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| awards = {{awd |[[Newbery Medal]] |1946 |[[Strawberry Girl]]}}
| awards = {{awd |[[Newbery Medal]] |1946 |[[Strawberry Girl]]}}
}}
}}
'''Lois Lenski''' (October 14, 1893 – September 11, 1974) was a [[Newbery Medal]]-winning author and illustrator of [[Picture book|picture books]] and [[children's literature]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=http://www.ohioana-authors.org/lenski/awards.php|title=Lois Lenski: Awards and Honors|last=|first=|date=|website=WOSU Presents Ohioana Authors|publisher=|access-date=August 9, 2016}}</ref> Beginning with the release in 1927 of her first books, ''Skipping Village'' and ''Jack Horner's Pie: A Book of Nursery Rhymes'', Lenski published 98 books, including several posthumous works. Her writings comprise children's picture books and illustrated chapter books, songbooks, poetry, short stories, an autobiography, ''Journey into Childhood'' (1972), and a number of essays about books and children's literature.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=http://www.ohioana-authors.org/lenski/works.php|title=The Works of Lois Lenski|last=|first=|date=|website=WOSU Presents Ohioana Authors|publisher=|access-date=August 9, 2016}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite web|url=http://library.illinoisstate.edu/unique-collections/lois-lenski/work.php#articles|title=Books Written and Illustrated by Lois Lenski|last=Day|first=Pam, Nancy Duran, and Denise Anton Wright|date=|website=Milner Library: Unique Collections|publisher=Illinois State University|access-date=August 9, 2016}}</ref> Her best-known bodies of work include the "Mr. Small" series of picture books (1934-62); her "Historical" series of novels, including the [[Newbery Honor]]-winning ''[[Phebe Fairchild: Her Book]]'' (1936) and ''[[Indian Captive: The Story of Mary Jemison]]'' (1941); and her "Regional" series, including Newbery Medal-winning ''Strawberry Girl'' (1945) and [[Red House Children's Book Award|Children's Book Award]]-winning ''Judy's Journey'' (1947).<ref name=":1" />
'''Lois Lenski''' (October 14, 1893 – September 11, 1974)<ref name=degrummond/> was a popular and prolific writer of children's and young adult fiction.


In addition to illustrating her own books, Lenski also provided illustrations for texts by other authors, including the first edition of [[The Little Engine That Could|The Little Engine that Could]], by [[Watty Piper]] (1930), and the first four volumes of [[Maud Hart Lovelace]]'s [[Betsy-Tacy]] series (1940-1943).<ref>{{Cite book|title=Lois Lenski: Storycatcher|last=Malone|first=Bobbie|publisher=University of Oklahoma Press|year=2016|isbn=978-0806153865|location=|pages=3, 126-127|via=}}</ref>
One of her projects was a collection of regional novels about children across the United States. The series includes her most famous work, ''[[Strawberry Girl]]'', about a girl in Florida; ''[[Blue Ridge Billy]]'', about a North Carolina youth living in rural [[Appalachia]]; ''Bayou Suzette'', etc.


In 1967 Lenski established the Lois Lenski Covey Foundation, which provides grants for book purchases to libraries and organizations serving children who are socially and economically at risk.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.loislenskicovey.org/6.html|title=The LLCF Library Grant Program|last=|first=|date=|website=The Lois Lenski Covey Foundation|publisher=|access-date=August 9, 2016}}</ref>
She won the annual [[Newbery Medal]] for ''Strawberry Girl'' in 1946.


