How to Draw the World

Harold drew a world of possibilities for all us childhood dreamers. Now Phil Nel draws us into the life of Harold's creator--in all its scribbly contours. A delightful portrait.

Auteur
Philip Nel is University Distinguished Professor of English at Kansas State University and the author or co-editor of 13 books, including: Keywords for Children's Literature (with Nina Christensen and Lissa Paul) and a double-biography of the children's writers Crockett Johnson and Ruth Krauss. His Was the Cat in the Hat Black?: The Hidden Racism of Children's Literature and the Need for Diverse Books was one of the catalysts for Dr. Seuss Enterprises' March 2021 decision to stop publishing six Dr. Seuss books that contain racist imagery.

Texte du rabat

This is a biography of the book that inspired Prince to adopt purple as his signature color, Pulitzer-Prize-winning author Richard Powers to become a writer, and countless other creative people to become artists. Published 70 years ago, Crockett Johnson's Harold and the Purple Crayon is a small book about big ideas--ideas about childhood, creativity, politics, psychology, art, and reality itself. In thirty brief chapters, this book explores those ideas, illuminates the creative process, and offers a primer on how picture books work.

Contenu

• Introduction: How to Read Harold

• 1. A child-sized book
• 2. "Taking a line for a walk"
• 3. Carefully Planned Improvisation
• 4. Type
• 5. Blurring Boundaries: Art and Life
• 6. Windows, Part I: Motif and Metaphor
• 7. "the scourge of crayon vandalism"
• 8. "I stubbed my toe on Harold and his damned purple crayon"
• 9. Children's Art
• 10. Postwar America Embraces Children's Creativity
• 11. One, Two, Three Dimensions; or, "And the moon went with him"
• 12. The Moon
• 13. The Purple Crayon
• 14. Color, Part I: Why These Four?
• 15. Narrative and Perspective
• 16. Humor
• 17. Windows, Part II: The View from Johnson's Desk
• 18. Time
• 19. The Real Harolds
• 20. Metapictures
• 21. The Big Picture
• 22. Where and When Is Harold?
• 23. Cute!
• 24. Color, Part II: Is Harold Black?
• 25. Translating Harold
• 26. Harold and the Red Crayon?
• 27. Dream or Nightmare?
• 28. The End
• 29. Harold and Me
• 30. Harold and You

• Afterword. Harold in the World

• Endnotes

• Acknowledgments

• Citations for Each Chapter

• Works Cited

• Index