View source for Crockett Johnson

{{short description|American cartoonist and children's book illustrator (1906-1975)}}
{{Infobox comics creator
| image         = Crockett_Johnson_(mid-1960s).jpg
| imagesize     = 120
| caption       = 
| birth_name    = David Johnson Leisk 
| birth_date    = {{Birth date|1906|10|20}}
| birth_place      = [[New York City]], United States
| death_date    = {{death date and age|1975|7|11|1906|10|20}}
| death_place   = [[Norwalk, Connecticut]]
| area          = Cartoonist 
| alias         = 
| notable works = ''[[Barnaby (comics)|Barnaby]]'', ''[[Harold and the Purple Crayon]]''
| awards        = 
}}
'''Crockett Johnson''' (October 20, 1906 – July 11, 1975) was the pen name of the American [[cartoonist]] and [[children's book]] illustrator '''David Johnson Leisk'''. He is best known for the [[comic strip]] ''[[Barnaby (comics)|Barnaby]]'' (1942–1952) and the ''Harold'' series of books, beginning with ''[[Harold and the Purple Crayon]]''.

From 1965 until his death, Johnson created more than a hundred paintings relating to mathematics and mathematical physics. Eighty of these are found in the collections of the [[National Museum of American History]].<ref>[http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object-groups/mathematical-paintings-of-crockett-johnson National Museum of American History page on Crocket Johnson, with images of paintings]</ref>

==Biography==
Born in [[New York City]], Johnson grew up in [[Corona, Queens|Corona, Queens, New York]], attended PS 16 and Newtown High School. His father was from the [[Shetland Islands]] in [[Scotland]] and his mother was an immigrant from [[Germany]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.tcj.com/before-barnaby-crockett-johnson-grows-up-and-turns-left/ | title=Before Barnaby: Crockett Johnson Grows up and Turns Left | date=26 September 2012 }}</ref> He studied art at [[Cooper Union]] in 1924, and at [[New York University]] in 1925.<ref name=autogenerated1>[http://www.k-state.edu/english/nelp/purple/biography.html "Harold, Barnaby, and Dave: A Biography of Crockett Johnson"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190101114846/http://www.k-state.edu/english/nelp/purple/biography.html |date=2019-01-01 }}. Philip Nel.</ref> He explained his choice of [[pseudonym]] as follows: "Crockett is my childhood nickname. My real name is David Johnson Leisk. Leisk was too hard to pronounce—so—I am now Crockett Johnson!"<ref name=autogenerated1 />

By the late 1920s, Johnson was art editor at several [[McGraw-Hill]] trade publications. With the [[Great Depression]], Johnson became politicized and turned leftward, joining the radical Book and Magazine Writers Union. In 1934, he began his cartooning career by contributing to the [[Communist Party USA|Communist Party]] publication ''[[New Masses]]'' and subsequently joined the publication's staff, becoming its art editor and redesigning the magazine's layout. He remained with the magazine until 1940 and embarked on a career drawing comic strips in a series in ''[[Collier's]]'' magazine named "The Little Man with the Eyes". In 1942, he developed the ''Barnaby'' strip which would make him famous for the left-wing daily newspaper ''[[PM (newspaper)|PM]]''.<ref>{{cite news|title=Before Barnaby: Crockett Johnson Grows Up and Turns Left|url=http://www.tcj.com/before-barnaby-crockett-johnson-grows-up-and-turns-left/|access-date=November 30, 2013|newspaper=The Comics Journal|date=September 26, 2012}}</ref> 

In 1939 Johnson married writer [[Ruth Krauss]]. They had no children together,<ref>{{Cite web|title=Crockett Johnson and Ruth Krauss redrew the world of kid literature|url=https://www.post-gazette.com/ae/books/2012/09/04/Crockett-Johnson-and-Ruth-Krauss-redrew-the-world-of-kid-literature/stories/201209040175|access-date=2021-08-19|website=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette|language=en}}</ref> nor did they have children with their first spouses. They lived in [[Westport, Connecticut]].<ref>Correspondence with Professor Philip Nel author of "Crockett Johnson and Ruth Krauss: How an Unlikely Couple Found Love, Dodged the FBI, and Transformed Children's Literature" (2012)

"8-19-2021

Crockett Johnson and Ruth Krauss had no children.&nbsp; They had no children as a couple.&nbsp; Nor did they have children with their first spouses.

Best wishes,

Phil

Philip Nel"</ref> Together they collaborated on several children's books. 

The children's book ''[[Harold and the Purple Crayon]]'' was published in 1955.