== Early life ==
== Education and personal life ==


=== Early life and education ===
Lois Lenski was born in Springfield, Ohio on October 14, 1893. She was the fourth of five children born to [[Richard C. H. Lenski]], a [[Prussia]]n-born [[Lutheran]] clergyman and [[theologian]], and Marietta Young Lenski, a Franklin County, Ohio native, who was a schoolteacher before her marriage. When Lois was six, her family moved to the small town of Anna, Ohio, west of Springfield, where Richard Lenski was called to be a pastor (2). For the next twelve years, Lenski’s life centered around her schooling and family activities, including drawing, photography, reading, sewing, and gardening (2). ''Journey into Childhood'', Lenski’s autobiography, published in 1972, documents her memories of her early life in a small Mid-western rural community at the turn of the century. Of that life, Lenski stated, “Life in a small town in Ohio before the First World War was simple, sincere and wholesome… I am glad to have been a child in the horse-and-buggy days, and to have known and felt the joys of real peace and security.” (3)
Lois Lenski was born in [[Springfield, Ohio]] on October 14, 1893. She was the fourth of five children born to [[Richard C. H. Lenski]], a [[Prussia]]n-born [[Lutheran]] clergyman and [[theologian]], and Marietta Young Lenski, a Franklin County, Ohio native, who was a schoolteacher before her marriage. When Lois was six, her family moved to the small town of [[Anna, Ohio]], west of Springfield, where Richard Lenski was called to be a pastor.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web|url=http://library.illinoisstate.edu/unique-collections/lois-lenski/about.php|title=Lois Lenski: A Biographical Sketch|last=Schwartz|first=Vanette|date=2012|website=Milner Library: Unique Collections|publisher=Illinois State University|access-date=August 9, 2016}}</ref> She was encouraged to pursue her talent for art by adults in her life including teachers, a visiting artist who, she later recalled, advised her father to buy her a high-quality set of paints because she had talent, and her father, who did so. But she also recalled that no one encouraged her to "be original" or draw what she saw around her during her childhood, describing her work until the age of fifteen as copying from other pictures.<ref name=":4">{{Cite web|url=http://home.metrocast.net/~tortak/illustrators/Lenski.html|title=Lois Lenski (1893–1974)|last=Ortakales|first=Denise|date=|website=Women Children's Book Illustrators|publisher=|access-date=August 9, 2016}}</ref>


After commuting by train to high school in Sidney, Ohio, Lenski graduated in 1911. She and her family moved to Columbus, where her father joined the faculty of Capital University. Lenski studied at [[Ohio State University]], graduating in 1915 with a B.S. in education and a teaching certificate. With encouragement from her art professors at Ohio State, she moved to New York City to study at the Art Students League, where she took classes for four years. (2)
After commuting by train to high school in Sidney, Ohio, Lenski graduated in 1911. She then attended [[Ohio State University]], graduating in 1915 with a B.S. in education and a teaching certificate. Her minor was in fine arts, with her coursework concentrating on drawing and lettering.<ref name=":5">{{Cite web|url=http://www.ohioana-authors.org/lenski/highlights.php|title=Lois Lenski: Highlights of a Life|last=|first=|date=|website=WOSU Presents Ohioana Authors|publisher=|access-date=August 9, 2016}}</ref><ref name=":3" /> After graduating from Ohio State she received a scholarship to the [[Art Students League of New York|Art Students League]] in New York, where she studied until 1920. During this time she also studied illustration at the [[School of Industrial Art]] in New York. In 1920 she traveled to London, studying at the [[Westminster School of Art]] during 1920 and 1921. She then spent several months traveling in Italy before returning to the United States.<ref name=":4" />


=== Marriage and family life ===
⚫
== Early career ==
On June 8, 1921, immediately after her return from Italy, Lenski married [[Arthur Covey]], a muralist who had been one of her instructors at the School of Industrial Art and for whom she had worked as an assistant on mural projects before she left for London.<ref name=":4" /> Covey was a widower with two young children, and in 1929 Lenski and Covey had a son, Stephen. The family then moved from [[Westchester County, New York|Westchester County]] to "Greenacres," a farmhouse in [[Harwinton, Connecticut]], built in 1790.<ref name=":3" />


