Wilder Award Acceptance Speech
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his whole thing started when I “So, you really want to be an artist?” I was only four years old. Some rel- answered, “Yes.” He grabbed the Sunday Tatives came to visit us in Meriden, comics that were lying around and said, Connecticut, where we lived. “Can you copy the Katzenjammer Kids?” My older brother, Joseph Jr., who was “Uncle Charles,” I answered, “Franny nicknamed Buddy, was the firstborn. So and Fuffy [my Irish twin cousins who he was “super child,” the heir apparent. were artists and had recently graduated I, four years younger, was “the mistake.” from Pratt Institute] told me to practice, practice, practice and never copy. Ask My brother was asked, “Buddy, what do me to draw something else and I will.” you want to be when you grow up?” After I finished my drawing, Uncle Wilder Award “I want to be Dick Tracy, Joe Palooka, Charles took it into the kitchen, and I and Buck Rogers,” Buddy answered. could hear him talking to my mother. “He’s good. We have to do something Acceptance Great, I thought. He wants to be a comic about this,” he said. strip. Speech ***** Even though no one asked me, I announced, “When I grow up, I am going Segue to Christmas morning, 1945, Portrait of a Young to be an artist. I’m going to write stories when I was eleven. Boy . and His and draw pictures for books, and I’m going to sing and tap dance on the stage.” Because I had two younger sisters, Santa Dreams Come True Claus still came to our house. So the best You see, I had twin cousins who were in presents were under the tree Christmas art school. They were very glamorous. morning. Tomie dePaola My mother read to me every night, and I loved books. And I was a huge fan of I remember it so clearly. There under Shirley Temple movies. the tree were my gifts—all art supplies, books on how to draw, paints, pads, and Every chance I got over the next few even an easel. I was set to go! years, I would tell the grownups around me what the future held for me, and they ***** all took me seriously. Let me back up a little. Mrs. Cowing, Mrs. Beulah Bowers, the art teacher who the “liberry lady,” came every Friday came to our school periodically, made morning to King Street School. The sure I got extra pieces of paper and could third through sixth grades would go to use my own crayons. the “liberry” room on the second floor where they could check out two or three Miss Leah Grossman, my tap-dancing books for a week. teacher, gave me special roles in the annual recital, so in my heart I could rival I first noticed Mrs. Cowing in first grade. Shirley Temple. Then when I was older I’d see her park her old jalopy in front of and paired with Carol Morrissey, my danc- school and then call some older boys to ing partner, we were Meriden’s answer to help her unload boxes of books and bring Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland. them to the “liberry.” I found out that cer- tain kids would be chosen to be “liberry” Photo Credit: Julie Maris Semel My grandfather was a butcher and owned a monitors, and they would help Mrs. grocery store. His response was to give me Cowing set out the books. And some- a small roll of white butcher paper and a times Mrs. Cowing would bring special Listo Pencil (“It Can Write on Anything”), so books just for the monitors. I had a goal: I I could draw to my heart’s content and not would become a “liberry” monitor. I had is the winner of the Tomie dePaola on the sheets under the covers of my bed. almost two years to work on this. 2011 Laura Ingalls Wilder Award. His acceptance speech was delivered My parents, Flossie and Joe, and my uncle Nothing works quite as well as charm, at the ALA Annual Conference in Charles were the best. Uncle Charles and I had plenty of that. I’d stand so New Orleans on June 26, 2011. asked me one time when we were alone, she could see me when she drove up. 16 Summer/Fall 2011 • Children and Libraries Laura Ingalls Wilder Acceptance Speech I’d smile and say, “Hello, Liberry Lady.” And any time a student wanted to I so admired the illustration work of She’d wave back. One day she came over spend time after school doing art, Miss Alice and Martin Provensen, Sheilah to me, smiling. Goldman welcomed us with open arms. Beckett, Feodor Rojankovsky, Leo Lionni, and of course this new guy who “Little boy,” she whispered. “It’s pro- Miss