CROCKETT JOHNSON PAPERS

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

	Creator:	David Johnson Leisk (pseudonym: Crockett Johnson)
	Title:	Crockett Johnson Papers
	Dates:	1957
	Quantity:	0.30 cubic feet (1 box)
	Identification:	DG0514

Biographical Note

David Johnson Leisk, who worked under the pseudonym Crockett Johnson, was born in New York City on October 20, 1906, to David and Mary (Burg) Leisk. He attended Cooper Union and New York University in the mid 1920s and worked at a wide variety of jobs. Johnson drew "The Little Man with the Eyes," a comic strip for Collier's, between 1938 and 1941. He achieved lasting comic strip industry fame when he created the enormously popular syndicated strip "Barnaby" in 1941. It lasted twenty-one years and was adapted for a book, a play, television, and radio.

In 1940 Johnson married children's author Ruth Krauss, with whom he would collaborate on four children's books. He wrote and illustrated Harold and the Purple Crayon, a critically acclaimed story of an imaginative boy who draws fantastic landscapes with his crayon, in 1955. Harold enjoyed further adventures in six sequels between 1956 and 1963, as well as being adapted for animated films and television. Crockett Johnson died of cancer on July 11, 1975, in Norwalk, Connecticut.

Sources:
Major Authors and Illustrators for Children and Young Adults, ed. Laurie Collier and Joyce Nakamura (Detroit: Gale Research, 1993), 4:1436-1438.
Twentieth-Century Children's Writers, ed. Laura Standley Berger, 4th ed. (Detroit: St. James Press, 1995), 494-495.

Scope and Content Note

The Crockett Johnson Papers consist of a single signed ink illustration for Harold's Trip to the Sky (1957), depicting Harold in four different positions.

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.

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

(Identify the item), Crockett Johnson Papers, de Grummond Children's Literature Collection, University of Southern Mississippi Libraries, (Cite the item's box/folder numbers).

Provenance

These papers were donated to the de Grummond Children's Literature Collection of the University of Southern Mississippi Libraries by Crockett Johnson on 27 February 1966.

Processing Information

Processed by Hans Rasmussen, March 2003. 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.

Container Listing

Contact:
The de Grummond Children's Literature Collection
The University of Southern Mississippi
118 College Drive, #5148
Hattiesburg, MS 39406-0001
(601) 266-4349
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