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Ruth Rosekrans Hoffman (7 January 1926 - 26 September 2007) was an American children's book illustrator and painter, known as Rosekrans Hoffman professionally.


Early life

Ruth Olive Rosekrans was born at her parents’ home on 7 January 1926 in Denton, Nebraska. She was the second child of James Charles, a contractor, and Pearl D Rosekrans, née Hocking. She began drawing at the age of three or four. When she was seven she contracted osteomyelitis, a bone infection only treatable at that time by painful bone drains. She had to stay in a full body cast, with only her arms and hands free, for 18 months. It was during this period that she began to develop her artistic abilities. She began by copying newspaper comic strips from the
Lincoln Star The ''Lincoln Journal Star'' is an American daily newspaper that serves Lincoln, Nebraska, the state capital and home of the University of Nebraska. It is the most widely read newspaper in Lincoln and has the second-largest circulation in N ...
newspaper including ''
Tillie the Toiler ''Tillie the Toiler'' is a newspaper comic strip created by cartoonist Russ Westover who initially worked on his concept of a flapper character in a strip he titled ''Rose of the Office''. With a title change, it sold to King Features Syndicate ...
'', ''
Dick Tracy ''Dick Tracy'' is an American comic strip featuring Dick Tracy (originally Plainclothes Tracy), a tough and intelligent police detective created by Chester Gould. It made its debut on Sunday, October 4, 1931, in the ''Detroit Mirror'', and it ...
'', '' Mutt and Jeff'' and '' Popeye''. She said the experience “gave me a new perspective on life… in bed in the body cast, horizontal, I saw things I wouldn’t ordinarily see. I wasn’t a child looking up, but more like a part of the land. From my prone position, I used to eye my food like an explorer surveying the horizon. Piles of mashed potatoes took on the proportions of mountains against the skyline. Undersides of chins, nostrils, palms jumped out at me. I studied expressions, the details of wallpaper, and tiny hairs peeking out of people’s ears.” She would spend many more months in partial casts, a wheelchair, and homemade braces that her father invented to enable her to become more mobile. She used a walking stick for the rest of her life.


Education

She recovered sufficiently to attend Denton School District 136, graduating from Denton High School in 1945. She studied art at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln where she was “strongly influenced” by her teacher, the muralist and painter Kady Faulkner. She was a member of
Delta Phi Delta Delta Phi Delta () is a national art honorary society. Organized as the Palette Club on January 10, 1909 at the University of Kansas, it was renamed Delta Phi Delta on 28 May 1912. The society is open to men and women. Its official magazine, ''t ...
, a national art honorary society. She gained a
Bachelor of Fine Arts A Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) is a standard undergraduate degree for students for pursuing a professional education in the visual, fine or performing arts. It is also called Bachelor of Visual Arts (BVA) in some cases. Background The Bachelor ...
in 1948, after which she took graduate work at
Penn State #Redirect Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campu ...
.


Personal life

In 1949 she married Mervyn L Cadwallader in Lancaster, Nebraska. They moved to California so that he could complete his PhD in history at the
University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
. She spent her time painting, and studying with Japanese-American painter, photographer and printmaker Yasuo Kuniyoshi. In 1952 they were living on Hall Street, Brooklyn, New York. By 1955 she and Cadwallader had divorced and she married Robert Hoffman in New York City. They bonded over a shared love of jazz. During this period she wrote “a lot of letters” to the City Council encouraging them to make buildings more accessible. About this endeavor she said, “So many buildings were built without access by ramp or rail for the handicapped. I think it was the feeling of those times that the handicapped should be put away out of sight.” In an interview from 1978 she "takes credit" for initiating a change in the city's views on accessibility. In the early 1970s they built a home in West Haven, Connecticut which they shared with a pet cat, Boy, who appeared in many of her illustrations. After Robert's retirement in 1991 they moved to
Lincoln, Nebraska Lincoln is the capital city of the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Lancaster County. The city covers with a population of 292,657 in 2021. It is the second-most populous city in Nebraska and the 73rd-largest in the United Sta ...
where she became active in local community life. She was a member of Denton Community Historical Society (DCHS), and a supporter of the Nebraska Literary Heritage Association, the Junior League of Lincoln, Lincoln City Public Library's Heritage Room and the University Place Art Center (now Lux Center for the Arts). When Robert died in 1999, she moved to a nursing home in David City, Nebraska.


