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Phyllis Crawford (February 8, 1899 – July 1980) was, during the 1930s and 1940s, a celebrated American author of books for children in their early teens. She is known for writing Hello the Boat! (Holt, 1938), a book about the Doak family fleeing the depression of the early 1800s by traveling west on a boat. Crawford wrote the book in 1938 and won the top prize of $3,000 from the Julia Ellsworth Ford Foundation.[1] Hello the Boat! was also a 1939 Newbery Award honoree.[2]
Crawford's first children's book was The Blot: Little City Cat, which she published in 1930. Other subsequent books were In England Still (Arrowsmith, 1938), Walking on Gold (Messner, 1940), The Secret Brother (Holt, 1941), Last Semester (Holt, 1942), Second Shift (Holt, 1943) and Let's Go! (Holt, 1949). She also wrote an adult novel, Elsie Dinsmore on the Loose (Cape, 1930).
Phyllis Crawford | |
|---|---|
| Born | February 8, 1899 (age 81) Little Rock, Arkansas |
| Died | July 1980 Santa Fe, New Mexico |
| Pen name | Josie Turner |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Nationality | American |
| Genre | Children's literature |
| Years active | 1930–1951 |
| Notable works | Hello the Boat! |
| Notable awards | Fords Foundation, 1938 Newbery Award Honoree, 1939 |
| Spouse | Cyril Kay-Scott (1928–1931); divorced |
Personal Life
[edit]Crawford was born on February 8, 1899 in Little Rock, Arkansas to T. Dwight Crawford and Bessie Williams Crawford. Her father was an attorney who worked for the Arkansas Supreme Court. Crawford had one brother, John, who was an author that wrote under the pseudonym John Gregg. Her family resided in Pulaski Heights, which later became Pulaski County.[3]
Crawford graduated from Little Rock High School.[3] In 1920, she received a BA from Randolph-Macon Woman's College in Lynchburg, Virginia before earning a degree in library science from the University of Illinois Graduate Library School in 1924. The library science program has since then been renamed to the School of Information Sciences.[4]
In 1928, she moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico and married Cyril Kay-Scott. Kay-Scott (born Frederick Creighton Wellman) was a director of the Santa Fe School of Art during the time of his and Crawford's marriage. He was previously a dean of the School of Tropical and Preventative Medicine at Tulane University and had three ex-wives prior to marrying Crawford. In 1931, Crawford and Kay-Scott divorced. The two did not have any children.[3]
Crawford lived in her Greenwich Village apartment in New York with her cats up until 1950. She moved back to New Mexico in 1951.[4] Though the exact date and location of her death is unknown, she died in Santa Fe, New Mexico in July 1980.[3]
Career
[edit]Crawford's first employment was at the Little Rock Public Library.[3] After completing her degree in library science, Crawford moved to New York for an editorial position with the H.W Wilson Publishing Company, a company known for publishing indexing services commonly used by libraries nationwide. Crawford worked in a catalogue department in which she was tasked to create a buying guide for different genres for libraries to use. She then moved to work for a different department under the same company. Her new project involved piecing together a monthly catalogue of vertical files, a library system used to categorize pamphlets and other ephemeral information.[4]
Following her divorce with Kay-Scott, Crawford moved back to New York in 1931 to resume work under her editorial position at H.W Wilson.[3]
In the fall of 1935, Crawford was hired as the chief editor and the head of research of the Index of American Design of the Federal Arts Project.[3][4] She was approached by Romana Javitz, who wrote and submitted the prospectus of the Index to Frances Pollak, the New York City head of the art project, to use her library training to direct the project's records and research. The objective of the Index project was to catalogue pieces of art into an archive. Crawford mainly did research and tracked down the origin of the artworks submitted by artists.[4]
In 1937, Crawford resigned from the Index project because she found the project to be too insufficiently managed and funded for its research workers to make enough progress with archiving pieces of art.[4][5] Crawford also felt as if she was more a burden to the project then a help.[4]
In May 1951, after moving back to New Mexico from New York, Crawford read proofs for the New Mexican for a year and a half.[4]
In 1952, Crawford took two job openings at the State library Extension Service, which was later renamed to the New Mexico State Library. She was the head of the Children's and Young People's Division.[4]
Writing Career
[edit]Crawford's life experiences in Pulaski Country were often used to help shape the plots in her writing.[3]
During her employment in H.W Wilson Company in 1924, Crawford wrote humorous articles for the New Yorker under the pseudonym Josie Turner. One of her notable works for the magazine is the serial Elsie Dinsmore on the Loose, a parody of the book series Elsie Dinsmore by Martha Finley. Crawford later published Elsie Dinsmore on the Loose (Cape, 1930) in the form of her first book.[3]
By 1937, while Crawford worked in the Index, she was writing full-time on Hello the Boat!. The book was published the following year, in 1938.[3] Hello the Boat! brought much publicity and financial rewards to Crawford. It was a recipient of the Newbery Award Honoree mention in 1939 and the Ford Foundation award in 1938.[1][2]
Public Reception
[edit]Crawford's works generally brought in public approval. Her book Hello the Boat! garnered enough positive attention to be recommended to younger readers.[6]
In 1938, Crawford's name and photographed were placed alongside two famous authors of the times, Margaret Mitchell and W.H. Auden.[3]
She was featured in Current Biography: Who's News and Why in 1940. Her career was periodically covered by Arkansas newspapers.[3]
Her other works were well-received. Her magazine serial Elsie Dinsmore on the Loose quickly rose to fame, leading to her publishing it as her second book in 1930.[3] Crawford's book Walking on Gold (Messner, 1940), a fictional story about gold miners, was acclaimed for portraying Native Americans in a humane light as well as for being historically and culturally accurate.[3]
Awards
[edit]Crawford won the Julia Ellsworth Ford Foundation for her book Hello the Boat! in 1938.[1] Out of the 1,600 submitted entries, the book was selected for best children's manuscript and won a $3,000 prize.[1][3]
In 1939, her book Hello the Boat! won the Newbery Award Honoree.[2]
Works
[edit]- Elsie Dinsmore on the Loose, Cape, 1930
- The Blot: Little City Cat, Cape, 1930
- Hello, the Boat!, Holt, 1938
- In England Still, Arrowsmith, 1938
- Walking on Gold, Messner, 1940
- Posie Didn't Say, 1941
- The Secret Brother, Holt, 1941
- Last Semester, Holt, 1942
- Second Shift, Holt, 1943
- Let's Do, Holt, 1949
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d "$3,000 Book Prize Awarded". New York Times. June 12, 1938. Retrieved December 9, 2020.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ a b c "Newbery Medal and Honor Books, 1922-Present". American Library Association. November 30, 1999. Retrieved December 9, 2020.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Pfeifer, Jim (February 15, 2012). "Phyllis Crawford (1899-1980)". CALS Encyclopedia of Arkansas. Encyclopedia of Arkansas. Retrieved December 9, 2020.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ a b c d e f g h i "Oral History Interview With Phyllis Crawford". Archives of American Art. Smithsonian Institution. August 27, 1964. Retrieved December 9, 2020.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Crawford, Phyllis (November 8, 1937). "Phyllis Crawford Letter to Audrey McMahon". Archives of American Art. Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved December 9, 2020.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Eaton, Anne T. (October 16, 1938). "Books for Younger Readers". New York Times. Retrieved December 9, 2020.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
External Links
[edit]- Phyllis Crawford at Library of Congress Authorities, with 14 catalog records (mainly under 'Crawford, Phyllis, 1899-' without '1980', previous page of browse report)
- Josie Turner at LC Authorities, no catalog records