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- Identifier
- wwu:24099
- Title
- Daugherty - Andy and the Lion
- Date
- 1947
- Description
- Three page letter from James Daugherty to Elizabeth Rider Montgomery. Andy and the Lion was published in 1938 by Viking Press. The book was a runner-up for the Caldecott Award in 1939. A retelling of the fable Androcles and the Lion, Daugherty orginally designed the story as a wordless book. Text was added before publication at the request of the publisher.
- Digital Collection
- info:fedora/wwu:24050
- Type of resource
- Text
- Object custodian
- Special Collections
- Related Collection
- 20th century children's authors collection: writing about writing in letters and personal narratives
- Local Identifier
- 20thCCA_daugherty
- Text preview (might not show all results)
- 20th Century Children's Authors - Daugherty ---------- 20th Century Children's Authors - James Daugherty - Andy and the Lion ---------- ---------- 20thCCA_Daugherty_01 ---------- Westport, Conn. Dear Elizabeth Rider Montgomery, I am naturally very encouraged to know that you contemplate li
- Transcript text preview (might not show all results)
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20th Century Children's Authors - Daugherty ---------- 20th Century Children's Authors - James Daugherty - Andy and the Lion ---------- ---------- 20thCCA_Daugherty_01 ---------- Westport, C
Show more20th Century Children's Authors - Daugherty ---------- 20th Century Children's Authors - James Daugherty - Andy and the Lion ---------- ---------- 20thCCA_Daugherty_01 ---------- Westport, Conn. Dear Elizabeth Rider Montgomery, I am naturally very encouraged to know that you contemplate listing Andy in your new book about books, and the story of their making. I have often wondered why the hell writers and artists ever go thru the enormous pain, effort, sweat and tears it takes to write a story or for that matter a single significant English sentence, paint a picture, or construct a poem, and then encourage the myth that they dash these things off in casual moods of airy inspiration. Perhaps you will throw some light on this mystery. I am somewhat at a disadvantage in the face of your questionnaire. As much of the data regarding time and place has escaped me and the particular story or picture book of Andy was never written at all. in the usual sense. I can however give you a more intimate genesis of its origin than your formidable questionnaire might reveal. I have always strongly felt that laughter was one of the great heal ing agents for the burdens of humanity. It lightens them at least. And i have always cherished a secret ambition to be able in some wa way to better spread this contagion of healing laughter. Another interest or theory I have contemplated is the telling of a story entirely in pictures without the use of words. In this country only Lynn Ward has done it- in his fine novels in wood cut. Of course the comic strip does this in a way but relies heavily on balloon captions and a compilation of plot rather than the simple but unlimited possibilities of pure pic turising At this point here is how Andy evolved. Mrs. Daugherty who has written several excellent juveniles, plays and novels, and myself were spending a long winter evening in our ---------- 20thCCA_Daugherty_02 ---------- frontier cabin in the Conneticut backwoods about fifty miles from New York. We were having some fine talk about the good plays we had seen and of course discussing the charms of Bernard Shaw 's play Androcles and the Lion. We had seen it performed in New York years ago. As you may recall it was the Lion that stole the show and had all New York rolling in the isles as they say for a whole season. It was in this mellow mood that I went into my studio before turning in and quickly sketched in pencil the picture sequence of Andy and the Lion. I naturally and unconsciously visualized the story in terms of my own middle western childhood. The problem that interested me was to tell a story communicating humor, good will and affection entirely thru the medium of pictures without words. The sketches lay in my studio for weeks among the Wilderness of a thousand and one drawings paintings and paraphernalia that litter this untidy shop. When supplies run low it is my practice to go into the settlements to trade and barter and stock up for the next stretch. Putting the sketches in the pocket of my store clothes I adventured to the great city with considerable misgiving and distrust. Greatly confused in the rushing stream of its energetic inhabitants, I happily remembered Kay Masee, as a person with a sense of humor and imagination and as a creative editor with the rare gift of extracting the best from the writers and artists of children's books. I had previously illustrated Benet's John Browns Body and other books for her. Miss Massee was vastly amused with the sketches and said you must make this into a book at once. This is an answer to prayer, You may be sure I said Amen. The finished drawings were make in brush and ink and a separate set of drawings for the yellow plate which enriches and gives depth to the printed impression. ---------- 20thCCA_Daugherty_03 ---------- Up to this point there were to be no words accompanying the pictu tures but when the proofs came in the editors decided that people were unaccustomed to reading pictures without text and that there must be words. As I had never written anything except personal correspondence I passed this up. The editors drafted a text but this just didn't seem to work out. Finally as a last resort Miss Massee and I sat in her office and wrote on the back of each sketch a line that sounded right. It took about half an hour and was great fun and the whole fitted together perfectly. As a happy finale the famous Spenser Collection of rare manuscripts at the New York Public Library bought the original drawings to add to their collection of representative American art in this field. Oddly enough this account seems to be the exception that proves the rule about books and pictures being fashioned thru blood, tears and sweat. Or maybe my theory is all wrong anyway. In the Haycraft "Authors and Illustrators of Children's Books" is an autobiography which gives you the answers to most of your questionnaire. And if you still want more with some photographs I think I can dig up something in the files. I side with those artists and writers who are finding in the heart and meaning of American life and its people their theme and inspirat tion. The surface here has only been scratched, the possibilities for rich expression are unlimited. If I have failed to supply what you want on this them of Andy I ha have anyway made the above effort to be cooperative. With best wishes for the new project, sincerely James Daugherty
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