Covey, who was sixteen years older than Lenski, expected his wife to take full responsibility for the household and children, even if doing so meant that she would have no time for creative work. Lenski, however, refused to give up, later writing that Covey's attitude helped her to realize how important her work was to her. She hired household help when she could and carved out time to work in her studio.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Lois Lenski: Storycatcher|last=Malone|first=|publisher=|year=|isbn=|location=|pages=68-69|via=}}</ref>
While studying at the Art Students League, Lenski supported herself with lettering jobs, painting greeting cards, and drawing for fashion advertisements (2). She met her future husband, Arthur Covey, in an art class, and became his assistant in painting several murals. Lenski travelled to London, where she attended Westminster School of Art, and Italy in 1920-21. While in London, she was hired to illustrate books by the British publisher John Lane. Shortly after returning from Europe, Lenski and Covey married, in 1921. In so doing, Lenski became stepmother to Margaret, aged 12, and Laird, aged 4. (2). Considering the 1920s her apprenticeship period, Lenski illustrated Maud Hart Lovelace’s ''Betsy Tacy'' series. With encouragement from her publisher, she began on a new venture. She wrote and illustrated her first book, ''Skipping Village'' in 1927, followed the next year by ''A Little Girl of 1900'', based on her childhood years (2). With these books, as she writes in ''The Life I Live, Collected Poems'' (1964), Lenski’s work reflects her desire to portray this “theme – a child and his town, or a child and his environment – [which] can be traced through all my books.”(4)


==== Influence on her literary career ====
== Early Writing/Illustration - Including Introducing "Mr. Small" ==
As Lenski progressed in her literary and artistic career, her family and home life would serve as important sources of inspiration for her work. The first two books she wrote and illustrated, ''Skipping Village'' (1927) and ''A Little Girl of 1900'' (1928), drew upon her childhood in small-town Ohio, which she idealized; in her autobiography she would describe that time and place as "simple, sincere, and wholesome."<ref name=":5" /> The "Mr. Small" series of books was inspired by watching her young son Stephen and his friends play with toy trucks, airplanes and other vehicles and realizing that the children tended to see themselves as the operators of the vehicles, like the eponymous Mr. Small, rather than [[Anthropomorphism|anthropomorphizing]] them into characters. She would later base two other picture book series, the "Davy" and "Debbie" books, on her experiences with a grandson and granddaughter.<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":5" /> Her first historical novel, ''Phebe Fairchild: Her Book'', was inspired by living at Greenacres; it describes life as it could have been lived at the house in the 1830s, a century before the book was written.<ref name=":2" />


In the early 1940s Lenski was told by her doctor that for the sake of her health she needed to get away from Connecticut's harsh winters. The family began to spend the winter in the southern United States, first visiting Louisiana and then Florida. During these trips Lenski observed the social and economic differences between this region of the country and her familiar Midwest and Northeast, which inspired her to write about the ways of life experienced by children in diverse American regions. Although her writing was interrupted by illness in the early 1950s, she continued the project of writing regional stories until 1968.<ref name=":2" />
In 1929, Lenski and Covey moved their family to Harwinton, Connecticut, to a farm built in 1790, called Greenacres, several months after the birth of their son, Stephen. Inspired by Stephen’s childhood years, Lenski commenced on what would become the beloved “Mr. Small” series, beginning with ''The Little Auto'' (1934) (2). Mr. Small was a versatile as well as charming hero for Lenski and her readers; he sailed a boat, piloted an airplane, farmed, and kept the peace, in ''Policeman Small'' (1962), among other adventures.


