Crockett Johnson (October 20, 1906 – July 11, 1975) was the pen name of the American

cartoonist A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comic book illustrators in that they produce both the literary and g ...

and

children's book Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. Modern children's literature is classified in two different ways: genre or the intended age of the reader. Children's ...

illustrator David Johnson Leisk. He is best known for the

comic strip A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often Serial (literature), serialized, with text in Speech balloon, balloons and Glossary of comics ter ...

'' Barnaby'' (1942–1952) and the ''Harold'' series of books, beginning with '' Harold and the Purple Crayon''. From 1965 until his death Johnson created over a hundred paintings relating to mathematics and mathematical physics. Eighty of these are found in the collections of the

National Museum of American History The National Museum of American History: Kenneth E. Behring Center collects, preserves, and displays the heritage of the United States in the areas of social, political, cultural, scientific, and military history. Among the items on display is t ...

Biography

Born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, Johnson grew up in Corona, Queens, New York, attended PS 16 and Newtown High School. He studied art at

Cooper Union The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art (Cooper Union) is a private college at Cooper Square in New York City. Peter Cooper founded the institution in 1859 after learning about the government-supported École Polytechnique ...

in 1924, and at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, th ...

in 1925."Harold, Barnaby, and Dave: A Biography of Crockett Johnson"
Philip Nel. He explained his choice of

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name ( orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individu ...

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!" By the late 1920s, Johnson was art editor at several

McGraw-Hill McGraw Hill is an American educational publishing company and one of the "big three" educational publishers that publishes educational content, software, and services for pre-K through postgraduate education. The company also publishes refere ...

trade publications. With the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

, 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 A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of '' The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engel ...

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 ''Collier's'' was an American general interest magazine founded in 1888 by Peter Fenelon Collier. It was launched as ''Collier's Once a Week'', then renamed in 1895 as ''Collier's Weekly: An Illustrated Journal'', shortened in 1905 to ''Coll ...

'' 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''. In 1943 Johnson married writer Ruth Krauss. They had no children together, nor did they have children with their first spouses. Together they collaborated on several children's books. The children's book '' Harold and the Purple Crayon'' was published in 1955. He died of

lung cancer Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma (since about 98–99% of all lung cancers are carcinomas), is a malignant lung tumor characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. Lung carcinomas derive from transformed, mali ...

in 1975.

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'' have been adapted for

animation Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most ani ...

Gene Deitch Eugene Merril Deitch (August 8, 1924 – April 16, 2020) was an American illustrator, animator, comics artist, and film director who was based in Prague from the 1960s until his death in 2020. Deitch was known for creating animated cartoons ...

Mathematical paintings

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 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. Later, he began to construct using his own inventions. Most of Johnson's abstract images are painted with house paint on the rough side of a two-by-three foot piece of

masonite Masonite is a type of hardboard, a kind of engineered wood, which is made of steam-cooked and pressure-molded wood fibers in a process patented by William H. Mason. It is also called Quartrboard, Isorel, hernit, karlit, torex, treetex, and ...

, save those he enlarged to four-by-four, he explained in a letter. 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 Leonardo is a masculine given name, the Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese equivalent of the English, German, and Dutch name, Leonard. People Notable people with the name include: * Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519), Italian Renaissance scientist ...

'', 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. From 1965 until his death in 1975 Crockett Johnson painted over 100 works relating to mathematics and mathematical physics.

Gallery of Mathematical paintings

* https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object-groups/mathematical-paintings-of-crockett-johnson?ogmt_page=mathpaintings-resources * https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object-groups/mathematical-paintings-of-crockett-johnson?ogmt_page=mathpaintings-introduction * https://americanhistory.si.edu/connect/podcasts/history-explorer-crockett-johnson-art-and-math-days-sputnik

Works

* '' 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, Eleanoe K. Vaughn, ''Mickey's Magnet'' (1956), illus. by JohnsonMickey's Magnet (Scholastic #934, Crockett Johnson, Illustrator) by Branley, Franklyn M.; Eleanor K. Vaughan, Pictures By Crockett Johnson: Scholastic 9780590023344 Softcover,...
/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 Maurice Bernard Sendak (; June 10, 1928 – May 8, 2012) was an American author and illustrator of children's books. He became most widely known for his book '' Where the Wild Things Are'', first published in 1963.Turan, Kenneth (October 16, 20 ...

and an Afterword by Philip Nel * ''Barnaby, Volume One: 1942-1943'' (2013), with a Foreword by

Chris Ware Franklin Christenson "Chris" Ware (born December 28, 1967) is an American cartoonist known for his '' Acme Novelty Library'' series (begun 1994) and the graphic novels ''Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth'' (2000), ''Building Stories'' (201 ...

and essays by

Jeet Heer Jeet Heer is a Canadian author, comics critic, literary critic and journalist. He is a national affairs correspondent for '' The Nation'' magazine and a former staff writer at '' The New Republic''. As of 2014, he was writing a doctoral thesis at ...

Dorothy Parker Dorothy Parker (née Rothschild; August 22, 1893 – June 7, 1967) was an American poet, writer, critic, and satirist based in New York; she was known for her wit, wisecracks, and eye for 20th-century urban foibles. From a conflicted and unhap ...

, and Philip Nel * ''Barnaby, Volume Two: 1944-1945'' (2014), with a Foreword by

Jules Feiffer Jules Ralph Feiffer (born January 26, 1929)''Comics Buyer's Guide'' #1650; February 2009; Page 107 is an American cartoonist and author, who was considered the most widely read satirist in the country. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1986 as North- ...

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 Frederick Coulton Waugh (; 10 March 1896 – 23 May 1973) was a cartoonist, painter, teacher and author, best known for his illustration work on the comic strip ''Dickie Dare'' and his book ''The Comics'' (1947), the first major study of the fi ...

, 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. It played in several East Coast cities, attracting attention mainly for a scene in which O'Malley flew over the audience throwing out leaflets urging support for his Congressional race. Johnson said the child cast as Barnaby looked more like the cartoon Barnaby than any real child he ever expected to see, Producer—Barney Josephson; Script-- Jerome Chodorov; O'Malley--

J. M. Kerrigan Joseph Michael Kerrigan (16 December 1884 – 29 April 1964) was an Irish actor. Early life Joseph Michael Kerrigan was born on 16 December 1884 in Dublin, which was part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland at that time. H ...

; Barnaby--Thomas Wm. Hamilton; Jane—Iris Mann; McSnoyd--

Royal Dano Royal Edward Dano Sr. (November 16, 1922 - May 15, 1994) was an American actor. In a career spanning 46 years, he was perhaps best known for playing cowboys, villains, and Abraham Lincoln. Dano also provided the voice of the Audio-Animatronic L ...

References

External links

Lambiek Comiclopedia Galerie Lambiek is a Dutch comic book store and art gallery in Amsterdam, founded on November 8, 1968 by Kees Kousemaker (, – Bussum, ), though since 2007, his son Boris Kousemaker is the current owner. From 1968 to 2015, it was located ...

(lambiek.net)
''Barnaby'' comic strip
in

The Advertiser (Adelaide) ''The Advertiser'' is a daily tabloid format newspaper based in the city of Adelaide, South Australia. First published as a broadsheet named ''The South Australian Advertiser'' on 12 July 1858,1906 births 1975 deaths American children's book illustrators American children's writers American comic strip cartoonists Artists from New York City Cooper Union alumni Deaths from lung cancer Writers from New York City