Roy McKie: The Later Years

... continued from here...

Leo Lionni created a bit for the Ladies' Home Journal called Never Underestimate the Power of a Woman that ran monthly as an advertisement in The New Yorker. One simple yet humorous illustration that conveyed a little something about the perceived female psyche. Leo had been at it for a decade when he passed the mantel to Roy...

"I would think up an idea and take it to the folks at Ladies' Home Journal for approval. I remember for Christmas one year, I did a sketch of a fireplace in a house. No words. Hanging over the fireplace was a man's sock and a woman's nylon stocking. They were really clever. But it was hard being clever for 14 years."

Working under legendary ad man Charles Coiner, in addition to his Ladies' Home Journal work, he continued to illustrate for other N.W. Ayers accounts like the Army and Navy. Leo had gone to New York to act as art director for Time Life, and during the start of the 60s, Roy began to freelance up north more. Eventually giving up his life in Philadelphia to move to New York, he even spent a winter in London, but couldn't make enough money to stay permanently. During this time, Roy went through a painful divorce, and eventually went on to marry a woman named June Reynard, an illustrator who did work for Christian Dior and other fashion houses...

"I was doing all sorts of freelance work for Time Life, posters and such, when one day I got a call from Bennett Cerf [founder of Random House], saying he'd seen some of my work, asking me if I wanted to meet Ted Geisel [aka Dr. Seuss]... to come for the weekend."

Bennett Cerf's wife Phyllis Fraser had recently co-founded Random House's children's book imprint with Ted and his wife Helen Palmer and was anxious to see if Roy might fit in.

"I went up to the house and Geisel was there and he and I struck it off. We were sketching. He was looking to see what I could and couldn't do. From there, I started doing books for Random House."

Under the Beginner Books imprint, starting first with Bennett Cerf's Book of Riddles in 1960 and then on to the wildly successful Seuss-penned 10 Apples Up on Top a year later, a book illustrator was born.

"My favorite is Snow, which I illustrated for my one-time neighbor P.D. Eastman. I think the reason that book has been so successful is that I have an old fashioned way of approaching things. Softer, not so vulgar as a lot of what you see for children today."

Roy has illustrated more than 100 books for many different publishers, mainly drawing for other people's words, but it's his work with Dr. Seuss and the Beginner Books imprint that's had the longest shelf-life....

"You can make a children's book that was well received in its day, and that's great. But there are a few that stick around... Each generation, they want to give their children what they had and it keeps going and going. I was very fortunate to have been with Geisel and Random House. He was such a kind man and a talent and he and Phylis earned such loyalty from the people around them. In advertising, I was used to getting paid page by page, but with Phylis and Geisel I was able to get royalties. I'm just so thankful."

Though Roy hasn't illustrated a children's book in years, a handful of his titles remain in print. A few from the Beginner Books series (The Pop-Up Mice of Mr. Brice, 10 Apples Up on Top, Summer, Snow, My Book About Me, Would You Rather Be a Bullfrog?...) and a number of humor books he illustrated for Henry Beard and Workman Publishing (Sailing, Cooking, Golfing, Skiing, Fishing...)

At 89 years old, Roy says he's still in pretty good shape...

"This past year, I did some illustrations for a horse museum in Louisville, so I'm keeping busy. I don't wanna get old. Hell, I don't wanna be old. I've done very well, so happy to have been given the chance to do all this. I came from nothing. I'm still very frugal, but June and I were able to travel all over the world. We've been married since 1964 and had a great time together. We were more like flower children than anything. So, I can't complain. I've made some mistakes in life. I loved my parent's deeply, but I'd have liked to have been closer to my own children."

Repeatedly in our conversation, Roy would use the work "kind" to describe someone...

"In life, you have a choice to deal with people who are kind or unkind. I've been very lucky."

In closing, Roy and I talked about a lot of things, many of which don't belong to this blog, but rather to an old dreamer and his memories. June chimed in at various moments in the conversation... as Roy described her, "my second brain". It's obvious that even after almost 50 years of marriage, they are still madly in love.

