Ruth Olive 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 Denton is a village in Lancaster County, Nebraska, United States. It is part of the Lincoln, Nebraska Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 189 at the 2020 census. History Denton was established in 1871 when the Burlington & Miss ...

. 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 Osteomyelitis (OM) is the infectious inflammation of bone marrow. Symptoms may include pain in a specific bone with overlying redness, fever, and weakness. The feet, spine, and hips are the most commonly involved bones in adults. The cause is ...

, 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 ...

newspaper including ''

Tillie the Toiler ''Tillie the Toiler'' is a newspaper comic strip A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often Serial (literature), serialized, with text in Speech ballo ...

'', ''

Dick Tracy ''Dick Tracy'' is an American comic strip featuring Dick 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 was distributed by the Chicago T ...

'', ''

Mutt and Jeff ''Mutt and Jeff'' is a long-running and widely popular American newspaper comic strip created by cartoonist Bud Fisher in 1907 about "two mismatched wikt:tinhorn, tinhorns". It is commonly regarded as the first daily comic strip. The concept o ...

'' and ''

Popeye Popeye the Sailor Man is a fictional cartoon character created by E. C. Segar, Elzie Crisler Segar. 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 Denton High School is a public high school located in the city of Denton, Texas and classified as a 5A school by the UIL. It is a part of the Denton Independent School District located in central Denton County and was the original high school f ...

in 1945. She studied art at the

University of Nebraska-Lincoln A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...

where she was “strongly influenced” by her teacher, the muralist and painter

Kady Faulkner Kady Faulkner (1901–1977) was an American muralist, painter and art instructor who gained recognition in the middle of the 20th century. Her works are in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Pennsylvania Academ ...

. She was a member of

Delta Phi Delta Delta Phi Delta National Art Honor Society () was an American collegiate art honorary society. Delta Phi Delta was a member of the Association of College Honor Societies. The national society is defunct, with one former chapter operating as a lo ...

, 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 pursuing a professional education in the visual arts, Fine art, or performing arts. In some instances, it is also called a Bachelor of Visual Arts (BVA). Background ...

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 ca ...

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 university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

. She spent her time painting, and studying with Japanese-American painter, photographer and printmaker

Yasuo Kuniyoshi was a Japanese-American painter, photographer and printmaker. Early life Kuniyoshi was born on September 1, 1889, in Okayama, Japan. He immigrated to the United States in 1906 at 17, choosing not to attend military school in Japan. 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 West Haven is a city in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States, located on the coast of Long Island Sound. The city is part of the South Central Connecticut Planning Region, Connecticut, South Central Connecticut Planning Region. At the 2 ...

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 List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Nebraska. The city covers and had a population of 291,082 as of the 2020 census. It is the state's List of cities in Nebraska, second-most populous city a ...

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 David City is a city in and the county seat of Butler County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 2,995 at the 2020 census. David City was founded in 1873 to serve as the county seat when county residents desired a more centrally locat ...

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 List of municipalities in New Jersey, most populous City (New Jersey), city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, the county seat of Essex County, New Jersey, Essex County, and a principal city of 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 The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is a Modern art, modern and Contemporary art, contemporary American art museum located in the Meatpacking District, Manhattan, Meatpacking District and West Village neighbor ...

and the

Brooklyn Museum The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum in the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 500,000 objects. Located near the Prospect Heig ...

. 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 The Dust Bowl was a period of severe dust storms that greatly damaged the ecology and agriculture of the American and Canadian prairies during the 1930s. The phenomenon was caused by a combination of natural factors (severe drought) and hum ...

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 Theodore J. Kooser (born April 25, 1939) is an American poet. He won the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry in 2005. He served as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004 to 2006. Kooser was one of the first poets laureate ...

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 The Joslyn Art Museum, commonly referred to as the Joslyn, is a fine arts museum in Omaha, Nebraska, the largest in the state. It opened in 1931 at the initiative of Sarah H. Joslyn, in memory of her husband, businessman George A. Joslyn. Sinc ...

, Omaha *

Museum of Nebraska Art The Museum of Nebraska Art (MONA) is the official art museum of the state of Nebraska. The museum is located in Kearney, Nebraska, and is administratively affiliated with the University of Nebraska at Kearney. The official charter of MONA makes ...

, 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 pro ...

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

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 * ''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 The Randolph Caldecott Medal, frequently shortened to just the Caldecott, annually recognizes the preceding year's "most distinguished American picture book for children". It is awarded to the illustrator by the Association for Library Service ...

* ''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 Lee Bennett Hopkins (April 13, 1938 – August 8, 2019) was an American educator, poet, author, and anthologist. He was the author or editor of over 100 books for children, as well as a number of books and articles for adults. Early life and edu ...

* ''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. She is known as the author of ''The Napping House'', which, as of 2015, has sold over 2.1 million copies worldwide. Wood resides in Santa Barbara, California. Biography ...

* ''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 400 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 , , "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 vocalize it as ...

McGraw Hill Education McGraw Hill is an American education science company that provides educational content, software, and services for students and educators across various levels—from K-12 to higher education and professional settings. They produce textbooks, ...

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'' (Gerd Dudek, Buschi Niebergall, and Edward Vesala album), 1979 * ''Open'' (Got ...

, 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

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 The Society of Illustrators (SoI) is a professional society based in New York City. It was founded in 1901 to promote the art of illustration and, since 1959, has held an annual exhibition. Since absorbing the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art (M ...

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

External links

Denton Community Historical Society
* ttps://mona.unk.edu/mona/ruth-olive-rosekrans-hoffman/ Museum of Nebraska Art (MONA)

References

{{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 American women children's book illustrators 20th-century American women artists 20th-century American women painters 20th-century American painters American women children's writers American children's writers