He died on July 11, 1975, at [[Norwalk Hospital]] in [[Norwalk, Connecticut]] of [[lung cancer]].<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1975/07/13/archives/crockett-johnson-cartoonist-creator-of-barnaby-is-dead.html | title=Crockett Johnson, Cartoonist, Creator of 'Barnaby,' is Dead | work=The New York Times | date=13 July 1975 }}</ref>

==Children's books==
Johnson collaborated on four children's books with his wife, [[Ruth Krauss]]. The books were: ''[[The Carrot Seed]]'', ''How to Make an Earthquake'', ''Is This You?'', and ''The Happy Egg''.

The books ''Harold and the Purple Crayon'', ''Harold's Fairy Tale'', and ''A Picture for Harold's Room'' were adapted for [[animation]] by [[Gene Deitch]].

==Mathematical paintings==
[[File:Apollonius- NMAH-2008-2484.jpg|thumb|left|"Polar Line of a Point and a Circle (Apollonius)"]]
{{see|Mathematics and art}}

Johnson created his series of more than 100 mathematical paintings inspired by geometric principles and mathematicians. He painted layered geometric shapes in the paintings, based on classic mathematical theorems and diagrams in [[James R. Newman]]'s ''[[The World of Mathematics]]'' as well as other mathematics books. The paintings were inspired by famous mathematicians such as Galileo, Euclid, Descartes, and many more, and the titles of said paintings are references to each mathematician--"Proof of the Pythagorean Theorem" for Euclid, "Pendulum Momentum" for Galileo, and "Square Root of Two" after Descartes.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Mathematical Paintings of Crockett Johnson|url=https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object-groups/mathematical-paintings-of-crockett-johnson|access-date=2021-12-15|website=National Museum of American History|language=en}}</ref> Later, he began to construct using his own inventions.<ref>{{cite web|url = http://www.maa.org/publications/periodicals/convergence/mathematical-treasure-crockett-johnsons-mathematical-paintings|title = Mathematical Treasure: Crockett Johnson's Mathematical Paintings|date = August 2014|website = Mathematical Association of America|last = Green|first = Judy}}</ref> Most of Johnson's abstract images are painted with house paint on the rough side of a two-by-three foot piece of [[masonite]], save those he enlarged to four-by-four, he explained in a letter.<ref name=":0">{{cite web|url = http://www.aaa.si.edu/assets/images/collectionsonline/reinad/fullsize/AAA_reinad_1481080.jpg|title = Ad Reinhardt Papers, 1927–1968|website = Archives of American Art|publisher = Smithsonian Institution}}</ref>

Johnson made an effort to differentiate his paintings from contemporary art in that his are based on the mathematics of geometry, not solely the shapes. In his 1971 article titled "Geometric Geometric Painting", published in ''[[Leonardo (journal)|Leonardo]]'', Johnson describes this type of geometric painting as using shapes and lines to experiment with color and optic illusion for decoration, the evocation of emotion, representation of ancient symbols or other purposes unrelated to geometry.<ref>{{Cite book|title = Analyzing Art and Aesthetics|last1 = Goodyear|first1 = Anne Collins|publisher = Smithsonian Institution|date = October 30, 2013|isbn = 978-1935623236 |last2 = Weitekamp|first2 = Margaret A. |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=-a5qBgAAQBAJ&q=crockett+johnson+mathematical+paintings&pg=PT393}}</ref>

From 1965 until his death in 1975 Crockett Johnson painted more than 100 works relating to mathematics and mathematical physics.<ref name=":0" />