I might not have gotten all the facts here perfectly, but I've tried to convey a short history of an artist I admire so that his legacy can live on a bit longer. However, what I will set in stone about the man is this. Life is short. It's a beautiful thing to have used this life to create something that will live on longer than you. Something that brings joy to other people. We all make mistakes. We all make choices that lead us in one direction or another. But if nothing else, know and remember that Roy McKie was, and is, a kind man.

There is no way that someone could so beautifully visualize a world full of happy children and smiling dogs and be anything but.

Thank you Mr. McKie.

Photo at top by Jill Krementz, taken of Roy with Ted Geisel in 1984 at a party celebrating - ahem - Dr. Seuss' 80th birthday.

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RIP Roy McKie

A few days ago I received a very thoughtful e-mail from Roy McKie's son about this father's passing. In 2011, I was lucky enough to interview Roy about his life and work.. 

As I said then about him and the interview... 

"I might not have gotten all the facts here perfectly, but I've tried to convey a short history of an artist I admire so that his legacy can live on a bit longer. However, what I will set in stone about the man is this. Life is short. It's a beautiful thing to have used this life to create something that will live on longer than you. Something that brings joy to other people. We all make mistakes. We all make choices that lead us in one direction or another. But if nothing else, know and remember that Roy McKie was, and is, a kind man. 

There is no way that someone could so beautifully visualize a world full of happy children and smiling dogs and be anything but."

RIP Roy.

Roy McKie: The Early Years

... continued from here...

I'll begin by saying that a few years back, Roy McKie's son, Todd, left a comment on my blog in reference to the fact that I thought his father had passed away. He set the wrong right and was gone. A wonderful artist in his own right, I always remembered Todd's little comment and came to it again recently with the idea of interviewing his father in earnest. Being Roy's number one fan, I was disappointed that there was so little written about him online and I set out with the initial intent of fixing that injustice.

When I first contacted Todd, his father was in the midst of moving to a retirement home with his wife, so after a few months holding off, I was finally able to make contact. Our conversation lasted about two hours, and in that time, I was able to see a little bit close up of a man I've often admired from afar. There is such joy and innocence in Roy's work, it's difficult not to get caught up in his world once you begin to dig a little deeper.

Let's begin with the facts.

Roy was born in Medford, Massachusetts in 1921 to an primary-school teacher who raised four boys and a veteran turned railroad man. Though neither of his parents were artists, some of Roy's earliest memories twinkle with hints.

"I was a somewhat sickly child, and my father would sit by my bed and take brown paper bags and draw pictures on them of what he could see outside the window to show me."

Sometime during elementary school Roy remembers...

"I would pick up a small book -- like the kind a grocer keeps his records in -- and draw little pictures in the edges where there was no printing. The family would listen to the radio -- Amos & Andy -- and I'd try and draw what they were doing in the story."

In high school, he began to branch out...

"There was a contest to draw the history of the school. It was a tough school; there weren't many people who were interested in things like art, and I won. There was no money to go to art school, but I was tested to go to the Massachusetts School of Art on Saturdays -- $5 for a half year -- and a friend of my father's gave me the money to go. Of course, my father had nothing having come home from the war shell-shocked, filled with shrapnel. On and off for a few years, he would stay at Chelsea Mass and come home once a month for the weekend."

His father suffered greatly from the war, an experience that was not lost on young Roy...

"My father was a very sensitive guy, went to England after he was drafted... as a machine gunner... he went through hell. When he finally came home to stay, he got a job at the north station of the Boston and Main Railroad as a gate man. Sometimes we'd go into town with our mother, and if we saw father at the station, all the people who drive the engines would wave to him. I always liked that."

In Boston on the weekends during the last few years of high school, Roy would spend two or three hours trying still lifes, but once graduation came, he was faced with the reality of having to help support his family full time...

"From very early on, I always worked. As a five-year-old, I sold newspapers at the railroad station. After high school, I went to work in a canning factory, a furniture factory, and off hours, I worked at the Howard Johnston making cream sodas."

