkins; Nina Stagakis; Mischa Richter; Sidney Landau; Alice McMahon; Amy Kaiman; Terry, Bill, and Christopher Sherwin; Sally Dimon; Peggy Heinrich; Janet Krauss; Bob Giles (Nieman Foundation for Journalism, Harvard University); Brian A. Sullivan (Harvard University Archives); Bob McAuley (Aviation Weekly), Scott Lewis; Ted Whitten and Sonya Hals; Mark Rosenzweig (Reference Center for Marxist Studies); John Hyslop (Long Island Division, Queens Borough Public Library); Ric Grefé (American Institute of Graphic Arts); Isabella Blake; Maureen Granville-Smith; Ann McGovern; Jackie Curtis; Morton Schindel; Betty Hahn; Maurice Sendak; Charles Keller; Si Gerson; A. B. Magil; Julia Mickenberg; Leone Adelson; Lilian Moore Reavin; Mary Elting Folsom; Carson Demmans; Warren Sattler; Karen Curtis; Norma Simon; Gene Searchinger; Grace Lichtenstein; Valerie Harms; James M. Babcock; Irwin T. Holtzman; Kate Skattebol; Leonard Garment; Martin Garment; Aaron Marcus; Jill Morgan; Leonard Kessler; Sas Colby; Marion Schnabel; Miriam Bourdette; Emily Levine; Michael Joseph; Henry F. Klein; David Hilberman; Elisabeth Merrett; Remy Charlip; Paul Solomon; Stephen Smith; Ben Gray Moore, Ben Gray Moore Jr.; Michael Patrick Hearn; Emilyn L. Brown (New York University Archives); Iris Snyder (Special Collections, University of Delaware Library); Barbara Dicks, Susan Hirschman, Charlotte Zolotow; Amy Burr; Peter Wang; Harold Coogan; Jared Brown; Hedy White, January White, Helaine White; Lois Redding Stranahan; Nathan Oser; William Speed Weed; 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), Charles Hatfield; Bet Hennefrund; Pat Brooks; Brad Bunnin; Dr. Brian Alverson; Roger Willcox; Anne Phillips; Karin Westman; Naomi Wood; Wendy Wick Reaves and Amy Baskette (both of the Smithsonain’s National Portrait Gallery); Darin McKeever and Perry Pearson McKeever; Lee Talley; Melissa Klapper; Chris Kenngott and Melissa Songer; Linda Greengrass (Bank Street College of Education); Layne Bosserman (Enoch Pratt Free Library, Baltimore); Elizabeth Schaaf (Peabody Archives, Friedheim Music Library); Kathy Cowan (Maryland Institute College of Art); Claire Sherman; Dan Richter; Mike Michaels, Steffie Michaels; Sara W. Duke (Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress), Martha Kennedy (Prins and Photographs Division, Library of Congress); Georgia Higley (Serial & Government Publications Division, Library of Congress); Jake and Dave Whalen; Kathy Jacob, Ellen M. Shea (Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard); Helen Herz Cohen, Elesa Nelson, Jill Zeikel, Renee Keels, Marnie Benatovich, Trish Siembora (Camp Walden, Maine); National Archives II (College Park, MD); Liz and Tony Gott (Genealogy, Bayanne House, Yell, Shetland, Scotland), Sandy Schechter (Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art, New York); Hilda Terry; Michael Helgesen and Lt. Col. Arthur J. Leask (of The Clan Leask Society); Mark Kramer; Fran Pollack; Chris Ware; Mike Lynch; Christopher Wheeler; Stanley Rubin; Doris Orgel; Mary Ann Hoberman; Detelf Urbschat; Thomas Hamilton; Martin Janal and Eve Hochwald; Pete Dillon; Christopher Skelly; Mark Newgarden; Bill Alger; George Nicholson; Jennifer A. Hughes; Lane Smith; Matt Wood, Joanna Czaderna Wood, Bianca Czaderna; Peter Muldavin; Wendy Newton; Pablo Frasconi, Miguel Frasconi; Anna Reinhardt; Lee Talley, Maria Torio; Ellen Lupton, Harley Flanders; Norman Corwin; Elizabeth Schneider; Irwin Chusid; Roussie Jacksina; Kirsten Nicolaysen.

Awards:A Yahoo! “Cool” Site (11/20/98); 3 apples (out of 4) for “Visual Content” from StudyWeb (6/3/99); ranked first among “The Web’s Best Sites” on Crockett Johnson and rated (“Noteworthy”) by Britannica.com (12/00).

