LOUIS SLOBODKIN PAPERS

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

	Creator:	Louis Slobodkin
	Title:	Louis Slobodkin Papers
	Dates:	1918-2000
	Dates:	[bulk 1918 - 1973]
	Quantity:	7.0 cubic feet (11 boxes)
	Identification:	DG0904

Biographical Note

Louis Slobodkin was born on February 19, 1903 in Albany, New York. He loved kindergarten, but soon found school tedious and uninteresting. From the day his younger brother gave him a piece of red modeling clay, he knew he would be a sculptor. He persuaded his parents to allow him to drop out of school at age fifteen to begin his art studies. Slobodkin entered the Beaux Arts Institute of Design, where he studied sculpture, drawing, and composition for six years. During those six years he received twenty-two medals for life study, composition, and drawing and was the recipient of the Louis Tiffany Foundation Fellowship.

After graduation, Slobodkin worked for a short time with a commercial architectural modeling studio and in 1923 joined the crew of a steamer bound for South America. He made drawings of the men at work on the ship and later used these as inspiration for his sculptures. He also spent time in Paris where he completed further study in art and sculpture. Upon his return to New York City, he opened his own studio.

Slobodkin reached the height of his reputation as a sculptor in the 1930s and 1940s, particularly through his involvement with New Deal public works programs. He became head of the sculpture division of the New York City Art Project, and contributed statues, reliefs, and panels for government buildings in Washington, New York, and other cities. His "Young Abe Lincoln" currently graces the U.S. Department of the Interior building.

In 1927 Slobodkin married Florence Gersh, a poet and writer of books for children, but it would be many years before he would become involved with children's books. In 1941, his close friend author Eleanor Estes suggested he illustrate her newest book, The Moffats, and over the years the duo collaborated on a number of other books. In 1944, Slobodkin received the Caldecott Medal for his illustrations in Many Moons, a story written by James Thurber. During his distinguished career, Slobodkin illustrated nearly ninety titles, fifty of which he also wrote. Slobodkin died in 1975, several years after his last children's book, Wilbur the Warrior, was published.

Sources:
Something About the Author (Detroit: Gale Research, 1982), 26:173-80
Twentieth-Century Children's Writers (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1995), 881-83
Junior Book of Authors (New York: H. W. Wilson, 1951), 275-6

Scope and Content Note

The Louis Slobodkin Papers contain manuscripts, typescripts, illustrations, printed materials, correspondence, photographs, and pieces of sculpture created and accumulated by Louis Slobodkin and his son Lawrence between 1918 and 2000. Slobodkin's papers were created from his composition of 39 published books and three unpublished books, his creation of more than 65 pieces of sculpture and 130 illustrations, and his accumulation of items of personal interest. The material is organized into six series: biographical material, children's literature, sculpture, illustrations, notebooks, and personal papers.

The Biographical Material Series contains records offering biographical information on Louis Slobodkin, including articles he wrote concerning his procedures for writing and illustrating children's books. The series also includes a recorded interview with Lawrence Slobodkin discussing his father's work. The papers in the series are arranged chronologically.

The Children's Literature Series is organized into six subseries: published books, unpublished books, unidentified illustrations, play, recordings, and ephemera. The Published Books Subseries contains typescripts, dummies, illustrations, color separations, page proofs, and promotional material for 36 children's books published between 1941 and 1972. Slobodkin's Caldecott Award for Many Moons (1943) is also included. The papers in the Published Books Subseries are arranged alphabetically by title and the material for each book is arranged chronologically in order of creation when known. The Unpublished Books Subseries contains a manuscript, typescripts, a dummy, and a small number of illustrations for three unpublished children's books, one of which is the early stages of an alphabet book. The papers in the subseries are arranged in descending order by quantity of material available for each book.

The Unidentified Illustrations Subseries contains 14 children's book illustrations, but it is not known whether they belong to a finished work. The Play Subseries consists of a script and playbill for the dramatization of Slobodkin's The Space Ship Under the Apple Tree. The playbill was issued for a single performance by the Boston Children's Theatre, but it is unknown whether the play was presented more than once or in more than one place. The Recordings Subseries contains seven long playing records: a recording of Magic Michael, three discs of a New York City radio program produced in 1945, and three unidentified recordings. The Ephemera Subseries includes a poster and items for a bookmark, both of which were illustrated by Slobodkin and intended for children.

