Story Parade Magazine

 

 It's always a fun to check the old children's magazines like Jack and Jill or Story Parade for collectible authors and illustrators. Both the covers above are by Caldecott winning artist Feodor Rojankovsky who also illustrated interior stories and the December 1952 magazine has stories illustrated by Flavia Gag, Mordvinoff (another Caldecott winner) and William Wiesner amoung others.

Crockett Johnson

An illustrator I ALWAYS scout for, this book is: THE LION'S OWN STORY.   Published by Harper & Row, 1963.

More Images of Childhood- Juvenile Dustjacket Art 1940's - 1950's

After a few years dealing with children's books a dealer can usually date a book (at least by decade) by illustrator art alone. Here are a few examples of 1940's and 50's dj cover art from books in my inventory.


Trudy Terrill Eighth Grader by Bernice Bryant. Dj by Alice Carsey. Published by Bobbs-Merrill, 1946.
















Old Charlie by Clyde Robert Bulla. Illustrated by Paul Galdone. Published by Crowell, 1957.













That Jud! by Elspeth Bragdon, illustrated by Georges Schrieber. Published by Viking, 1957.

Oh, The Places You'll Go

There is a very active group of collectors for all Dr. Seuss material, both books and ephemera, but Oh, The Places You'll Go is the single title that I have the most requests for from the non-collectors market. The number of requests increases each spring with the school graduation season.

Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson

To my mind Harold and the Purple Crayon is one of the classics. The original edition was written and illustrated by Crockett Johnson and published by Harper in 1955. It's still in print and has spawned a series of Harold adventures. I'm always looking for first edition Crockett Johnson books, especially this title.

Symeon Shimin Revisited

I was very lucky to be able to pick up a signed sketch on boards by Shimen. The sketch is of an illustration he did for a book called Sam by Ann Herbert Scott. NY: McGraw-Hill 1967. I've had to show some people the book to convince them that this is the right way was up for this sketch. Doesn't anyone else but me remember practicing standing on their head with the aid of a kitchen chair?

Symeon Shimin- Illustrator

I became a fan of Symeon Shimin's illustrations the first time I saw the lovely little parable he illustrated for Madeliene L'Engle called Dance in the Desert. I've always had a special fondness for night time illustrations done well, and the illustrations for this book were done very well indeed.



A very short bio of Shimin from the Children's Literature Resource page of the Kerlan Collection:

Symeon Shimin was born November 1, 1902, in Astrakhan, Russia, and came to the United States in 1912. Primarily self-taught as a artist, he studied for a short time at Cooper Union and traveled to France and Spain in the 1920s and early 30s to study the old masters and contemporary European artists. He began his long career as a painter and illustrator in the 1920s, and in 1950 illustrated his first children's book, How Big It IS, revised edition, written by Herman and Nina Schneider. Throughout his long career, he illustrated books for many different children's and young adult authors, including Margaret Wise Brown, Joseph Krumgold, Virginia Hamiltor, Byrd Baylor, Elizabeth Coatsworth, Isaac Bashevis Singer, and Madeleine L'Engle. He illustrated both fiction and non-fiction, including many books on animals, and preferred to work from live models to give his works realism and authenticity. Shimin died in 1984.