Laudable Links: David K. Brown’s Tell Me More! index on his Children’s Literature Web Guide, Harold Underdown’s Homage to Crockett Johnson at his Purple Crayon: A Children’s Book Editor’s Site, Kristine Howard’s Links at her Roald Dahl Home Page, Margaret Vail Anderson’s Children’s Literature section of her Digital Librarian pages, Alan L. Brown’s Just for Kids Who Love Books, Mitsuharu Matsuoka’s American Authors on the Web (Nagoya Univ., Japan), Kay E. Vandergrift’s Learning About the Author and Illustrator Pages — J, Fairrosa’s Children’s Litertaure — Authors & Illustrators, Inez Ramsey’s Index to Children’s Book Authors and Illustrators (Internet School Library Media Center, James Madison Univ., VA), Tasha’s List of Links — Children’s Sites, Newbury Elementary School’s Authors and Illustrators [site has moved], Bridge Elementary School Library’s Authors and Illustrators Page (Lexington, MA), Michael Rhode and John Bullough’s comic research bibliography, High Point Public Library’s Children’s Room Author List (High Point, NC) [site has moved], Dodge Elementary School’s Check Out These Authors! (Grand Island, NB), Mrs. Kreitzer’s Authors on the Internet (Fishing Creek Elementary School, New Cumberland, PA), Embracing the Child’s Children’s Illustrators, Cynthia L. Smith’s Children’s Book Authors and Illustrators J-Q, William J. Struhar’s Can you find the letter in each of these pictures? (Dayton, Ohio), the Billerica Public Library’s Books and Author Websites (Billerica, MA) [site has moved], The Purple Crayon of Yale, ABCentral’s EDU2:ENGLISH – WRITERS2, Mrs. Keefe’s Children’s Authors (Washington Elementary School, Santa Ana, CA), Susan Bryant’s FIAR Volume 2 Page, Doug Bratland’s This is what I dig (Minneapolis, Minnesota), TRH Gallery’s Comic and Comic Art-Related sites, Keheley’s Media Center’s Author Pages (Keheley Elementary School, Marietta, GA), Author! Author! page (Mark Twain Elementary School, Heidelberg District, Germany), Michigan Electronic Library’s Reading and Literature page, Bailey Library’s Children’s Literature: A Cyberguide (Slippery Rock University, Slippery Rock, PA), SCPLS-Kids’ Authors (Seminole County Public Library, FL), Authors for K-3 (Paradise Canyon Elementary School, La Canada, CA), Jean Holmblad’s Library Laugh Site — Picture Book Authors (Simmons College, Boston, MA), StudyWeb’s Children’s Fiction:Authors — J page, Pieni Karhu‘s linkit and kirjailijat pages (Karkola, Finland), Voice of the Shuttle‘s Highlights and Descriptions page, Nancy Donohue’s Early Childhood Greets the Web and English — Language Arts links, Kids’ Connection: Book People (Worthington Public Library, Worthington, Ohio), Favorite Authors (Kaplan Elementary Library, Kaplan, Louisiana), Miss Smith’s Third Grade Links for Teachers (Andrews Heights Elementary), Student Page (Agassiz Elementary School), The Answer Sleuth’s Lion page, Sharyn November ‘s page of people who can write and/or draw: authors and illustrators, a-m, Myriam Namolaru’s Les Histoires a Dessiner (Draw-and-Tell) site, Marxists Internet Archive’s Crockett Johnson page, Kiddie Rekord King (Peter Muldavin), and search engines. [Note: This “Laudable Links” list is long out-of-date, and many links no longer work.]

Join these generous folks by submitting some as yet unknown fact about Crockett Johnson or by providing a link.

Search List

Here’s a list of some people I’d like to interview, and some items I’m looking for (all items are by Crockett Johnson unless otherwise indicated):

2012: ~~Forthcoming~~ biography of Crockett Johnson and Ruth Krauss

I’ve recently (as of June 2010) finished writing a biography of Crockett Johnson and Ruth Krauss. That said, it’s not too late to revise the manuscript. So, if you knew Crockett Johnson or Ruth Krauss, ever received a letter from either of them, know something that I don’t, or have ideas to offer, please contact me. My email address is philnel@ksu.edu. You may also write me at this address: Department of English, ECS Bldg., Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506-6501. ~~The book’s likely publication date is 2012.~~ The book was published in 2012. So, below is a list of what I was seeking at the time.