Early work

She held several art-related jobs before becoming a full-time illustrator of children's books. She worked as an artist for Balco Research Inc. in
Newark, New Jersey Newark ( , ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the seat of Essex County and the second largest city within the New York metropolitan area. in New York's City Planning Office and for Addison Wesley Publishing Co. Her paintings were exhibited at the Whitney Museum and the
Brooklyn Museum The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 1.5 million objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Crown H ...
. She stopped painting around 1972 to focus on drawing. One reason for the change was the physical exertion required to stand for long periods.


Full time artist

She became a full time artist in 1972, working under the name Rosekrans Hoffman, because “it’s simpler”. Her agent was Helen Wohlberg of Kirchoff/Wohlberg Inc. New York. Hoffman was always careful to say that she was an artist, and not an illustrator. To her, this meant that the integrity of her artistic vision came first. She spent little time looking at others’ books for children, and whenever she illustrated a book, she favoured the usual publishers’ practice of keeping the author and illustrator completely separate until the launch. Her work was influenced by her childhood in Nebraska, and the Dust Bowl of the early 1930s. ‘Washed-out’ shades tended to dominate her illustrations – dusty browns, mauves, ochres and dying yellows; she called them “old world” colours. Her characters were described as “peculiar, unique and slightly out-of-proportion, but never cute.” Of her style, she said “I work primarily with ink on fine pen points and turn corners where I have never been.” She advised two-term US Poet Laureate Ted Kooser on his first children's book ''Bag in the Wind'' (finally published 2010) after it received a “lukewarm” reception from children's book publishers. Her advice was to remove much of Kooser's descriptive text, and leave it to the illustrator to create the imagery.


Collections and Exhibitions

Her work is in the following collections * Heritage Room, Lincoln Public Library, Nebraska * Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha * Museum of Nebraska Art, Kearney * Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City, New York * Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York *
Kerlan Collection The Kerlan Award is a literary award given by the University of Minnesota's Kerlan Collection, a special library focusing on children's literature. Many awards focus on the finished product, but the Kerlan Award is given based on the creative proc ...
,
University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...
Her work was exhibited in the following venues: * Haydon Art Center, Lincoln, Nebraska * Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, Nebraska * New York City Center Gallery, New York * Bennett Martin Public Library, Nebraska * Elder Gallery, Nebraska Wesleyan University * University Place Art Center (Lux Center for the Arts), Lincoln, Nebraska


Publications


Author and Illustrator

* ''Anna Banana'' (1975) *'' Sweet Sister Ella'' (1982)