Cole, the school librarian, was put little boys in ballet slippers in his nounced library.” always happy to recommend just the illustrations for Ruth Krauss’s I’ll Be You right books. She encouraged me to read and You Be Me, Maurice . Sondheim, “Hello, Library Lady,” I said the next everything from Lewis Carroll to Robert or . Steinbeck—you know who I mean. week. She blew me a kiss. Louis Stevenson to Alcott, Dickens, and the Brontës to Armstrong Sperry I wouldn’t have had the success that I By the time I was in second grade, even and—yes—Gone with the Wind. She did at Pratt if it weren’t for my paint- though I couldn’t be a monitor, I could introduced me to the illustrations of ing instructors, Roger Crossgrove and “My mentor Ben Shahn said the words that have meant the most to me: Being an artist is not only what you do, but how you live your life.” help carry in books. I could bend her ear Rackham, Tenniel, Doyle, Kay Nielsen, Federico Castellon. Richard Lindner and a little about how much I loved books. Edward Kemble, and countless others. Enrico Arno taught illustration. And I could check out all the books I In September, it came as no surprise wanted. In 1955, I received a summer scholarship when Miss Bailey, my third grade teacher, to the Skowhegan School of Painting and read out that I would be a library monitor. In eighth grade, we had a class called Sculpture. It was there that I met the guidance. We had to write a biography mentor of all time, Ben Shahn. He said to On Friday mornings I would meet the of someone in the profession we might me the words that have meant the most jalopy, carry boxes of books up to the aspire to. I chose Grant Wood. I even to me: Being an artist is not only what library room, and set books out on stated that I wanted to attend Pratt you do, but how you live your life. tables, all the time taking a peek inside Institute. the covers. ***** ***** Because I was a monitor, I would be Then I took a brief detour. I was now there all morning. I got to peek at High school was easy. I was really good an artist, but instead of becoming a fourth grade books, fifth grade books, at English, history, social studies, music children’s book illustrator as well as a and sixth grade books. What glorious (I hadn’t lost any of my singing and painter, I decided to become a monk—a Fridays! For the next three years, I’d dancing abilities), art, of course, and Benedictine monk, a Benedictine art- hang around and talk with Mrs. Cowing. French. Dr. Michel, my French teacher, ist-monk. And so after graduation from She put into my hands Hitty, Her First introduced me to the works of the Pratt, I entered a small, very primitive Hundred Years by Rachel Field with illus- Impressionists, Picasso, Matisse, and Benedictine monastery in the Green trations by Dorothy Lathrop, Make Way many others. Mountains of Vermont. “Nothing works quite as well as charm, and I had plenty of that.” for Ducklings and Homer Price by Robert I was awarded an important scholarship Needless to say, I didn’t stay. The silence got McCloskey, and the beautiful books by from the city of Meriden. Pratt was a to me. So with the blessings of the Prior, I the d’Aulaires. certainty. left to be just an artist. That was 1957. She pointed out the books that had won I was the best artist in my high school. ***** Newbery and Caldecott Medals. What But at Pratt Institute in 1952, I was sud- riches Mrs. Cowing gave me. denly in a freshman class with 500 other Yearly, I would take the bus from Vermont best artists in their high schools. Only to New York to show my portfolio to ***** 125 would make it to sophomore year. publishers. The editors—most of them— Miraculously, I made it. were really nice. I was told over and over, Junior high was everything I had hoped “If you ever move back to New York . .” for. We had art three times a week with My idols ranged from Norman Rockwell Miss Goldman. She taught painting and Jon Whitcomb (known for his “pretty I spent the years painting, designing techniques, puppetry, jewelry-making— girl” illustrations), to Rouault, Matisse, Christmas cards, and doing set design all sorts of things. Modigliani, and Ben Shahn. for the summer theater in my small Summer/Fall 2011 • Children and Libraries 17 Laura Ingalls Wilder Acceptance Speech good commissions, too, and I was pro- in Provincetown for—you guessed it—a ducing a modestly successful card line.