Raise a toast! Sunday March 22nd marks the 163rd anniversary of Randolph J. Caldecott's birth, an ex-banker turned artist who became the father of the modern Children's Storybook.
From Obscure Local Banker to World Famous Illustrator
Most people know Caldecott's name from the embossed medal on the front of beautiful picture books, but there's more to his story. Along with Walter Crane and Kate Greenaway (who has her own UK children's book medal), Caldecott helped define the very form of children's literature in Victorian England.
At 26, after ten years working in local banks, Caldecott abandoned his business career to become a freelance illustrator, arriving in London at the very time when children's books were poised to come into their own. Sadly, he died before reaching the age of 40. Yet even with a portfolio that spans a short decade and a half, Caldecott placed nearly a million books in print and was admired by the likes of Gauguin and Van Gogh.
Witty, talented, and intelligent, his pen and watercolor drawings caused a revolution in children's literature by placing illustrations on par with text. Caldecott's most successful books were collections of classic nursery rhymes and simple stories, such as the tale of The House that Jack Built. However, he also partnered with well known authors such as Washington Irving and the pioneering children's writer, J.H. Ewing.
The Caldecott Medal - Embracing Creative Illustration
In 1937, the American Library Association chose to name their newest book award in his honor. Not to be confused with the Newbery Medal, the ALA's writing award for children's book, the Caldecott Medal celebrates artist's great illustration work. For over 70 years, almost twice Caldecott's lifetime, the award has been bestowed on iconic children's books such as Make Way for Ducklings (1942), Where the Wild Things Are (1964), and The Polar Express (1986).
The ALA selection committees revels in paying tribute to diverse styles and themes. Flow, the 2007 winner, uses no words at all, while the 2008 winner, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, thunks down as a 500 page chapter book. The black and white drawings of 2005's Kitten's First Moon tell the quiet story of a moonlit night, a simple tale that stands in stark contrast to 1997's winner, Golem, which dramatizes the forces of good and evil in 16th Century Prague.
The 2009 Caldecott winners [http://www.dreamswithteeth.com/dwt-features-2009-caldecott-book-awards.html] continue this eclectic tradition. The Medal winner, The House in the Night, features scratch board illustrations alongside comforting good night rhymes. It's a book that Caldecott himself might have appreciated, a gift to the preschooler who is just a little bit afraid of slipping off into the dark. The other 2009 Honor Books strike different notes, a raucous summer at camp, adversity and the cost of hard won knowledge, and the voice of a poetic dreamer.
It's now all part of the vibrant tradition that Randolph Caldecott began over a hundred years ago.
Copyright 2009, Dan McClure
ไม่มีความคิดเห็น:
แสดงความคิดเห็น