⚫
==== Later life ====
== Historical fiction for preteens ==
In 1951 Lenski and Covey built a house at Tarpon Springs, Florida, where they spent half of each year. After Covey's death in 1960, Lenski moved permanently to Florida. She continued to write, publishing her last work of fiction, ''Debbie and her Pets'', in 1971 and her autobiography in 1972.<ref name=":2" /> In 1967 she established the Lois Lenski Covey Foundation. Beginning in 1959, her achievements were recognized by [[Honorary degree|honorary doctorates]] from [[Wartburg College]] (1959), [[University of North Carolina at Greensboro|UNC-Greensboro]] (1962), and [[Capital University]] in Columbus, Ohio, where her father had once taught (1966). In 1967 She was awarded the Regina Medal by the Catholic Library Association and the Children's Collection Medal by the [[University of Southern Mississippi]].<ref name=":0" /> Lenski died September 11, 1974, at her home in Tarpon Springs, Florida.<ref name=":3" />


⚫
== Early artistic and literary career ==
Lenski also wrote and illustrated historical fiction for preteens, beginning with ''Phebe Fairchild, Her Book'' (1936), a story set in the 1830s and inspired by Lenski and Covey’s 1790 Connecticut farmhouse. This was the first in a series of seven meticulously researched novels. About these books, Lenski wrote in her autobiography that her motivation was to “describe the everyday life of people in a given period, to tell what they thought, felt, said, and did, how they got their food, shelter, and clothing”. Lenski distinguished herself with this series by writing about geographically and culturally diverse children. ''Phebe Fairchild'' and ''Indian Captive'' were both named Newbery Honor books.{{cn|date=December 2015}}


Lenski's initial professional goal was to become a painter, and she pursued artistic recognition in this context into the 1930s. Her oil paintings were shown at the [[Weyhe Gallery]] in New York in 1927 and her watercolors were shown at the Ferargils Gallery in New York in 1932.<ref name=":4" /> At the same time she pursued work as an illustrator, beginning with jobs she took to support herself while studying at the Art Students League between 1915 and 1920. Her first publication, in 1918, was a [[coloring book]] called ''A Children's Frieze Book: To-Put-Together for Home Decoration'', for which she was paid $100.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books/about/Children_s_Frieze_Book.html?id=FgSZMwEACAAJ|title=Google Books: Children's Frieze Book|last=|first=|date=|website=|publisher=|access-date=August 10, 2016}}</ref><ref name=":4" /> She also produced three books of [[Paper doll|paper dolls]] for the same publisher, Platt and Munk, during 1918 and 1919.<ref name=":6">{{Cite web|url=http://home.metrocast.net/~tortak/illustrators/index.html|title=Children's Books Illustrated by Lois Lenski|last=Ortakales|first=Denise|date=|website=Women Children's Book Illustrators|publisher=|access-date=August 10, 2016}}</ref> In 1920, Lenski chose to study in London in part because it was the longstanding center of children's book publishing, a field in which American educators, publishers and librarians began to engage seriously only after [[World War I]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=Lois Lenski: Storycatcher|last=Malone|first=|publisher=|year=|isbn=|location=|pages=54-55|via=}}</ref> In London she illustrated three children's books for the publisher John Lane, including new editions of two stories by ''[[The Wind in the Willows|Wind in the Willows]]'' author [[Kenneth Grahame]].<ref name=":6" /> After returning to the United States she continued to work as an illustrator, focusing primarily on collections of folktales and fairy tales during the 1920s; among the first books for which she provided text as well as illustrations was a collection of nursery rhymes.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Lois Lenski: Storycatcher|last=Malone|first=|publisher=|year=|isbn=|location=|pages=69-70|via=}}</ref>
== "Davy" Series ==


In 1927, pioneering children's book editor Helen Dean Fish suggested that Lenski try writing her own stories as well as illustrating them.<ref name=":4" /><ref>{{Cite book|title=Pioneers and Leaders in Library Services to Youth: A Biographical Dictionary|last=Behrmann|first=Christine A.|publisher=Libraries Unlimited|year=2003|isbn=1-59158-028-5|editor-last=Miller|editor-first=Marilyn L.|location=Westport, CT|pages=70-71|chapter=Fish, Helen Dean (1889-1953)|via=}}</ref> She originally wrote her first book, ''Skipping Village'', as poetry, changing it to prose at the request of her editor; decades later, she would return to writing poetry and song lyrics.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.purplehousepress.com/sig/lenskibio.htm|title=Lois Lenski: Author - Illustrator, 1893-1974|last=|first=|date=|website=|publisher=Purple House Press|access-date=August 10, 2016}}</ref>
Lenski published the “Davy” series in the 1940s, books inspired by her grandson, David Chisholm, son of Margaret, who spent the summers with his grandparents for several years. (2) These small-scaled books focus on the everyday adventures of a little boy.


