Ezra Jack Keats: Artist and Picture-Book Maker

Long before multicultural characters and themes were fashionable, Ezra Jack
Keats crossed social boundaries by being the first American picture-book maker
to give the urban child a central place in children 1/2s literature. In
Ezra Jack Keats: Artist and Picture-Book Maker author Brian Alderson
gives an account of the emergence and significance of Keats 1/2 books within the
context of his life.
Alderson shows how Keats 1/2 early ambitions were all towards fine
art and were spurred on by his success as a schoolboy painter. But his
career was always under threat from the depression, from the distractions of war
service, and from all the financial difficulties that are the regular lot of
practicing artists. Despite a spell of study in Paris, Keats eventually
gravitated into commercial art and then 1/2to his own surprise 1/2discovered that
he was a children 1/2s book illustrator.
In describing this career, and in analyzing the great picture books of Keats 1/2
maturity, Brian Alderson has drawn upon recollections of those who knew him and
upon the large archive of his works held at the de Grummond Collection of the
University of Southern Mississippi. This has allowed an insight not only into
Keats 1/2 character, but also into his working life: everything from his
obsessive contract negotiations to his struggles in perfecting both his books
and the way in which they were presented to the public.
In its mixture of sadness and joy, Keats 1/2 life brought him very close to
the children for whom he 1/2as an ex-kid 1/2had such affinity. This
book is the fourth in a Pelican series featuring America 1/2s greatest children 1/2s
illustrators and authors including Jessie Willcox Smith, Johnny Gruelle, and
Kate Greenaway.
Brian Alderson is an international authority in the field of children 1/2s
literature. He has written, edited, and translated stories for children; he has
organized exhibitions in Britain and the U.S. on aspects of the subject; and as
children 1/2s books reviewer of The Times of London, he has the continuing
experience of reading and reviewing contemporary children 1/2s books. For more
than twenty years he lectured in children 1/2s literature at what is now the
University of North London, where he also organized courses for the British
Studies program of the University of Southern Mississippi.