After a few years, Roy realized he wasn't going to get anyplace doing factory work, and went back to school at the famed art institution, Vesper George where Al Capp (creator of Little Abner) taught and Robert McCloskey (Make Way for Ducklings) was its most famous alumnus. There, he built a strong foundation in the basics and acquired skills that were at last a marketable commodity...

"I graduated in 1941 and went to work for a man in Boston who had a small advertising concern, and I did almost nothing. I think he hired me because he wanted someone to keep him company. During that time I ran into a fellow student who told me he was working for a man named Bruce Anderson."

Later he was hired on and to this day still looks at his time spent at Bruce Anderson Associates as life changing...

"Bruce was a very kind man who helped me a great deal. There were five or six young people who worked in his office and I worked on art for posters and booklets for American Airlines. He was so encouraging and I remember he said to me, 'Roy, you're never going to be Norman Rockwell, but you just might be a cartoonist.' If it hadn't been for Bruce, I don't know what I'd be doing now."

During this time, Roy met and fell in love with his first wife Lois, and had a son Todd, and a daughter, and eventually was hired away to work for N.W. Ayers in Philadelphia, the first advertising agency in the US, where he met Leo Lionni, the incomparable art director and future author of children's books classics like Alexander and the Wind up Mouse.

It was there that his artistic future began to take shape.

...continued here...

(Images taken from Gatochy's flickr stream via Roy's Zodiac personality books.)

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In Celebration: Roy McKie

Welcome New Year! I, for one, have to say, am glad to be turning over a new leaf. I understand that with each year, I grow older (and so does - aghast - my son), but with each year new wisdoms come along with new beginnings and new hope.

Which brings me to today. A few weeks back, I had the honor and pleasure of sharing a phone conversation with one of my all-time favorite children's book illustrators, Roy McKie -- the man who helped create the classics 10 Apples Up On Top, Summer, My Book About Me, and my fave, Mélisande. I love a lot of books and a lot of authors, but for me, as a writer and a parent, there are certain people, certain artists, that if I met them in person, I just knew I'd discover we were cut from the same cloth.

Simply put, Roy McKie is a treasure. I'm going to spend the next few days celebrating his work and sharing with you parts of our conversation. Through it, I came to understand a great deal about living life to the fullest, cherishing the kindness in people, aging with grace and the sometimes heartbreaking realities of love. I might not get all the facts exactly right -- an occupational hazard of taking a spunky almost 90-year-old genius down memory lane -- but the heart is there.

Through this blog, I'm often reminded how wonderful it is that we all have stories to tell... all we have to do is listen. Join me.

...continued here...

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Mélisande

Melisande
Margery Sharp ~ Roy McKie ~ Little, Brown and Company, 1960

Though it would be limiting to call this one just a children's book, it was concepted and illustrated by two children's literature icons ~ Sharp (the writer of The Rescuers) and McKie (my previously gushed over children's book crush)~ therefore making it enough of a kids' story to keep on my son's shelf. Really, if you haven't fallen in love with Roy McKie yet, this one should put you over the top.

A "pictorial memoir" of an opera-singing dog, the story was conceived by Ms. Sharpe and brought to black and white life by McKie in page after page of wordless, melancholy whimsy. From Sharp's forward...

To speak with any assumption of intimacy concerning the great artist known as Mélisande is, alas, impossible. A most loyal and unselfish comrade -- a "perfect pet" in the rehearsal room -- she nonetheless hedged every private thought and emotion with delicate reticence which none would fail to respect and beyond which only a cad would attempt to pry. Many of her relations are still living -- it is known she was one of a numerous family -- but they too have preserved the same dignified and, (may one say it?), rare discretion. What follows is thus no more than a brief sketch of the great diva's dazzling, all-to-brief public career.

A rags to riches tale of talent, taste and philanthropy, the uncommon canine wins your love from page one and sweeps you into her life, engaged fully until the final illustration. My son digs her, hard... her sweet smile and happy story of fame and fortune. This book takes the seriousness out of opera and the silliness out of a simple children's story. All heart, really. Two paws up indeed.