Until the mid-1940s Lenski continued to illustrate other authors' books as well as her own, working with writers including Maud Hart Lovelace, Watty Piper, and [[Hugh Lofting]].<ref name=":6" /> However, her biographer Bobbie Malone notes that while Lenski wrote about her work as an illustrator in the 1920s in her autobiography, she did not mention her later work of this type, even on "landmark" books like Piper's ''Little Engine'' and Lovelace's ''Betsy-Tacy'' books.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Lois Lenski: Storycatcher|last=Malone|first=|publisher=|year=|isbn=|location=|pages=127|via=}}</ref>
== Travels to the South, Regional Stories, and the Roundabout Books ==


== Literary philosophy ==
Beginning in the 1940s, with her health compromised by the cold northern winters, following her doctor’s advice, Lenski and Covey began to spend their winters in the south, first in Louisiana and then in Florida. During these travels, Lenski broadened her experience of the United States. In her autobiography she wrote, “On my trips south I saw the real America for the first time. I saw and learned what the word region meant as I witnessed firsthand different ways of life unlike my own. What interested me most was the way children were living”. (2) Thus began what she called her Regional Stories,<ref>{{cite book|last1=Lenski|first1=Lois|title=Journey Into Childhood|date=1972|publisher=Lippincott}}</ref> focused on often underrepresented populations, much like her historical novels. The second book in this series, ''Strawberry Girl'' (1945) was awarded the Newbery Medal, in 1946. (2) Another set of books, the Roundabout series, were begun in 1952 and comprised shorter novels or collections of short stories. The Roundabout books were aimed at a younger audience than the Regional novels.

⚫
== Later career ==

Lenski and Covey built a house in Florida in 1951, and spent increasing amounts of time there. Covey died in 1960. Lenski eventually sold their Connecticut farmhouse and moved to Florida year-round. She published her “Debbie” series, inspired by her granddaughter, in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Her collected speeches, ''Adventures in Understanding: Talks to Parents, Teachers, and Librarians, 1944-1966,'' were published in 1968. She continued to write in her later years, publishing her autobiography in 1972. (2)

== Death and Legacy ==

Lois Lenski died at her Florida home in 1974 at age 80 after a long, successful career. Her many books have become classics in children’s literature, appealing in their simple portrayal of childhood. She rejoiced in depicting a broad sweep of the American childhood experience, frequently reflecting universal feelings and truths of being very young, throughout her distinguished career.


==Selected works==
==Selected works==
Line 114: Line 110:


==References==
==References==
{{reflist |25em |refs=
<ref name=degrummond>
[http://www.lib.usm.edu/legacy/degrum/public_html/html/research/findaids/lenski.htm "Lois Lenski Papers"]. De Grummond Children's Literature Collection. University of Southern Mississippi Retrieved 2013-12-18. With biographical sketch.</ref>
}}
2 – Milner Library, Illinois State University, Lois Lenski: A Biographical Sketch, Vanette Schwartz
http://library.illinoisstate.edu/unique-collections/lois-lenski/about.php
3 – Ohioana Authors/WOSU Public Media: http://www.ohioana-authors.org/lenski/highlights.php
4 - The Life I Live: Collected Poems, Lois Lenski, H. Z. Walck, 1965

