Died May 8, 1975 in Miami Beach, Florida
Louis Slobodkin, an American sculptor and children's book author and illustrator, was born February 19, 1903 in Albany, New York, one of three brothers and a sister. His parents were Ukranian immigrants, his father an inventor and his mother a homemaker. His early childhood was characterized by a sustained interest in art and an evolving comprehension of what that might mean.
He related, in a number of articles, an early experience when he was five years old where he gained his first insight into perspective. As his long time authorial collaborator Eleanor Estes tells the story in an article in Horn Book in July 1944:
He likes to tell the story of the only lesson in drawing he ever received. This unique lesson he picked up for himself when he was just a little boy of five from a big boy he did not know. Louis was running across the brick pavement of the school yard late one afternoon when he saw a boy drawing a large head on the wall in white chalk. Louis stopped short to watch. The boy drew a three-quarter view of a head and then so indicated the nose that the head took on form and dimension. The face came right out at Louis, who was literally overcome at [sic] this revelation unfolded before his eyes. He had been drawing flat patterns all along, but now he saw that the illusion of the third dimension could be indicated in drawing as well.
In an article in Child Life, May, 1947, Slobodkin related:
That important thing happened when I was just five or six years old. And that must be the time I decided to become an artist, whether I'd be a cartoonist who draws for the comics, or a painter who paints pictures of sunsets and mountains for art museums - but some kind.
Another transformative incident in his childhood, and it was lucky they happened early because he grew up fast, was when his brother gave him a lump of red modeling clay when he was about ten years old.
First I modeled the head of an Indian - it was red plastelline. Then I made the head of George Washington, the Father of our Country. I could not make his eyes look right so I put a couple of flat pieces of clay over his eyes and made spectacles. He looked exactly like Benjamin Franklin! Spectacles on, he looked like Franklin. Spectacles off again he looked like G. Washington! That decided things for me. I would become a sculptor.
By his own admission, Slobodkin was not a distinguished student and as he entered high school he set his mind to throwing over his academic studies and pursuing art. His parents were initially reluctant to support this course of action till Slobodkin undertook a peaceful protest by attending but not participating in classes. As the zeroes began to rack up, his parents finally gave their blessing and at age fifteen, Slobodkin left Albany and enrolled in the Beaux Arts Institute of Design, in New York City. He studied sculpture for six years, studying during the day and working a variety of jobs at night to support himself. Given his age and the times, one of his jobs was as an elevator boy. Washing dishes and working in a factory were his other means of support.
Despite the burden of studying and supporting himself at the same time, Slobodkin had a very successful career at the Beaux Arts Institute, winning a fellowship (Louis Tiffany Foundation) as well as twenty-two medals for his works. In 1922, predating Monty Python by half a century, he determined that it was time for something completely different, signed on as a deckhand in the merchant marine, and sailed to Argentina.
On his return to the States he apprenticed himself in commercial art studios and then worked in Europe, primarily in Paris, for a year and a half, before again returning to the US. In 1927 he married Florence Gersh, a writer and poet. They were to eventually have two sons.
Through the next fifteen years, Slobodkin established himself as one of the leading sculptors in America, winning numerous prizes and commissions. His style was very muscular, almost a refined version of the 1920-30's Soviet worker type art. His works were commissioned by museums, private patrons and various New Deal organizations. One of his works, commissioned for the 1939 World's Fair in New York, became something of a cause celebre. Rail Joiner, a seven foot steel and plaster statue of a young Abraham Lincoln took more than a year to build. Unfortunately, a female friend of the World's Fair Commissioner General, Edward J. Flynn, complained to Flynn about the statue and he in turn ordered workmen to take sledge hammers to it.
Slobodkin later had the last laugh though. He recast the statue in bronze the next year and it was installed in a courtyard of the Department of the Interior in Washington, D.C. where it has resided ever since.
In the summer of 1938, Slobodkin and his family were summering on Cape Ann. Out strolling about one day, they met a young couple sunning themselves on an old stone wall and fell to talking. Eleanor and Rice Estes were librarians but Eleanor had been contemplating changing her career and becoming an author. She began writing a story based on a family of four children and their widowed mother living in a small Connecticut town named Cranbury. The story is strongly dependent on characterization and humorous plotting with each chapter essentially serving as a stand-alone tale (which makes it an ideal read-to book). Once she completed the book and had it accepted for publication, she asked her sculptor friend Louis Slobodkin to illustrate it which he accepted without hesitation. The Moffats, the first book for both Estes and Slobodkin, was published in 1941. (See Eleanor Estes in Featured Author section).
