Phoebe Erickson
Black and white image of a woman (right) working in a studio while her cat (left) sits on her desk
Erickson working in her Hartford, Connecticut studio in 1952.
Born(1907-11-23)November 23, 1907
North Bay, Wisconsin, US
DiedAugust 23, 2006(2006-08-23) (aged 98)
Concord, New Hampshire, US
Resting placeBailey's Harbor, Wisconsin, US
45°04′09″N 87°08′46″E / 45.0693°N 87.1461°E / 45.0693; 87.1461
Alma materSchool of the Art Institute of Chicago, Columbia University
Occupation(s)Author and illustrator

Phoebe Erickson (1907–2006) was a children's book illustrator and author who is best remembered for her accurate depictions of wildlife and the natural world.

Personal life and education

Phoebe Erickson was born on November 23, 1907, in North Bay, Wisconsin, the twelfth of Swedish immigrants Axel and Emelia Erickson's eventual thirteen children.[1] She grew up on the family farm in Door County surrounded by animals and nature, something she later credited with greatly impacting the direction of her artistic career.[2] In a 1952 interview with the Hartford Courant titled Children Find Charm in Phoebe Erickson's Yarns and Drawings, Phoebe described her childhood as follows:[3]

"I drew pictures even before I started to read. My father bought some paper but I used it up in no time. So then I went out in the woods and cut some birchbark and covered that with drawings. It was fun to be behind the big kitchen stove on a rainy day and draw pictures of cowboys and indians, ponies and broncos. At that time in my life I had three ambitions: to be an artist, a poet, and a cowboy."

After finishing eight years of local schooling, Erickson graduated from Bailey's Harbor School in 1921.[4] She moved to Chicago to further her education by studying painting and design at the Art Institute of Chicago as a scholarship student from 1931 to 1933.[5] In 1937, she again moved to New York where she would eventually attend Columbia University.[6] Phoebe soon met trial lawyer Arthur Blair, and the two were later married in the Marble Collegiate Church.[5] Despite their marriage, Phoebe continued to publish books using her maiden name for the entirety of her career.[7]

Erickson and her husband spent their retirement restoring old homes in Spain and Sweden, before finally settling in New England.[8] Phoebe Erickson died at her home in Concord, New Hampshire, on August 23, 2006, at the age of 98. She is buried near her hometown in Bailey's Harbor, Wisconsin.[9]

Career

While attending the Art Institute of Chicago, Phoebe Erickson worked as a freelance illustrator for greeting card and playing card companies. One of the designs she created for the Arrco Playing Card Company, featuring two fawns in a forest, eventually caught the eye of a publisher at Children's Press and she was soon invited to write and illustrate an original children's book about foxes.[5] Erickson's first book, Slip: The Story of a Little Fox, was subsequently published by Children's Press in 1948.[10] Erickson began illustrating children's books full-time soon after, when she moved to New York City to attend Columbia University.[1]

In addition to writing over a dozen original children's books, Erickson was frequently employed as an illustrator by other children's authors. In 1950, she was invited to illustrate the American edition of the sequel to Felix Salten's Bambi.[11] She regularly collaborated with Thornton Burgess, a conservationist and prolific author of stories for children through the 1950s.[12]

Awards

In 1957, Erickson's original book Daniel 'Coon: The Story of a Pet Raccoon won the William Allen White Children's Book Award. She became the fifth recipient of what is now recognized as the oldest children's choice book award in the United States at a ceremony held at the College of Emporia in Kansas City, Kansas, on October 10, 1957.[5] In 1960, her book Double or Nothing was the fourth book selected as the winner of the Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children's Book Award, now known as the Vermont Golden Dome Book Award.[13]

In 1948, one of Erickson's watercolor illustrations was featured in the Whitney Museum of American Art's Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Sculpture, Watercolors, and Drawings.[14]

Collections

Phoebe Erickson's books continue to be held in numerous libraries and museums around the world. In 1954, she sent autographed copies of each of her books accompanied by some of her original drawings and paintings to the library she frequented in her childhood in Bailey's Harbor.[15] She later praised the library in an interview given more than a decade later, saying "Much of my early education I owe to my parents, the rest to the public library."[7]