==Works==
* ''[[Barnaby (comics)|Barnaby]]'' (1943)
* ''Barnaby and Mr. O'Malley'' (1944)
* ''Willie's Adventures,'' Three Stories by [[Margaret Wise Brown]], (1944), illus. by Johnson
* [[Ruth Krauss]], ''[[The Carrot Seed]]'' (1945), illus. by Johnson
* ''[[Harold and the Purple Crayon]]'' (1955)
* ''Is This You?'' (1955), co-written with Ruth Krauss
* Franklyn M. Branley, Eleanor K. Vaughn, ''Mickey's Magnet'' (1956), illus. by Johnson<ref>[http://www.abebooks.com/Mickeys-Magnet-Scholastic-%23934-Crockett-Johnson/8239487769/bd Mickey's Magnet (Scholastic #934, Crockett Johnson, Illustrator) by Branley, Franklyn M.; Eleanor K. Vaughan, Pictures By Crockett Johnson: Scholastic 9780590023344 Softcover,...<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>
* ''Barkis: Some precise and some speculative interpretations of the meaning of a dog's bark at certain times and in certain (illustrated) circumstances'' (1956)
* ''Harold's Fairy Tale (Further Adventures with the Purple Crayon)'' (1956)
* ''Harold's Trip to the Sky'' (1957)
* ''Terrible, Terrifying Toby'' (1957)
* ''Time for Spring'' (1957)
* Bernadine Cook, ''The Little Fish That Got Away'' (1957)
* ''Harold at the North Pole'' (1958)
* ''The Blue Ribbon Puppies'' (1958)
* ''Ellen's Lion: Twelve Stories'' (1959)
* ''The Frowning Prince'' (1959)
* ''Harold's Circus'' (1959)
* ''Will Spring Be Early? or Will Spring Be Late?'' (1959)
* ''A Picture for Harold's Room'' (1960)
* ''Harold's ABC'' (1963)
* ''The Lion's Own Story: Eight New Stories about Ellen's Lion'' (1963)
* ''We Wonder What Will Walter Be? When He Grows Up'' (1964)
* ''Castles in the Sand'' (1965), illus. by Betty Fraser
* ''The Emperor's Gifts'' (1965)
* ''Barnaby #1: Wanted, A Fairy Godfather'' (1985)
* ''Barnaby #2: Mr. O'Malley and the Haunted House'' (1985)
* ''Barnaby #3: Jackeen J. O'Malley for Congress'' (1986)
* ''Barnaby #4: Mr. O'Malley Goes for the Gold'' (1986)
* ''Barnaby #5: Mr. O'Malley, Wizard of Wall Street'' (1986)
* ''Barnaby #6: J.J. O'Malley Goes Hollywood'' (1986)
* ''Magic Beach'' (2005), with an appreciation by [[Maurice Sendak]] and an afterword by [[Philip Nel]]
* ''Barnaby, Volume One: 1942-1943'' (2013), with a Foreword by [[Chris Ware]] and essays by [[Jeet Heer]], [[Dorothy Parker]], and [[Philip Nel]]
* ''Barnaby, Volume Two: 1944-1945'' (2014), with a Foreword by [[Jules Feiffer]] and essays by [[R.C. Harvey]], [[Max Lerner]], and [[Philip Nel]]
* ''Barnaby, Volume Three: 1946-1947'' (2016), with a Foreword by [[Jeff Smith (cartoonist)]] and essays by Nathalie op de Beeck, [[Coulton Waugh]], and [[Philip Nel]]

The Barnaby #1 to #6 books, published in paperback by Ballantine Books under the Del Rey imprint in 1985, were compilations of the first few years of the comic strip.  Additional books were supposed to appear, but publication was suspended upon the death of Judy Lynn Del Rey.  In 2013, [[Fantagraphics]] began republishing Barnaby. The five-volume collection, featuring all ten years of Barnaby, is expected to be complete in 2019.

A 1946 play, "Barnaby and Mr. O'Malley", was based on the comic strip. Despite initial funding of $85,000 (approximately $1.28M in 2023), it ran for four performances before it "closed for repairs", never to return.<ref>{{cite news|title=Inside Stuff — Legit|magazine=Variety|date=1946-09-04|url=https://lantern.mediahist.org/catalog/variety163-1946-09_0049|access-date=2023-10-09}}</ref><ref name=Cushlamoree>{{cite web|last1=Nel|first1=Philip|title=Cushlamochree! Barnaby on stage!|date=2011-04-20|url=https://philnel.com/2011/04/20/barnabyplay/|website=philnel.com|access-date=2023-10-09}}</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal bar |Children's literature |Comics |Visual arts }} <!-- delete the word "bar" if there are enough ordinary See also -->

== References ==
{{reflist <!--|25em  --too few refs-->
}}

==Further reading==
All by [[Philip Nel]] 
* [http://www.k-state.edu/english/nelp/purple/ Crockett Johnson website] 
* At ''[[The Comics Journal]]''
** [http://www.tcj.com/before-barnaby-crockett-johnson-grows-up-and-turns-left/ "Before Barnaby: Crockett Johnson Grows Up and Turns Left"] 
** [http://www.tcj.com/crockett-johnson-and-the-invention-of-barnaby/ "Crockett Johnson and the Invention of Barnaby"]
* ''Crockett Johnson and Ruth Krauss: How an Unlikely Couple Found Love, Dodged the FBI, and Transformed Children's Literature'' (2012)

==External links==
{{Portal |Cartoon |Children's literature }}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20060903171427/http://www.lambiek.net/artists/j/johnson_c.htm Crockett Johnson] at [[Lambiek Comiclopedia]] (lambiek.net)
* [http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article74635838 ''Barnaby'' comic strip] in [[The Advertiser (Adelaide)]], January 18, 1947
* {{isfdb name|9093}}
* {{LCAuth|n50046899|Crockett Johnson|41|}}

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{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Crockett}}
[[Category:1906 births]]
[[Category:1975 deaths]]
[[Category:American children's book illustrators]]
[[Category:American children's writers]]
[[Category:American comic strip cartoonists]]
[[Category:Artists from New York City]]
[[Category:Cooper Union alumni]]
[[Category:Deaths from lung cancer]]
[[Category:Writers from New York City]]
[[Category:Writers who illustrated their own writing]]
[[Category:American people of German descent]]
[[Category:American people of Scottish descent]]