People
- Joanna Czaderna and Bianca Czaderna. Thanks to Lane Smith, made contact with Joanna Czaderna Wood in the fall of 2007. As of 11 February 2008, have spoken with both Bianca & Joanna.
- John Lahr (author). His late father Bert played Mr. O’Malley in the “Barnaby” TV-movie. I have written John Lahr c/o the New Yorker, but have not heard from him. Do you know of another address I should use?
- Ron Howard (director, actor). He played Barnaby in the “Barnaby” TV-movie. I’ve written him care of Imagine Entertainment. If there’s a better way to get in touch with Mr. Howard, please let me know.
Items
- See the bibliography for more details on the items. And, in general, if you don’t see it on the bibliography, then I don’t know about it; if there’s no link on the bibliography page, then I’ve probably never seen a copy of it. If you come across any Johnson-related items — including those listed above, un-linked items from the bibliography page, or anything unfamiliar to me — please let me know. Thanks!
- The 1924 yearbook for Newtown High School (Queens).
- Cartoons Crockett Johnson did in support of the war effort, circa 1942-45. I’ve never seen these, but Crockett Johnson worked on the Committee on War Cartoons, according to a 15 Oct. 1943 letter from Palmer Hoyt, Director, Domestic Operations, Office of War Information, Washington, D.C. Johnson also contributed cartoons to Treasury Department publications, according to letters (dated 5 Dec. 1942 and 30 Mar. 1942) from the War Savings Staff of the (U.S.) Treasury Department, and a 22 March 1944 letter from Marjorie C. Groves, Feature Editor of the Treasury Department’s War Finance Division. Sept. 2005: I’ve found four of these, thanks to Sandy Schechter of Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art and to my own research at Archives II.
- Free-lance work from the 1930s and 1940s, including any cartoons for The New Masses not included in “Crockett Johnson’s Early Work: A Bibliography.” (I have photocopies of the ones listed there.)
- The “Little Man with the Eyes” cartoons, published in Collier’s between 1940 and 1943 (for an almost complete listing, see “Crockett Johnson’s Early Work: A Bibliography”). I have photocopies of all of these, and I have about thirty published cartoons, including the 13 in Collier’s Collects Its Wits (Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1941), and the ones in Collier’s of 6 April 1940, 27 April 1940, 4 May 1940, 25 May 1940, 8 June 1940, 6 July 1940, 13 July 1940, 10 Aug. 1940, 14 Sept. 1940, 25 Jan. 1941, 22 Feb. 1941, 5 April 1941, 17 May 1941, 31 May 1941, 14 June 1941, 20 Sept. 1941, 6 Dec. 1941, 3 Jan. 1942, 25 April 1942, 13 June 1942, 18 July 1942, 25 July 1942, and 3 Oct. 1942. If you have issues of Collier’s containing cartoons I don’t have, please let me know.
- The color Sunday “Barnaby” published from the late 1940s to c. 1950.
- Foreign-language versions of “Barnaby” (such as the Japanese or Italian translations).
- A “popular song” based on “Barnaby”: Dennis Wepman’s entry on “Barnaby” in Maurice Horn’s 100 Years of Newspaper Comics (1996) mentions this item. Heard of it? Have a copy? Would you be willing to tape it for me? Please let me know. June 2010: This is probably Bob Miller’s “Mr. O’Malley’s March” (1944). Though not a pop hit, it’s the only song that seems to fit this description.
- The “Barnaby” TV-movie (a sitcom pilot, half-hour in length), starring Bert Lahr and Ron Howard, broadcast on CBS, 20 December 1959, 9-9:30 p.m. (Eastern Time). Does this exist on videotape? Has anyone seen it (either when it first aired or on videotape)?
- The “Barnaby” TV pilot, produced by Norman Lear and Bud Yorkin (1966). Written by George Tibbles, and starring Sorrell Brooke as Mr. O’Malley. As far as I know, it never aired. Some information is on Kennedy’s TV SF Guide. Has anyone further information?
- Pamphlets illustrated by Crockett Johnson, such as “Sister, You Need the Union…And the Union Needs You!” (UAW, 1944). Sept. 2005: I obtained For the People’s Health (1946) via eBay.
- Though most of Johnson’s geometrical paintings are either in the Smithsonian or privately held, about seven of them went missing sometime between 1993 and 1999. Do you know where they are?