The University of Minnesota maintains the Phoebe Erickson Collection of original sketches, illustrations, and production materials from 23 of Erickson's titles published between 1946 and 1966.[16]

Children's Books Illustrated by Phoebe Erickson
Title Author Publisher Year of Publication
Animals of Small Pond[21] Phoebe Erickson Chicago Press 1960
Baby Animal Friends Phoebe Erickson Grosset & Dunlap 1954
Baby Animal Stories[12] Thornton Burgess Grosset & Dunlap 1949
Bambi's Children[11] Felix Salten Random House 1950
Black Beauty (Revised Ed.)[22] Anna Sewell Random House 1949
Black Penny[23] Phoebe Erickson Alfred A. Knopf 1951
Cattail House[24] Phoebe Erickson Children's Press 1962
Daniel 'Coon: The Story of a Pet Racoon[25] Phoebe Erickson Alfred A. Knopf 1954
Double or Nothing[26] Phoebe Erickson Harper 1958
Holiday Storybook[27] Thomas Y. Crowell Co. 1952
Just Follow Me[28] Phoebe Erickson Follett Publishing Co. 1960
Little Peter Cottontail[12] Thornton Burgess Grosset & Dunlap 1956
Nature Almanac[29] Thornton Burgess Grosset & Dunlap 1949
Peter Rabbit, Henny Penny, The City Mouse and the Country Mouse[30] Beatrix Potter Grosset & Dunlap 1947
Seashells[31] Ruth H. Dudley Thomas Y. Crowell Co. 1953
Slip, The Story of a Little Fox[10] Phoebe Erickson Children's Press 1948
Stories Around the Year[12] Thornton Burgess Grosset & Dunlap 1955
The Adventures of Peter Cottontail[32] Thornton W. Burgess Grosset & Dunlap 1958
The Littlest Reindeer[33] Johanna DeWitt Children's Press 1946
The Uncle Wiggly Book[34] Thornton W. Burgess Grosset & Dunlap 1955
Uncle Debunkel; or, The Barely Believable Bears[35] Phoebe Erickson Alfred A. Knopf 1964
We Are Neighbors[36] Odille Ousley Ginn and Company 1957
Who's in the Mirror?[37] Phoebe Erickson Alfred A. Knopf 1965
Wildwing[38] Phoebe Erickson Harper 1959