Illustrator

* ''Walter in Love'' (1973) by
Alicen White Alice Margaret Geddes White (28 April 1908 – 3 August 2007), also known as Alicen White, was a British-American writer, playwright, editor, teacher and performer. She was on the staff of Girl Scouts of the USA for over 25 years. Early life a ...
* ''Where Did That Naughty Little Hamster Go?'' (1974) by Patty Wolcott * ''Alexandra the Rock Eater: An Old Rumanian Tale Retold'' (1978) by Dorothy Van Woerkom – nominated for a Caldecott Medal * ''An Egg Is To Sit On'' (1978) by Christine Tanz * ''My Mother Sends Her Wisdom'' (1979) by Louise McClenathan * ''Go to Bed! A Book of Bedtime Poems'' (1979) by Lee Bennett Hopkins * ''Elves, Fairies & Gnomes: Poems'' (1980) selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins * ''Come Home, Wilma'' (1980) by Mitchell Sharmat * ''The Case of the Missing Hat: Starring Jim Henson’s Muppet's'' (1982) by Greg Williams * ''The Easter Pig'' (1982) by Louise McClenathan * ''The Truth About the Moon'' (1983) by Clayton Bess * ''How Do You Make an Elephant Float? And Other Delicious Riddles'' (1983) by Lee Bennett Hopkins * ''Creepy, Crawly Critter Riddles'' (1986) by Joanne E. Bernstein and Paul Cohen Whitman * ''Three Sisters'' (1986) by
Audrey Wood Audrey Wood (born August 12, 1948) is an American children's author. Wood resides in Santa Barbara, California. Biography Wood's first memories of storytelling were in Sarasota, Florida, where her father was employed by Ringling Brother ...
* ''The Horrible Holidays'' (1988) by Audrey Wood * ''Sue Patch and the Crazy Clocks'' (1989) by Ann Tompert * ''Jet Black Pick-Up Truck'' (1990) by Pat Lakin * ''The Best Cat Suit of All'' (1991) by Sylvia Cassedy * ''Jane Yolen’s Mother Goose Songbook'' (1992) by
Jane Yolen Jane Hyatt Yolen (born February 11, 1939) is an American writer of fantasy, science fiction, and children's books. She is the author or editor of more than 350 books, of which the best known is '' The Devil's Arithmetic'', a Holocaust novella. H ...
, musical arrangements
Adam Stemple Adam Stemple is a Celtic-influenced American folk rock musician, based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is also the author of several fantasy short stories and novels, including two series of novels co-written with his mother, writer Jane Yolen. Stem ...
* ''Where Do Little Girls Grow?'' (1993) by Milly Jane Limmer * ''Jane Yolen’s Old MacDonald Songbook'' (1994) by Jane Yolen * ''Another New Day'' (1995) by Brian Potter and Wayne Green * ''Pignic: An Alphabet in Rhyme'' (1996) by Anne Miranda * ''Mr Wink'' (1996) by Claire Daniel and Elfrieda H. Hiebert * ''Delilah Drinkwater and the Clever Cloud'' (1997) by Marcia Vaughan


Textbooks

Hoffman produced many textbook illustrations “because texts make more money.” She worked with publishers including
Houghton Mifflin The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , ''asteriskos'', "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often voc ...
, McGraw Hill Education,
Open Court Open or OPEN may refer to: Music * Open (band), Australian pop/rock band * The Open (band), English indie rock band * ''Open'' (Blues Image album), 1969 * ''Open'' (Gotthard album), 1999 * ''Open'' (Cowboy Junkies album), 2001 * ''Open'' (YF ...
, Scholastic and Zaner-Bloser.


Other

She created a Christmas card each year, many of which are stored in the History Nebraska collection, in Lincoln, Nebraska. She also designed a poster for New York's Children's Book Council ''Anytime, Anyplace, Any Book'' campaign in 1981.


Awards and honours

* Caldecott Medal nominee for ''Alexandra the Rock Eater'' (1978) * Established ''Pearl Rosekrans Memorial Scholarship'' in honour of her mother, awarded to an art student at Nebraska Wesleyan University (1978) * Society of Illustrators member for ''Come Home, Wilma'' (1980) * The Nebraska Literary Heritage Association sponsored a dinner honouring Hoffman in the Rotunda of the Nebraska State Capitol (1983) * Outstanding Alumni Achievement Award in Art (1999) by UNL College of Fine Art, Nebraska


References


External links


Denton Community Historical Society
* ttps://mona.unk.edu/mona/ruth-olive-rosekrans-hoffman/ Museum of Nebraska Art (MONA) {{DEFAULTSORT:Hoffman, Ruth Rosenkrans 1926 births 2007 deaths Artists from Lincoln, Nebraska Artists from Nebraska University of Nebraska–Lincoln alumni American children's book illustrators Women illustrators American women illustrators Children's book illustrators 20th-century women artists 20th-century American women artists American women painters Women painters American women children's writers