The Sculpture Series includes pieces of sculpture, illustrations, photographs, correspondence, and printed material pertaining to Slobodkin's work as a sculptor between 1918 and 1964. The series is organized into three subseries: pieces, book & articles, and public works & service.

The Pieces Subseries contains illustrations, photographs, printed material, and carvings concerning more than 65 pieces of sculpture conceived or completed by Louis Slobodkin between 1918 and 1964. Included are photographs of Slobodkin's earliest sculptures done while still at art school, including his first two figures sculpted from life. Several of Slobodkin's most noted works are represented in this subseries, particularly the Abraham Lincoln sculpture entitled "Rail Joiner." Slobodkin originally created "Rail Joiner" for the 1939 New York World's Fair, but the statue created controversy and was removed from that site. Materials from a 1983 Milwaukee Art Museum exhibit regarding controversial art are included and provide illumination on that debate. Also of interest are illustrations for "Pioneer Woman," a statue produced in celebration of the Texas centennial that now stands at the Texas Woman's University in Denton. Rounding out the subseries are two statues of an upside-down ‘Jane' character from The Moffats. The papers in the subseries are arranged alphabetically by title of piece followed by untitled pieces listed in no particular order. Several pieces had different names at different times. In these cases, the container listing provides all the titles ever given to a particular piece, listing its titles in alphabetical order.

The Book & Articles Subseries consists of material for a book and periodical articles written by Slobodkin and others between 1939 and 1949. It includes the photographic acknowledgement and an illustration created for his well-received sculpting book, Sculpture: Principles and Practice. Items created by Slobodkin precede those created by others in the subseries' arrangement.

The Public Works & Service Subseries contains correspondence, photographs, and printed material regarding Slobodkin's sculpture-related activities between 1935 and 1943. Included is correspondence concerning sculpture designs Slobodkin submitted for public works projects in the 1930s. Much of this correspondence refers to submissions for sculpting competitions for post office buildings in Washington, D.C.; New York City; and North Adams, Massachusetts. The subseries also contains material documenting Slobodkin's role as a sculpture instructor for New York City's Master Institute of United Arts. The bulk of this material concerns the achievements of Mark Shoesmith, a blind sculptor taught by Slobodkin.

The Illustrations Series is organized into two subseries: loose illustrations and sketchbooks. The Loose Illustrations Subseries contains more than 130 unbound illustrations representing portraits, landscape drawings, nude or semi-nude figures, drawings that might relate to sculpture, animals, and cartoons. Some illustrations depict two particular people: an unidentified woman who might have been a family member, and self-portraits of a young Louis Slobodkin. Several of the illustrations have been removed from frames to preserve the drawings, and have been designated as such.

The papers in the Loose Illustrations Subseries originally were kept by the Bass Museum in Miami, Florida, and are marked with that institution's accession numbers. The Bass Museum, with Lawrence Slobodkin's approval, opted to divest itself of Louis Slobodkin's illustrations while keeping his sculpted pieces. The museum then donated the illustrations to the de Grummond Children's Literature Collection. The subject folders in the Loose Illustrations Subseries are arranged in descending order by quantity. The Sketchbooks Subseries consists of three sketchbooks containing mostly anatomical illustrations.

The Notebooks Series contains two small notebooks that originally may have been one notebook cut in two. The notebooks are ordinary school composition notebooks with lined paper. They contain a variety of material, including the early stages of at least two book dummies, unidentified manuscripts, handwritten notes concerning police and fire departments, and room dimensions drawn for an unknown purpose.

The Personal Papers Series contains assorted items of personal interest created and accumulated by Slobodkin between 1930 and 1967. It includes a 1930 Will and Testament, form letters and photographs for replying to fan mail, photographs and a playscript for the 1950/1951 New Year's Artists' Equity Ball, publicity photographs, exhibit catalogueues, and Florence Slobodkin's newspaper obituary. The material is arranged chronologically where possible.

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), Louis Slobodkin 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 Jean Poindexter Colby in 1970 and Lawrence Slobodkin, son of Louis and Florence Slobodkin, in 1998 and 2000. The materials for the sculpture and illustrations series were donated by the Bass Museum in Miami, Florida. Louis Slobodkin's 1943 Caldecott Medal is on loan courtesy of Lawrence Slobodkin.

Processing Information

Processed by C. Alder, June 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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