References

  1. 1 2 "Phoebe Erickson". Illinois Women Artists. Retrieved 2023-03-24.
  2. ↑ Leonard, Steve (2009-11-19). "The Volunteer Spirit...Alive & Well at The Ridges" (PDF). Sanctuary: 2.
  3. ↑ Knight, Cliff (1952-06-01). "Children Find Charm in Phoebe Erickson's Yarns and Drawings". The Hartford Courant Magazine. p. 4. Retrieved 2023-03-25.
  4. ↑ "Graduates of Rural Schools". Door County Advocate. Vol. 7, no. 49. 1921-06-09. p. 1. Retrieved 2023-03-25.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Erickson, James Arnold (1998). "Phoebe Erickson - North Bay's Gift to Young Readers". North Bay, Door County, Wisconsin. Pine Hill Press, Inc. pp. 73–80. ISBN 1-57579-112-9.
  6. ↑ "Phoebe Erickson's Paintings, Books Inspired by North Bay". Door County Advocate. Vol. 89, no. 93. 1951-02-22. pp. 1–2. Retrieved 2023-03-25.
  7. 1 2 "New book by Mrs. Erickson". Door County Advocate. Vol. 107, no. 78. 1968-12-19. p. 13. Retrieved 2023-03-25.
  8. ↑ "Obituaries: Phoebe Erickson". Valley News. 2006-08-24. pp. A4. Retrieved 2023-03-25.
  9. 1 2 "Obituaries: Phoebe Erickson". Rutland Daily Herald. 2006-08-24. pp. B2. Retrieved 2023-03-25.
  10. 1 2 Erickson, Phoebe (1948). Slip: The Story of a Little Fox. Chicago: Children's Press. OCLC 1860917.
  11. 1 2 Salten, Felix (1950). Bambi's Children. New York: Random House. OCLC 7013536.
  12. 1 2 3 4 "Books Written by Thornton W. Burgess". Thornton Burgess Society | Green Briar Nature Center & Jam Kitchen. Retrieved 2023-03-24.
  13. ↑ "Vermont Golden Dome Book Award | Department of Libraries". libraries.vermont.gov. Retrieved 2023-03-26.
  14. ↑ "1948 Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Sculpture, Watercolors and Drawings". Whitney Museum of American Art. 1948-01-31. Retrieved 2023-03-24.
  15. ↑ McNeely, Mrs. K. (1954-10-05). "Phoebe Erickson's Work on Display at Bailey's Harbor". Door County Advocate. Vol. 93, no. 58. p. 8. Retrieved 2023-03-25.
  16. 1 2 "Collection: Phoebe Erickson Collection | University of Minnesota Archival Collections Guides". archives.lib.umn.edu. Retrieved 2023-03-24.
  17. ↑ "Black Beauty / Anna Sewell; adapted by Eleanor Graham Vance; illustrated by Phoebe Erickson". www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk. 1953. Retrieved 2023-03-25.
  18. ↑ Association for Library Service to Children (1995-07-01). Jones, Delores Blythe (ed.). Special Collections in Children's Literature: An International Directory. American Library Association. p. 44. ISBN 978-0-8389-3454-8.
  19. ↑ "Two Exhibits Open at the Miller Art Museum". Door County Pulse. 2012-01-18. Retrieved 2023-03-24.
  20. ↑ Jones, Dee (2015-12-01). "Unprocessed Manuscript Collection: Phoebe Erickson Papers". The University of Southern Mississippi. Retrieved 2023-03-24.
  21. ↑ Erickson, Phoebe (1953). The Animals of Small Pond. Chicago: Children's Press. OCLC 1019210.
  22. ↑ Sewell, Anna (1949). Black Beauty. New York: Random House. OCLC 2312307.
  23. ↑ Erickson, Phoebe (1951). Black Penny. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. OCLC 1686231.
  24. ↑ Erickson, Phoebe (1949). Cattail House. Chicago: Children's Press. OCLC 1040197.
  25. ↑ Erickson, Phoebe (1954). Daniel 'Coon: The Story of a Pet Racoon. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. OCLC 1417183.
  26. ↑ Erickson, Phoebe (1958). Double or Nothing. New York: Harper. OCLC 5686890.
  27. ↑ "Holiday storybook". www.worldcat.org. Retrieved 2023-03-25.
  28. ↑ Erickson, Phoebe (1960). Just Follow Me. Chicago: Follett Publishing Company. OCLC 168542.
  29. ↑ Burgess, Thornton W. (1949). Nature Almanac. New York: Grosset & Dunlap. OCLC 3821147.
  30. ↑ Potter, Beatrix (1947). Peter Rabbit, Henny Penny, The City Mouse and The Country Mouse. New York: Grosset & Dunlap. OCLC 34225127.
  31. ↑ Dudley, Ruth H. (1953). Seashells. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Co. OCLC 1408328.
  32. ↑ Burgess, Thornton W. (1958). The Adventures of Peter Cottontail. New York: Grosset & Dunlap. OCLC 899152.
  33. ↑ DeWitt, Johanna (1946). The Littlest Reindeer. Chicago: Children's Press. ISBN 9780516135342.
  34. ↑ Burgess, Thornton W. (1955). The Uncle Wiggly Book. New York: Grosset & Dunlap. OCLC 35624292.
  35. ↑ Erickson, Phoebe (1964). Uncle Debunkel; or, The Barely Believable Bear. Alfred A. Knopf. OCLC 1390998.
  36. ↑ Ousley, Odille (1957). We are Neighbors. Boston: Ginn and Company. OCLC 6261135.
  37. ↑ Erickson, Phoebe (1965). Who's in the Mirror?. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. OCLC 305781.
  38. ↑ Erickson, Phoebe (1959). Wildwing. New York: Harper. OCLC 1418247.
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