==External links==
==External links==
* [http://library.illinoisstate.edu/unique-collections/lois-lenski/work.php Books Written and Illustrated by Lois Lenski] — bibliography at Illinois State University
* [http://library.illinoisstate.edu/unique-collections/lois-lenski/work.php Books Written and Illustrated by Lois Lenski] — bibliography at Illinois State University

Revision as of 07:13, 10 August 2016

Lois Lenski
Born(1893-10-14)October 14, 1893
Springfield, Ohio, USA
DiedSeptember 11, 1974(1974-09-11) (aged 80)
Tarpon Springs, Florida
OccupationWriter, illustrator
NationalityAmerican
EducationOhio State University, Art Students League of New York, Westminster School of Art[1]
Period1920–1974
GenreChildren's novels, picture books
Notable awardsNewbery Medal
1946 Strawberry Girl

Lois Lenski (October 14, 1893 – September 11, 1974) was a Newbery Medal-winning author and illustrator of picture books and children's literature.[2] Beginning with the release in 1927 of her first books, Skipping Village and Jack Horner's Pie: A Book of Nursery Rhymes, Lenski published 98 books, including several posthumous works. Her writings comprise children's picture books and illustrated chapter books, songbooks, poetry, short stories, an autobiography, Journey into Childhood (1972), and a number of essays about books and children's literature.[3][4] Her best-known bodies of work include the "Mr. Small" series of picture books (1934-62); her "Historical" series of novels, including the Newbery Honor-winning Phebe Fairchild: Her Book (1936) and Indian Captive: The Story of Mary Jemison (1941); and her "Regional" series, including Newbery Medal-winning Strawberry Girl (1945) and Children's Book Award-winning Judy's Journey (1947).[3]

In addition to illustrating her own books, Lenski also provided illustrations for texts by other authors, including the first edition of The Little Engine that Could, by Watty Piper (1930), and the first four volumes of Maud Hart Lovelace's Betsy-Tacy series (1940-1943).[5]

In 1967 Lenski established the Lois Lenski Covey Foundation, which provides grants for book purchases to libraries and organizations serving children who are socially and economically at risk.[6]

Education and personal life

Early life and education

Lois Lenski was born in Springfield, Ohio on October 14, 1893. She was the fourth of five children born to Richard C. H. Lenski, a Prussian-born Lutheran clergyman and theologian, and Marietta Young Lenski, a Franklin County, Ohio native, who was a schoolteacher before her marriage. When Lois was six, her family moved to the small town of Anna, Ohio, west of Springfield, where Richard Lenski was called to be a pastor.[7] She was encouraged to pursue her talent for art by adults in her life including teachers, a visiting artist who, she later recalled, advised her father to buy her a high-quality set of paints because she had talent, and her father, who did so. But she also recalled that no one encouraged her to "be original" or draw what she saw around her during her childhood, describing her work until the age of fifteen as copying from other pictures.[8]

After commuting by train to high school in Sidney, Ohio, Lenski graduated in 1911. She then attended Ohio State University, graduating in 1915 with a B.S. in education and a teaching certificate. Her minor was in fine arts, with her coursework concentrating on drawing and lettering.[9][7] After graduating from Ohio State she received a scholarship to the Art Students League in New York, where she studied until 1920. During this time she also studied illustration at the School of Industrial Art in New York. In 1920 she traveled to London, studying at the Westminster School of Art during 1920 and 1921. She then spent several months traveling in Italy before returning to the United States.[8]

Marriage and family life

On June 8, 1921, immediately after her return from Italy, Lenski married Arthur Covey, a muralist who had been one of her instructors at the School of Industrial Art and for whom she had worked as an assistant on mural projects before she left for London.[8] Covey was a widower with two young children, and in 1929 Lenski and Covey had a son, Stephen. The family then moved from Westchester County to "Greenacres," a farmhouse in Harwinton, Connecticut, built in 1790.[7]