Slobodkin had been drawing and sketching all his artistic career and had no doubt about his ability but found that the process of book illustration was not at all straight-forward. He had to quickly learn about the constraints of the publishing processes and find ways to work within those constraints. In his Caldecott acceptance speech, he had some interesting observations about the differences as an artist between his work as a sculptor and his work as a drawing artist.
When you start a sculpture composition, you develop one main thought; all sketches and primary indications tend towards developing that idea with all its ramifications. Say it's a colossal figure or composition of a couple of sculpture units. After your primary sketches and mechanical preparations are complete, you settle down to work, five months, seven months, a year or more, on one shape, one movement, and one thought. Of course, you develop and clarify and carry through essential nuances of good sculpture. But a change in the composition, a deviation from this one idea, the mere movement of a ponderous clay arm, a few inches in any direction, is a major operation, an engineering feat. There's the readjustment of the weight, the sawing through of the armature, the risk of destroying all the work you've done in the past six months and throwing that much of your life into the clay bin. You don't often change from your first idea: you compromise. And that's true, too, of changes in a stone carving.
Now, moving from this one-composition and one-idea way of a sculptor's life, to the crackle of thinking of hundreds of compositions within a short space of time was the main difficulty. For each drawing was a complete composition in itself. Every Moffat was an individual sculpture unit. Then there was another element, space, and the shape of the space, limited by the requirements of the book. Sculpture make's its own space. It pushes its way into existence.
His illustrations, always pen and ink and often with watercolors, are notable for their compact energy. He has a particularly distinctive style, which becomes comprehensible once you realize his background in sculpture. All his human characters have a particular stylization most easily seen in his male figures. There is a muscular statuesqueness which is also characteristic of his statues. All his figures are only a thin sheething away from the basic human form.
At nearly forty years old, after one very successful career, Slobodkin suddenly found himself heading in an entirely different direction. While he never completely abandoned sculpting, he very quickly refocused most of his energies into illustrating children's books. And what a tear he had at the very beginning!
In the space of three years, he was involved in three striking projects. Estes career was launched with The Moffats and she followed this first book with two more in the series, The Middle Mofat (1942) and then Rufus M. (1943) both of which were also illustrated by Slobodkin. There actually ended up being a series of four books when, forty years later, Estes wrote the final book, The Moffat Museum.
In 1942, Slobodkin was asked to illustrate the humorist and essayist James Thurber's Many Moons, the first of three children's books he wrote in the 1940's. While the Moffat books were in black and white, Slobodokin used watercolors extensively throughout Many Moons . Many Moons was a big hit, remains in print today, and earned a Caldecott Medal (illustration) for Slobodkin. Many people think the illustrations of the Moffat series more deserving of the Medal but at least he was awarded a deserved recognition. In 1944 Slobodkin published the first book, Magic Michael (based on his first son Michael) in which he is both the author and illustrator.
Also in 1944, Slobodkin published The Hundred Dresses. This is another book by Eleanor Estes, though not in the Moffat series. See Eleanor Estes Featured Author essay for discussion about The Hundred Dresses, which is a wonderful book.
Slobodkin's long term reputation is almost certainly anchored on these works from his first five years in his new calling. Currently no other books from his later career are still in print, though a number warrant being brought back. He wrote an engaging biographical account of his trip as a sailor to Argentina in Fo'castle Waltz. He illustrated some classic American children's stories such as Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer, a handful of stories by his wife Florence Slobodkin, and other contemporary authors that went on to establish reputations of their own such as Edgar Eager (Red Head). He wrote a series of career stories (Read About the Policeman, Read About the Postman, etc.), a handful of books on manners (e.g. Thank You, You're Welcome), and many stand-alone stories. Of his latter work, a series which he wrote beginning with The Space Ship Under the Tree, is the one probably most surprising in being out of print. It had quite a following in it's day.
After a long, distinguished and productive life, Louis Slobodkin died of a heart attack on May 8, 1972 in Miami, Florida.
I hope you enjoy the wonderful energy and distinctive style of Slobodkin's work as evidenced in the Moffat series as well as in Many Moons and The Hundred Dresses.
