DON FREEMAN PAPERS

de Grummond Children's Literature Collection
The University of Southern Mississippi

	Creator:	Don Freeman
	Title:	Don Freeman Papers
	Dates:	1955 - 2002
	Dates:	[bulk 1955 - 1978]
	Quantity:	9.10 cubic feet (11 boxes)
	Identification:	DG0346

Biographical Note

Painter, illustrator, graphic artist, and lithographer Don Freeman was born in San Diego, California, in August 1908. He graduated from high school in St. Louis, Missouri, but his lifetime love of painting and drawing took him back to California to study art education at the San Diego School of Fine Arts. Freeman eventually hitchhiked to New York City, playing trumpet for dance bands to earn money while studying art at the famous Art Students' League. For several years he wavered between a career in art or music, but eventually found his creative niche while hanging around the city's theatre district. By the early 1930s Freeman's illustrations of New York City theatre life began getting notices and for the next twenty years he enjoyed success as a drama artist for the New York Times, New York Herald Tribune, and various theatrical publications. Many art galleries displayed his artwork during the 1930s and 1940s and he illustrated books for well-known writers such as William Saroyan and James Thurber.

Freeman married Lydia Cooley in 1931. The couple relocated to California in the late 1940s and began writing and illustrating stories for their young son, Roy. They published their first work in 1951, Chuggy and the Blue Caboose, a story inspired by the railroad tracks near their home. Two years later, their Pet of the Met, the story of a cat and mouse whose love of opera help them become friends, won the Herald Tribune Spring Book Festival Award. After that, Freeman wrote and illustrated his own works. He wrote dozens of children's stories, most of them immensely popular with a 4-to-8-year-old audience. His major literary works include Pet of the Met, Norman the Doorman, Dandelion, Corduroy, and Fly High, Fly Low, which earned runner-up honors for the Caldecott Medal in 1958. His literary prestige is such that the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) currently offers a grant in his name. He also designed the first medal for SCBWI's Golden Kite Award, granted at a time when the organization was known only as the Society of Children's Book Writers.

Although he made his home in Santa Barbara, California, Don Freeman made frequent trips to New York City to see friends, meet with publisher Viking Press, and go to the theatre. His books were almost all influenced by his love of the theatre, and by his own admission he attempted to "create his own theatre" in picture books.

Several of Freeman's non-literary art works are held by major art galleries and libraries, including the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, San Francisco Fine Arts Museum, the British Museum, and the Naval Art Collection in Washington, D.C. In 1988 the University Press of Virginia published The Prints of Don Freeman: A Catalogue Raisonne, edited by Edith McCulloch, containing 145 illustrations.

Don Freeman died in February 1978 while his final book, A Pocket for Corduroy, was on the press. His son, Roy Freeman, currently manages the family estate.

Sources:
Collier, Laurie, and Joyce Nakamura. Major Authors and Illustrators for Children and Young Adults. Vol. 2. Detroit: Gale Research, 1993. 880-883.
Kirkpatrick, Daniel, ed. Twentieth-Century Children's Writers. 2nd edition. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1983. 301-302.
Senick, Gerard J., ed. Children's Literature Review. Vol. 30. Detroit: Gale Research, 1993. 63-82.
Sources from within the Don Freeman Papers

Scope and Content Note

The Don Freeman Papers contain illustrations, book dummies, color separations, galleys, and other materials created and accumulated by the artist between 1955 and 1978. The material is organized into two series: books and letters sent.

The books series includes production material for fifteen picture books published between 1955 and 1978. The papers in the books series are arranged alphabetically by title and the material for each book is arranged chronologically in order of creation when known. Freeman was a meticulous craftsman and continuously made revisions to his material, altering manuscripts and illustrations many times before finding a combination he liked. Forever Laughter appears to have gone through several revisions. Freeman initially used theatrical comedy and tragedy masks to tell a story using facial expressions instead of text. His mask concept progressed through several production stages, including a complete book dummy, but he eventually abandoned it. The final published version features human characters instead of theatrical masks, but still uses mostly facial expressions to tell the story.

Freeman apparently had more than one Parisian story in mind as he developed the concept for Inspector Peckit, the story of a Parisian detective who happens to be a pigeon. The manuscript for Inspector Peckit includes a manuscript for an unused story about the Petrini mouse family, characters who appear in other Freeman books. In the unused story, the Petrinis visit their Parisian relative Pierre and the Petrini children fall asleep in a cat sculpture at an art gallery. This storyline almost directly parallels that of The Guard Mouse, an earlier published work, which takes place in London with the mice falling asleep in a Beefeater's hat. Also among the Inspector Peckit manuscripts and sketches are several other plot possibilities for the Petrinis in Paris. In one, the cousin Pierre is a discouraged painter, and in another the artist is not a mouse, but a human, and the cat is a painting rather than a sculpture. In addition, the Inspector Peckit material also includes several watercolors of a Parisian cat named Kattiva, a plot possibility that Freeman temporarily toyed with but never fully developed. One watercolor portrays Kattiva and a small bird in front of a stained glass window. According to Freeman, the bird in that watercolor eventually developed into the Inspector Peckit character, whereas Kattiva was demoted to a minor character in the published version.

The commentary accompanying Freeman's 1974 The Seal and the Slick is of particular interest. A book about a fictional oil spill near Santa Barbara, it was published at the height of American ecological consciousness. In addition to the production materials for the book, the papers contain a sketchbook of editorial cartoons created by Freeman, several of which portray oil slicks as evil personalities threatening the pristine water and birdlife of the area. Other sketches depict the city of Santa Barbara as a muscular arm plucking oil rigs out of the water.

The letters in the letters sent series were selected and photocopied from the correspondence file of the de Grummond Children's Literature Collection because they provide information on Freeman's illustrations and personality.

Restrictions

Restrictions on Use

Noncirculating; available for research.

Copyright Restrictions

The collection is protected by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U.S. Code). Reproductions can be made only if they are to be used for "private study, scholarship, or research." It is the user's responsibility to verify copyright ownership and to obtain all necessary permissions prior to the reproduction, publication, or other use of any portion of these materials, other than that noted above.

Related Material

The typescript for Edward and the Night Horses can be found in the Jacklyn Meek Matthews Papers (DG0679). See also the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators Papers (DG1135).

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

(Identify the item and cite the series), Don Freeman Papers, de Grummond Children's Literature Collection, University of Southern Mississippi Libraries.

Provenance

These papers were donated to the de Grummond Children's Literature Collection of the University of Southern Mississippi Libraries by Don Freeman, Lydia Freeman (wife), and Roy Freeman (son) between 1972 and 2002.

Processing Information

Processed by C. Alder, September 2002. Encoded into EAD Version 1.0 by Danielle L. Bishop. This finding aid is the product of a grant funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

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Contact:
The de Grummond Children's Literature Collection
Box 5148
Hattiesburg, MS 39406
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