Covey, who was sixteen years older than Lenski, expected his wife to take full responsibility for the household and children, even if doing so meant that she would have no time for creative work. Lenski, however, refused to give up, later writing that Covey's attitude helped her to realize how important her work was to her. She hired household help when she could and carved out time to work in her studio.[10]

Influence on her literary career

As Lenski progressed in her literary and artistic career, her family and home life would serve as important sources of inspiration for her work. The first two books she wrote and illustrated, Skipping Village (1927) and A Little Girl of 1900 (1928), drew upon her childhood in small-town Ohio, which she idealized; in her autobiography she would describe that time and place as "simple, sincere, and wholesome."[9] The "Mr. Small" series of books was inspired by watching her young son Stephen and his friends play with toy trucks, airplanes and other vehicles and realizing that the children tended to see themselves as the operators of the vehicles, like the eponymous Mr. Small, rather than anthropomorphizing them into characters. She would later base two other picture book series, the "Davy" and "Debbie" books, on her experiences with a grandson and granddaughter.[7][9] Her first historical novel, Phebe Fairchild: Her Book, was inspired by living at Greenacres; it describes life as it could have been lived at the house in the 1830s, a century before the book was written.[4]

In the early 1940s Lenski was told by her doctor that for the sake of her health she needed to get away from Connecticut's harsh winters. The family began to spend the winter in the southern United States, first visiting Louisiana and then Florida. During these trips Lenski observed the social and economic differences between this region of the country and her familiar Midwest and Northeast, which inspired her to write about the ways of life experienced by children in diverse American regions. Although her writing was interrupted by illness in the early 1950s, she continued the project of writing regional stories until 1968.[4]

Later life

In 1951 Lenski and Covey built a house at Tarpon Springs, Florida, where they spent half of each year. After Covey's death in 1960, Lenski moved permanently to Florida. She continued to write, publishing her last work of fiction, Debbie and her Pets, in 1971 and her autobiography in 1972.[4] In 1967 she established the Lois Lenski Covey Foundation. Beginning in 1959, her achievements were recognized by honorary doctorates from Wartburg College (1959), UNC-Greensboro (1962), and Capital University in Columbus, Ohio, where her father had once taught (1966). In 1967 She was awarded the Regina Medal by the Catholic Library Association and the Children's Collection Medal by the University of Southern Mississippi.[2] Lenski died September 11, 1974, at her home in Tarpon Springs, Florida.[7]

Early artistic and literary career

Lenski's initial professional goal was to become a painter, and she pursued artistic recognition in this context into the 1930s. Her oil paintings were shown at the Weyhe Gallery in New York in 1927 and her watercolors were shown at the Ferargils Gallery in New York in 1932.[8] At the same time she pursued work as an illustrator, beginning with jobs she took to support herself while studying at the Art Students League between 1915 and 1920. Her first publication, in 1918, was a coloring book called A Children's Frieze Book: To-Put-Together for Home Decoration, for which she was paid $100.[11][8] She also produced three books of paper dolls for the same publisher, Platt and Munk, during 1918 and 1919.[12] In 1920, Lenski chose to study in London in part because it was the longstanding center of children's book publishing, a field in which American educators, publishers and librarians began to engage seriously only after World War I.[13] In London she illustrated three children's books for the publisher John Lane, including new editions of two stories by Wind in the Willows author Kenneth Grahame.[12] After returning to the United States she continued to work as an illustrator, focusing primarily on collections of folktales and fairy tales during the 1920s; among the first books for which she provided text as well as illustrations was a collection of nursery rhymes.[14]

In 1927, pioneering children's book editor Helen Dean Fish suggested that Lenski try writing her own stories as well as illustrating them.[8][15] She originally wrote her first book, Skipping Village, as poetry, changing it to prose at the request of her editor; decades later, she would return to writing poetry and song lyrics.[16]