Also by:
Bennett Cerf's Book of Animal Riddles
The Nose Book
Summer

I Can Write! A Book by Me, Myself

I Can Write! a Book by Me, Myself
with a little help from Theo LeSieg (aka Dr. Seuss) and Roy McKie
Random House, 1971

Just in case you haven't had enough of Roy McKie this month...

Similar in theme to the still-in-print Seuss/McKie classic A Book About Me, if you're a vintage buff and go searching, unsullied copies can be hard to come by. Why, you ask? Well, a child would have to be insane not to want to write in it.

I, myself, shared a copy with my two sisters, and I seem to remember repeated erasing and rewriting until someone got sassy and used a magic marker. The copy I'm scanning here is inscribed "To Paul Feuerbacher From Dwayne F. 1973" and apparently this "Paul" had impeccable handwriting for such a young buck (as evidenced above and below). Though the text is a conduit for which children can perfect their handwriting skills, it also tell a snazzy Seuss rhyming story, of course.

1
2
fish in shoe

1
2
3
fish in tree

2
3
4
in the door

yellow
red
cow in bed

...and so on and so forth, full of awesome, made all the more so by McKie's signature sillies. Though I do love much of the realistic painting and waifish pencil drawing styles that dominate the market today, there's something about simple bold colors, outlined in black that makes me giddy inside. It takes me back to an age when handwriting the words "fish in shoe" was the - ahem - hardest thing I had to do. Good times.

Also by:
Bennett Cerf's Book of Animal Riddles
The Nose Book
Summer
Mélisande
Snow
Bennett Cerf's Book of Laughs
Bennett Cerf's Book of Riddles
McElligot's Pool
Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are?
Come Over to My House
Bartholomew and the Oobleck
The Lorax
Hooper Humperdink...? Not Him!

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The Nose Book

The Nose Book
Al Perkins ~ Roy McKie
Random House, 1970

I mean who doesn't love Random House's Bright and Early books? We grew up with them. They have their own section in most big-box book chains. They are still pretty rockin' today. But what I don't understand is why RH feels it must constantly muck with a good thing.

As I pointed out in my review of Summer (where some key pages were axed to make the book more friendly), a nose -- even by the same name -- is not the same. Then, last week, I was over at a friend's house and saw that she has a new copy of The Nose Book that looks very different from the one I own.

Now don't get me wrong, I love the illustrator Joe Mathieu. He's old school Sesame Street and a very whimsical and enjoyable artist, but what was wrong with the drawings of Roy McKie? I mean, if they wanted an updated nose book, could they not have just written another nose book? Why did they have to use Al Perkins' words? And this isn't just a mere re-imagining of the book. They obviously asked Joe to redraw the pictures to make them more contemporary... so essentially they are the same pictures, just updated. I happen to think Mr. McKie's drawings are still pretty rad and hysterical, and my son has certainly enjoyed his vintage copy time and time again. I mean, I am biased because I sort of have a crush on Roy (for unknown reasons), and lament that I'll never get a chance to meet the guy.... but still.

Everybody grows a nose.
I see a nose on every face.
I see noses every place!
A nose between each pair of eyes.
Noses! Noses! Every size.

Maybe there is something political at play here that as a collector of old kids' books I am not privy to... copyright law... who knows? That said -- not to rain on Joe's parade (I STILL LOVE YOU MAN!) -- if you have a chance to get hold of an original, it's worth it. (Hey, there are copies on Amazon now for only a penny!)

Also by:
Summer
Travels of Doctor Dolittle
Bennett Cerf's Book of Animal Riddles
Melisande

The Hair Book

The Hair Book
Graham Tether ~ Roy McKie
Random House, 1979

To further my crush on Roy McKie, the boy has (for some reason) been focusing on this book of late. An apt companion to its sisters The Nose Book, The Eye Book and The Tooth Book, I adore Roy's drawings because they're filled with so much happiness and joy. Perhaps most famous for illustrating the Seuss classic Ten Apples Up on Top, along with others like the Workman Henry Beard books from the 70s, In a People House, and my personal favorite Summer... ooohhhhh, I could wax poetic for a lifetime about the butterflies his books give me. But let us not go there, and instead stay here, where hair is the issue, the complaint and the blessing, no matter what size, shape or kink it takes.

