Biography

Crockett Johnson Biography

Crockett Johnson – American author and illustrator, 1906-1975

Crockett Johnson
Crockett Johnson

Best known as the creator of Harold and the “Purple Crayon Books” and as illustrator of Ruth Krauss’s The Carrot Seed, Crockett Johnson was a cartoonist whose simplest, sparest, and boldest outlines produced unforgettable, gently humorous, and always endearing caricatures in the world of American children’s pic­ture books. Johnson’s natural gift for drawing and writing from a young child’s viewpoint enabled him to craft more than twenty juvenile books, two of which have entertained children for more than four decades.

Johnson, whose real name was David Johnson Leisk, was born in New York City and studied art at Cooper Union and New York University. He worked as an art editor of several periodicals, in advertising and design, and as a cartoonist. First recognized in 1942 for his syn­dicated newspaper comic strip, “Barnaby,” Johnson gained national acclaim when the strip’s characters, five-year-old Barnaby Baxter and his imaginary Fairy Godfather, Mr. O’Malley, appeared in the tabloid PM. Four years later, “Barnaby” appeared in more than fifty newspapers with a total circulation of over five million. Two cartoon books that contained selected episodes, Barnaby (1943) and Barnaby and Mr. O’Malley (1944), were among Johnson’s first books published; though not intended for children, “Barnaby” and his books delighted young and old alike.

Crockett Johnson made his picture-book debut in 1945 when he illustrated The Carrot Seed, written by his wife, Ruth Krauss, a respected author of children’s books for the very young, Johnson’s simple cartoon drawings seam­lessly match Krauss’s poetic, imagistic text of a young boy whose green thumb and self-confidence triumph over his naysaying family. The boy plants the tiniest of carrot seeds and lovingly nurtures it, while his parents and older brother insist that nothing will grow from it.

Throughout the entire book, organic browns and tans of the paper, illustrations, and typeface amplify the story’s warmth and lend a rich earthiness to the boy’s expectant patience. Then, to convey the boy’s feat of faith and the tremendous flurry of the ground’s activity, Johnson adds a dash of luxuriant green for the towering carrot top and ah even bolder splash of bright red- orange for the colossal carrot. Still in print, The Carrot Seed continues to entertain young audiences,

Harold and the Purple Crayon, Crockett Johnson 1955
Harold and the Purple Crayon, Crockett Johnson. First edition, 1955.

Crockett Johnson alone wrote and illustrated the enormously successful Harold and the Purple Crayon (1955), a small book about a little boy’s nighttime jaunt that he, with the aid of his purple crayon, draws for himself. Togeth­er, Harold and his purple crayon trek through woods, encounter a ferocious dragon, sail the high seas, and conquer mountaintops; together, they wend their way home, with Harold finally safe, sound, and comfortable in bed. With the fewest of lines, Johnson depicts Harold as a toddler clad in sleepers, his chubby hand gripping a fat plum-colored crayon. From page to page, the thick, firm, purple mark delineates Harold’s actions against the stark white background so effectively and inge­niously that the crayon is as much a character as Harold.

The same economy that informs Johnson’s art perme­ates his text; he writes so concisely of Harold’s moon­light stroll that his style perfectly echoes the clarity of his boldly outlined cartoon illustrations. Johnson creat­ed five other “Purple Crayon Books” that take Harold to such places as a castle, outer space, the North Pole, the circus, and on a clever trip through the alphabet; an additional book, A Picture for Harold’s Room (i960), is an early reader. But none succeeds as well as Johnson’s never-out-of-print Harold and the Purple Crayon.

Two other notable books, Ellen’s Lion (1959) and The Lion’s Own Story (1963), further establish Johnson’s tal­ent for writing from a child’s point of view. Both titles feature brief, witty stories and gloriously pure and sim­ple cartoon illustrations about a charming duo: Ellen, a garrulous, egocentric preschooler, and her sagacious, realist, stuffed lion, with whom she has conversations. Ellen and the lion, her alter ego, cavort through esca­pades exclusively reserved for the world of very young children, a world that few picture-book author-illustra­tors have captured as superbly as Johnson.

§ S.L.S.

Source: Children’s Books and their Creators, Anita Silvey.


Crockett Johnson Books

  • Barnaby (1943)
  • Barnaby and Mr. O’Malley (1944)
  • Willie’s Adventures, Three Stories by Margaret Wise Brown, (1944), illus. by Johnson
  • Ruth Krauss, The Carrot Seed (1945), illus. by Johnson
  • Harold and the Purple Crayon (1955)
  • Is This You? (1955), co-written with Ruth Krauss
  • Franklyn M. Branley, Eleanoe K. Vaughn, Mickey’s Magnet (1956), illus. by Johnson[7]
  • Barkis: Some precise and some speculative interpretations of the meaning of a dog’s bark at certain times and in certain (illustrated) circumstances (1956)
  • Harold’s Fairy Tale (Further Adventures with the Purple Crayon) (1956)
  • Harold’s Trip to the Sky (1957)
  • Terrible, Terrifying Toby (1957)
  • Time for Spring (1957)
  • Bernadine Cook, The Little Fish That Got Away (1957)
  • Harold at the North Pole (1958)
  • The Blue Ribbon Puppies (1958)

  • Ellen’s Lion: Twelve Stories (1959)
  • The Frowning Prince (1959)
  • Harold’s Circus (1959)
  • Will Spring Be Early? or Will Spring Be Late? (1959)
  • A Picture for Harold’s Room (1960)
  • Harold’s ABC (1963)
  • The Lion’s Own Story: Eight New Stories about Ellen’s Lion (1963)
  • We Wonder What Will Walter Be? When He Grows Up (1964)
  • Castles in the Sand (1965), illus. by Betty Fraser
  • The Emperor’s Gifts (1965)
  • Barnaby #1: Wanted, A Fairy Godfather (1985)
  • Barnaby #2: Mr. O’Malley and the Haunted House (1985)
  • Barnaby #3: Jackeen J. O’Malley for Congress (1986)
  • Barnaby #4: Mr. O’Malley Goes for the Gold (1986)
  • Barnaby #5: Mr. O’Malley, Wizard of Wall Street (1986)
  • Barnaby #6: J.J. O’Malley Goes Hollywood (1986)
  • Magic Beach (2005), with an appreciation by Maurice Sendak and an Afterword by Philip Nel

BOOKSTORE: Rare, Antiquarian, First editions, Illustrated Children's Books

Related Posts

Scroll to Top
Copy link
Powered by Social Snap