Robert Kraus
Encyclopedia
Robert Kraus was an American children's author, cartoonist
and publisher. Founder and publisher of Windmill Books, author and illustrator of award-winning children's books, Kraus began as a cartoonist and cover artist for The New Yorker
.
. Kraus also freelanced for other publications such as Collier's, the old Life and The Saturday Evening Post
.
Tapping his friendships with other New Yorker artists, Kraus launched Windmill Books in 1965, publishing The Chas. Addams Mother Goose, and William Steig
's Roland the Minstrel Pig, followed by Steig's Caldecott Medal
-winning Sylvester and the Magic Pebble
. The prestige of Windmill even attracted renowned painter Jacob Lawrence
, whose Harriet and the Promised Land (with verse by Kraus) became the first children's book reviewed in the Art section of the New York Times and was recently featured in the Lawrence retrospective at the Guggenheim. Kraus soon quit the New Yorker to run Windmill full time, as publisher, and wrote and illustrated books for Windmill as well as for Scholastic and other publishers. Windmill artists included Fred Gwynne
(the actor), Edna Eicke
, Robert Byrd
, Hans Kraus (no relation), VIP (Virgil Partch) and Mischa Richter
. Windmill published a set of Norman Rockwell
covers with original backstories (which Kraus wrote in consultation with Rockwell) as The Norman Rockwell Storybook and with filmmaker Robert Flaherty produced a children's book version of Flaherty's Nanook of the North. Windmill also pioneered "board" and "bathtub" books that doubled as toys for very small children, and dabbled in pop culture with its Elvis calendar and Encyclopedia Galactica
.
In spite of its flirtations with the mass market, in the end Windmill Books proved to be more of a succes d'estime than anything else, and after affiliations with a number of major publishing houses, collapsed in bitter litigation with Simon & Schuster
in the 1980s. Steig's best-known children's book, Shrek, was published elsewhere. Kraus and Windmill are probably best remembered as the author and publisher of Leo the Late Bloomer, Whose Mouse Are You, Milton the Early Riser and other books beautifully and imaginatively illustrated by Jose Aruego
and Arianne Dewey, as well as the seasonal favorite The Christmas Cookie Sprinkle Snitcher, illustrated by VIP. Kraus wrote stories, but his passion was drawing and illustrating—He once said, "I love drawing...Giving my stories to somebody else was like giving a way a child."
Kraus died in 2001 in Kent, Connecticut, and is survived by his wife of more than 50 years, the former Pamela Vivienne Evan-Wong, of Georgetown, British Guiana, a fellow student at the New York Art Students' League, and by their two sons, Bruce and Bill and four grandchildren Parker, Jack, Margaret and Vivienne.
Cartoonist
A cartoonist is a person who specializes in drawing cartoons. This work is usually humorous, mainly created for entertainment, political commentary or advertising...
and publisher. Founder and publisher of Windmill Books, author and illustrator of award-winning children's books, Kraus began as a cartoonist and cover artist for The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
.
Biography
Robert Kraus was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1925. At age 10, he entered a cartoon contest from his local paper the Milwaukee Journal won. By age 12, Kraus was hired to contribute a weekly cartoon to the Milwaukee Journal entitled "Public Nuisances." While still a student at the Art Students League in Manhattan, at age 16, he made his first cartoon sale to The New YorkerThe New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
. Kraus also freelanced for other publications such as Collier's, the old Life and The Saturday Evening Post
The Saturday Evening Post
The Saturday Evening Post is a bimonthly American magazine. It was published weekly under this title from 1897 until 1969, and quarterly and then bimonthly from 1971.-History:...
.
Cartoons
He became a regular New Yorker contributor as both a cartoonist and cover artist beginning in the 1950s. Kraus contributed 50 cartoons in his first year at the "New Yorker." Most of his cover art reflected his romantic idea of the City (artists' studios and supplies, a chess club, a gypsy fortune teller, the Chinese New Year parade, the Coney Island roller coaster, a grand cafe, St. Patrick's Cathedral, a fancy dress ball) and he recorded his rural surroundings in Danbury, Connecticut, with its farmer's markets and county fairs. Many of his cartoons embodied the stereotypes of their day: drunks, crooks, convicts, pirates, clowns, mythological characters, millionaires dating floozies, big businessmen, prizefighters, etc. An important part of his cartooning career was a multi-page spread on the New York World's Fair of 1963-64.Publishing
In 1954, Kraus also began writing and illustrating children's books, beginning with Junior the Spoiled Cat, The Littlest Rabbit, The Trouble with Spider (later expanded into the Spider, Fly and Ladybug series), I, Mouse, Mouse at Sea, The Bunny's Nutshell Library, and the haunting and critically acclaimed Amanda Remembers. Kraus could speak directly to children without a trace of artificiality or condescension, naturally embodying both them and himself in a variety of small but plucky animal protagonists. The book Leo the Late Bloomer has been noticed as an encouraging story about not doing everything at the same time as everybody else and making one's own pace.Tapping his friendships with other New Yorker artists, Kraus launched Windmill Books in 1965, publishing The Chas. Addams Mother Goose, and William Steig
William Steig
William Steig was a prolific American cartoonist, sculptor and, later in life, an author of popular children's literature...