HAIR!

HAIR!

It's everywhere.

Some have a little.

Some have lots.

Plain hair.

Striped hair.

Polka dots.

Curls and braids

and beards and lashes

Whiskers

Eyebrows

Long mustaches.

Fun fun fun! And a perfect beginning reader to boot. I love books that celebrate differences in a positive way, rather than as a cautionary tale. Roy's optimism for the world is so infectious, if you don't catch it from him, I hope that you'll at least catch it secondhand from me. If I could live in his universe of black lines, bold color and visual glee --even for a moment-- I would die a happy woman.

(And pardon my over-the-top enthusiasm. That's puppy love for you.)Also by:
Summer
Bennett Cerf's Book of Animal Riddles
Melisande
The Nose Book

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Bennett Cerf's Book of Riddles

Bennett Cerf ~ Roy McKie ~ Random House, 1960

To keep in the theme of all things Roy McKie this week, I'll post on the initial book he illustrated for the Beginner Books series, the first of a gaggle of joke books he did both with and without Mr. Cerf. My son loves these. As a matter of fact, the four or five gag books we have all feature Roy's drawings and my son has memorized every one. We won't go a single day without one of these beauties getting plucked from his brain and spat out at random.

What gets lost every time you stand up?

Your lap.

What makes more noise than a cat stuck in a tree?

Two cats stuck in a tree.

If you drop a white hat into the Red Sea, what will it become?

Wet.

The riddles are really witty and smart, brought home by Roy's wonderfully-silly illustrations (some of which I used in the previous post). I love the way my son feels a sense of empowerment each time he uses one of these jokes. Like he's pulling something over on someone... telling the joke, standing back and then laughing wildly. Such sweet fun.

And just in case anyone is wondering who that fellow on the cover is...

What is big and red and eats rocks?

A big red rock eater.

Reminding me of the question my son always asks of a new friend. "So is the one-eyed, one-horned flying purple people eater actually purple or does he just eat purple people?"

Also by:
Bennett Cerf's Book of Animal Riddles
The Nose Book
Summer
Mélisande
Snow
Bennett Cerf's Book of Laughs

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A Big Ball of String

A Big Ball of String
Marion Holland ~ Random House, 1958

A book from my husband's era, you guys know I am always fussing about Random House reillustrating their Beginner Books... usually when it gets rid of drawings by Roy McKie (my kids' book crush). In this case (aghast!) is looks like Roy reillustrated this 50s original. ACK! I have not yet seen Roy's version (some of them go for mucho buckos online), so I can't draw comparisons here. I wouldn't gripe about it anyway as I am probably and most-totally biased in Mr. McKie's direction most of the time. That said, I will focus on the story.

At this point, I think I've read way too many of these early Random House books to not notice how many of the authors of this era are trying to mirror Dr. Seuss. That might have been because he was the editor there for a while, or it might be that was how the tide was turning in picture books and all other authors followed suit. Regardless, a very cute story with equally cute drawings about a boy who collects and collects and collects string. When he gets sick with a cold and finds himself bed-bound, he figures out that he can do anything and everything with a ball of string, virtually all at the same time. Classic.

I jumped into bed
With my string in a ball.
With my string.
With my string,
I can do ANYTHING.
Anything, anything,
ANYTHING AT ALL!
I can turn on my light!
I can put on my gown!
I can pull the shade up!
I can pull the shade down!
I can bring in the cat,
With a mouse on the floor!
I can turn off the light!
I can shut the hall door!

Makes me wanna throw out all the boy's toys and start again with just the basics. Who needs all the plastic junk anyway, when you can get the job done with some twine and a little imagination.