Many Moons by James Thurber and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin Recommended | |
The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin Recommended |
The Moffats by Eleanor Estes and Louis Slobodkin Recommended | |
The Middle Moffat by Eleanor Estes and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin Recommended | |
Rufus M. by Eleanor Estes and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin Recommended | |
The Moffat Museum written and illustrated by Eleanor Estes Suggested |
Sculpture; Principles and Practice. by Louis Slobodkin Suggested |
The Moffats written by Eleanor Estes and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1941
The Sun and the Wind and Mr. Todd written by Eleanor Estes and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1942
The Middle Moffat written by Eleanor Estes and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1942
Many Moons written by James Thurber and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1943
Rufus M. written by Eleanor Estes and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1943
Peter the Great written by Nina Brown Baker and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1943
Magic Michael written and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1944
Friendly Animals written and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1944
The Hundred Dresses written by Eleanor Estes and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1944
Garibaldi written by Nina Brown Baker and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1944
Young Man of the House written by Mabel Leigh Hunt and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1944
Clear the Track written and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1945
Fo'castle Waltz written and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1945
Lenin written by Nina Brown Baker and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1945
The Adventures of Arab written and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1946
Tom Sawyer written by Mark Twain and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1946
Seaweed Hat written and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1947
Hustle and Bustle written and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1948
Bixby and the Secret Message written and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1948
Jonathan and the Rainbow written by Jacob Blanck and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1948
Sculpture: Principles and Practice written and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1949
Mr. Mushroom written and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1950
The King and the Noble Blacksmith written by Jacob Blanck and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1950
Dinny and Danny written and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1951
Our Friendly Friends written and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1951
Ginger Pye written by Eleanor Estes and illustrated by Eleanor Estes 1951
Red Head written by Edgar Eager and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1951
Gertie, the Horse Who Thought and Thought written by Margarite Glendinning and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1951
The Space Ship under the Apple Tree written and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1952
Circus April 1st written and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1953
The Alhambra written by Washington Irving and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1953
The Magic Fishbone written by Charles Dickens and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1953
Mr. Petersham's Cats written and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1954
The Horse with the High-Heeled Shoes written and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1954
The Amiable Giant written and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1955
Millions and Millions written and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1955
The Saucepan Journey written by Edith Unnerstad and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1955
Evie and the Wonderful Kangaroo written by Irmegarde Eberle and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1955
Pysen written by Edith Unnerstad and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1955
The Mermaid Who Could Not Sing written and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1956
One Is Good but Two Are Better written and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1956
The King's Shoes written by Helen F. Bill and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1956
Love and Knishes written by Sara Kasden and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1956
Melvin, the Moose Child written and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1957
Thank You, You're Welcome written and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1957
Evie and Cooky written by Irmegarde Eberle and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1957
Little O written by Edith Unnerstad and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1957
The Warm-Hearted Polar Bear written by Robert Murphy and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1957
The Space Ship Returns to the Apple Tree written and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1958
The Little Owl Who Could Not Sleep written and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1958
The First Book of Drawing written and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1958
Too Many Mittens written and illustrated by Florence Slobodkin 1958
Upside-Down Town written by F. Amerson Andrews and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1958
Trick or Treat written and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1959
Excuse Me, Certainly written and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1959
Martin's Dinosaur written by Davis Reda and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1959
Clean Clarence written by Priscilla Friedrich and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1959
Up High and Down Low written and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1960
Gogo the French Sea Gull written and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1960
Nomi and the Beautiful Animals written and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1960
Marshmallow Ghosts written by Priscilla Friedrich and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1960
The Cowboy Twins written and illustrated by Florence Slobodkin 1960
A Good Place to Hide written and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1961
Picco written and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1961
Mr. Spindles and the Spiders written by Andrew Packard and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1961
The Three-Seated Space Ship written and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1962
The Late Cuckoo written and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1962
Io Sono written and illustrated by Florence Slobodkin 1962
Luigi and the Long-Nosed Soldier written and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1963
Moon Blossom and the Golden Penny written and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1963
The Lovely Culpeppers written by Margaret Uppington and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1963
The Polka-Dot Goat written and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1964
Mr. Papadilly and Willy written and illustrated by Florence Slobodkin 1964
Yasu and the Strangers written and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1965
Colette and the Princess written and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1965
Read about the Policeman written and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1966
Read about the Postman written and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1966
Read about the Fireman written and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1967
Read about the Busman written and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1967
Round-Trip Space Ship written and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1968
Mazel Tov Y'all written by Sara Kasden and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1968
Sarah Somebody written and illustrated by Florence Slobodkin 1969
The Spaceship in the Park written and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1972
Wilbur the Warrior written and illustrated by Louis Slobodkin 1972
The Moffat Museum written and illustrated by Eleanor Estes 1983
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