's Roland the Minstrel Pig, followed by Steig's Caldecott Medal
Caldecott Medal
The Caldecott Medal is awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children , a division of the American Library Association, to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children published that year. The award was named in honor of nineteenth-century English...
-winning Sylvester and the Magic Pebble
Sylvester and the Magic Pebble
Sylvester and the Magic Pebble is a children's picture book written and illustrated by William Steig. It won him the Caldecott Medal , his first of many Caldecott and Newbery Medal honors. It tells the tale of a donkey from the fictional community of Oatsdale...
. The prestige of Windmill even attracted renowned painter Jacob Lawrence
Jacob Lawrence
Jacob Lawrence was an American painter; he was married to fellow artist Gwendolyn Knight. Lawrence referred to his style as "dynamic cubism", though by his own account the primary influence was not so much French art as the shapes and colors of Harlem.Lawrence is among the best-known twentieth...
, whose Harriet and the Promised Land (with verse by Kraus) became the first children's book reviewed in the Art section of the New York Times and was recently featured in the Lawrence retrospective at the Guggenheim. Kraus soon quit the New Yorker to run Windmill full time, as publisher, and wrote and illustrated books for Windmill as well as for Scholastic and other publishers. Windmill artists included Fred Gwynne
Fred Gwynne
Frederick Hubbard "Fred" Gwynne was an American actor. Gwynne was best known for his roles in the 1960s sitcoms Car 54, Where Are You? and The Munsters, as well as his later roles: Pet Sematary and My Cousin Vinny...
(the actor), Edna Eicke
Edna Eicke
Edna Eicke was for many years an illustrator of distinctive covers for the New Yorker magazine. 'Do you have trouble letting go of old copies of The New Yorker?' asked John Updike in the foreword to an anthology of the magazine's covers...
, Robert Byrd
Robert Byrd (artist)
Robert Byrd is an author and illustrator from Haddonfield, New Jersey.Following his attendance of highschool, Byrd joined the U.S. Navy in 1961, leaving in 1962 to attend Trenton Junior College...
, Hans Kraus (no relation), VIP (Virgil Partch) and Mischa Richter
Mischa Richter
Mischa Richter was an American cartoonist best known for his numerous cartoons published in The New Yorker over decades....
. Windmill published a set of Norman Rockwell
Norman Rockwell
Norman Percevel Rockwell was a 20th-century American painter and illustrator. His works enjoy a broad popular appeal in the United States for their reflection of American culture. Rockwell is most famous for the cover illustrations of everyday life scenarios he created for The Saturday Evening...
covers with original backstories (which Kraus wrote in consultation with Rockwell) as The Norman Rockwell Storybook and with filmmaker Robert Flaherty produced a children's book version of Flaherty's Nanook of the North. Windmill also pioneered "board" and "bathtub" books that doubled as toys for very small children, and dabbled in pop culture with its Elvis calendar and Encyclopedia Galactica
Encyclopedia Galactica
The Encyclopædia Galactica is a fictional or hypothetical encyclopædia of a future human galaxy-spanning civilization, containing all the knowledge accumulated by a society with quadrillions of people and thousands of years of history...
.
In spite of its flirtations with the mass market, in the end Windmill Books proved to be more of a succes d'estime than anything else, and after affiliations with a number of major publishing houses, collapsed in bitter litigation with Simon & Schuster
Simon & Schuster
Simon & Schuster, Inc., a division of CBS Corporation, is a publisher founded in New York City in 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. It is one of the four largest English-language publishers, alongside Random House, Penguin and HarperCollins...
in the 1980s. Steig's best-known children's book, Shrek, was published elsewhere. Kraus and Windmill are probably best remembered as the author and publisher of Leo the Late Bloomer, Whose Mouse Are You, Milton the Early Riser and other books beautifully and imaginatively illustrated by Jose Aruego
José Aruego
José Aruego is a Filipino children's book author and illustrator. He was born in Manila and once worked as a lawyer.- External links :* *...
and Arianne Dewey, as well as the seasonal favorite The Christmas Cookie Sprinkle Snitcher, illustrated by VIP. Kraus wrote stories, but his passion was drawing and illustrating—He once said, "I love drawing...Giving my stories to somebody else was like giving a way a child."
Kraus died in 2001 in Kent, Connecticut, and is survived by his wife of more than 50 years, the former Pamela Vivienne Evan-Wong, of Georgetown, British Guiana, a fellow student at the New York Art Students' League, and by their two sons, Bruce and Bill and four grandchildren Parker, Jack, Margaret and Vivienne.
External links
- Robert Kraus' covers for the New Yorker
- Robert Kraus Cartoons (1955-1968) at Syracuse University (primary source material)