Snow

Snow
P.D. Eastman ~ Roy McKie ~ Random House, 1962

Throughout our conversation, Roy kept returning to this one as his personal favorite (more on that later), and I imagine there are mountains of children around the world who are likeminded. Still in print after almost 50 years. Written by the incomparable P.D. Eastman of Go Dog Go fame (and of course, Sam and the Firefly and Are You My Mother?), here you have no scientific answers on the origins of the white stuff. No morality fables to be learned. No lessons taught.

Quite simply we are taken on a journey through the imagination and wonder of two children (and their pup) as they explore a winter afternoon.

What is snow?
We do not know.
But snow is lots of fun,
We know.

Roy's black outlines here are so unaffected, yet convey worlds of emotion. The delicate, one-stroke smiles being all the explanation needed. What makes this book so special is that it is pure innocence, the one truth that can deem a children's book timeless. If you break childhood down to its basic, fundamental core and can illustrate it and share it with others, to me, there's no more noble cause.

Unlike childhood, a story like this is forever... as if we could all pack the exuberance of a snow fight and the wonder of a snowman into a freezer and save it for a sunny day.

This book is joy. Absolute perfection.

Also by:
Bennett Cerf's Book of Animal Riddles
The Nose Book
Summer
Melisande
I Can Write a Book
Bennett Cerf's Book of Riddles
The Hair Book

The Great Holiday Give Day Five: Mud Pies and Other Recipes

Before I wrap up this week's give I just wanted to say a little something. My son's childhood means the world to me. Years from now, when I'm a hundred years old and wondering what's next, if someone asks me what was my favorite part, the answer will be easy. Those moments, minutes, hours I spent close to my child. Reading him a story, his arms around me, snuggled in with a book. They are priceless. Every memory, every word I've ever read to that child is more precious to me than anything. Just last week, my son and I read Knufflebunny Free together at our local bookstore, and both cried like babies at the end, holding each other and rocking on the floor. Even at five years old, my son understands that childhood is fleeting and that fact moves him in ways I never thought possible. The world was alive around us, but for that small moment we were able to share being a parent and child together... transported into each other... and we got there through a book. I will never be able to repay the hundreds of artists who make these moments in my life possible. The only way I have to say thanks is here.

For today's Great Holiday Give, I am personally buying one reader a copy of this reprint, Mud Pies and Other Recipes, brand-spanking new. I've not actually seen the updated edition myself, but everything NYR Children's Collection touches is gold, as far as I'm concerned. I wanted to share this book in particular because it was one of my favorites from my own childhood. Believe me when I tell you, this was a book that was not just read over and over again, but was used, over and over again. I've updated my original post from 2008 to include a few full-spreads of the mud stained pages I "cooked" with making Marigold Madness and Hot Dogwoods. Finding this book in my mother's attic brought back so many wonderful memories of being young, my sisters and summer. It's amazing to think that 25 little pieces of paper stapled together can be so full of wisdom and life and the keeper of so many splendid things from the past.

Books are magic.

So, thank you Marjorie Winslow and Erik Blegvad. Thank you Mo Willems. Thank you Ruth Stiles Gannett and JK Rowling. Thank you James Flora and Roy McKie and William Steig and Tomi Ungerer. Thank you Tasha Tudor and Mercer Mayer. Thank you Richard Scarry and David Wiesner. Thank you Shel and Maurice and William Joyce and Margaret Wise Brown. Thank you for all the minutes, hours, moments, lifetimes well spent.

To be entered to win a copy of this book, simply comment on this post by 11:59 PM Sunday, November 9. The winner will be announced (along with all the other winners from the week) on Monday, November 10. If you haven't thrown your hat in for the others, make sure you do so before Sunday night.

Have fun and good luck!

The Great Holiday Give Day One: The Day the Cow Sneezed by James Flora

The Great Holiday Give Day Two: One More Acorn by Don and Roy Freeman

The Great Holiday Give Day Three: The Christmas Cookie Sprinkler Snitcher by Robert Kraus and Vip

The Great Holiday Give Day Four: A Long Piece of String by William Wondriska

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