Eleanor

Viking, 1996 - Juvenile Nonfiction - 40 pages

In the tradition of her award-winning Emily, two-time Caldecott winner Barbara cooney presents a lively, moving portrait of one of our most beloved First Ladies. With meticulous research and clarity of vision, Cooney recreates the worlds that shaped the life of Eleanor Roosevelt, from the daunting grandeur of a 19th century ballroom to the simple humanity revealed at a Christmas dinner for the poor. Full color.

About the author

Barbara Cooney and her twin brother were born on 6 August 1917 in Brooklyn, New York, in the Bossert Hotel. She grew up on Long Island, but spent her summers as a child in Maine. Cooney attended a boarding school as a child. Cooney graduated from Smith College in 1938 and studied lithography and etching at Art Students League in New York. Just one year after graduation, she had her first commission, the illustrations for Ake and His World by Bertil Malmberg. Recalling an earlier trip to Germany before the war and the horrors that she had seen there, she felt compelled to join the Women¿s Army Corps during the summer of 1942. She enrolled in officer training and achieved the rank of second lieutenant, but was honorably discharged the following spring because of marriage pregnancy. The couple bought a farm in Pepperell, Massachusetts where they ran a children¿s camp during the summer months. By this time, Cooney was illustrating several books a year and wrote one now and then. It was for her adaptation of Chaucer¿s The Nun Priest¿s Tale that she won the prestigious Caldecott Medal in 1959. Twenty-one years later, Cooney again won the Caldecott Medal for Ox-Cart Man written by Donald Hall. creation of more than 100 books. Two of her books, (Chanticleer and the Fox, 1958; and Oxcart man, 1979), have been awarded the prestigious Caldecott Medal, the highest honor given for illustrated children's books in the United States. In 1993, Ms. Cooney deposited more than 400 pieces of original art from 21 of her books in the Northeastern Children's Literature Collection, a part of the University Libraries' Archives and Special Collections. Works from this collection and from the artist's private collection are shown in this exhibit. Miss Rumphius won the National Book Award in 1983 and inspired the creation of the Maine Library Association¿s Lupine Award. Cooney died on 14 March, 2000 at the age of 83. Her last book was Basket Moon published in September of 1999.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Eleanor
• Illustrated by: Barbara Cooney
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Viking, 1996
• Original from: the University of Michigan
• Digitized: Sep 1, 2009
• ISBN: 0670861596, 9780670861590
• Length: 40 pages
• Subjects: Juvenile Nonfiction / Biography & Autobiography / General; Juvenile Nonfiction / Biography & Autobiography / Historical; Juvenile Nonfiction / Biography & Autobiography / Political; Juvenile Nonfiction / Biography & Autobiography / Presidents & First Families (U.S.); Juvenile Nonfiction / Biography & Autobiography / Women; Juvenile Nonfiction / History / General