Until the mid-1940s Lenski continued to illustrate other authors' books as well as her own, working with writers including Maud Hart Lovelace, Watty Piper, and Hugh Lofting.[12] However, her biographer Bobbie Malone notes that while Lenski wrote about her work as an illustrator in the 1920s in her autobiography, she did not mention her later work of this type, even on "landmark" books like Piper's Little Engine and Lovelace's Betsy-Tacy books.[17]

Literary philosophy

Selected works

Template:Multicol

  • Lois Lenski's Christmas Stories
  • Mr. Small books
  • Davy books
  • Debbie books
  • Seasons books
  • Roundabout America series
    • We Live in the North
    • Berries in the Scoop
    • We Live in the South
    • Peanuts for Billy Ben
    • Little Sioux Girl
    • We Live by the River
    • Project Boy
    • We Live in the City
    • We Live in the Country
    • We Live in the Southwest
    • High-Rise Secret
  • Historical
    • Phebe Fairchild, Her Book
    • A-Going to the Westward
    • Surprise for Mother
    • Bound Girl of Cobble Hill
    • Flood Friday
    • Ocean-Born Mary
    • Indian Captive
    • Blueberry Corners
    • Puritan Adventure Template:Multicol-break
  • Regional
    • Bayou Suzette
    • Strawberry Girl
    • Blue Ridge Billy
    • Judy's Journey
    • Boom Town Boy
    • Cotton in My Sack
    • Texas Tomboy
    • Prairie School
    • Mama Hattie's Girl
    • Corn-Farm Boy
    • San Francisco Boy
    • Flood Friday
    • Houseboat Girl
    • Coal Camp Girl
    • Shoo-Fly Girl
    • To Be a Logger
    • Deer Valley Girl

Template:Multicol-end

See also

References

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference degrummond was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ a b "Lois Lenski: Awards and Honors". WOSU Presents Ohioana Authors. Retrieved August 9, 2016.
  3. ^ a b "The Works of Lois Lenski". WOSU Presents Ohioana Authors. Retrieved August 9, 2016.
  4. ^ a b c d Day, Pam, Nancy Duran, and Denise Anton Wright. "Books Written and Illustrated by Lois Lenski". Milner Library: Unique Collections. Illinois State University. Retrieved August 9, 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  5. ^ Malone, Bobbie (2016). Lois Lenski: Storycatcher. University of Oklahoma Press. pp. 3, 126–127. ISBN 978-0806153865.
  6. ^ "The LLCF Library Grant Program". The Lois Lenski Covey Foundation. Retrieved August 9, 2016.
  7. ^ a b c d e Schwartz, Vanette (2012). "Lois Lenski: A Biographical Sketch". Milner Library: Unique Collections. Illinois State University. Retrieved August 9, 2016.
  8. ^ a b c d e f Ortakales, Denise. "Lois Lenski (1893–1974)". Women Children's Book Illustrators. Retrieved August 9, 2016.
  9. ^ a b c "Lois Lenski: Highlights of a Life". WOSU Presents Ohioana Authors. Retrieved August 9, 2016.
  10. ^ Malone. Lois Lenski: Storycatcher. pp. 68–69.
  11. ^ "Google Books: Children's Frieze Book". Retrieved August 10, 2016.
  12. ^ a b c Ortakales, Denise. "Children's Books Illustrated by Lois Lenski". Women Children's Book Illustrators. Retrieved August 10, 2016.
  13. ^ Malone. Lois Lenski: Storycatcher. pp. 54–55.
  14. ^ Malone. Lois Lenski: Storycatcher. pp. 69–70.
  15. ^ Behrmann, Christine A. (2003). "Fish, Helen Dean (1889-1953)". In Miller, Marilyn L. (ed.). Pioneers and Leaders in Library Services to Youth: A Biographical Dictionary. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited. pp. 70–71. ISBN 1-59158-028-5.
  16. ^ "Lois Lenski: Author - Illustrator, 1893-1974". Purple House Press. Retrieved August 10, 2016.
  17. ^ Malone. Lois Lenski: Storycatcher. p. 127.
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