Feodor Rojankovsky's 50th death anniversary (Russian-born Caldecott Medalist)

[Lenona]

Incredibly, I can't find any tributes.

He was known for his wonderful, unmistakable animal illustrations.

Born in 1891 in Mitava, Russia (now Jelgava, Latvia), he moved to the U.S. in 1941, won the 1956 Caldecott Medal for Frog Went A-Courtin' (ed. John Langstaff), illustrated dozens of books, and died in Bronxville, NY in 1970.

Short obituary from 1970 (for some reason, a few other sources say he died on Oct. 21st):

https://www.nytimes.com/1970/10/13/archives/feodor-rojankovsky-78-dies-illustrator-of-childrens-books.html

More in a sec...

[Lenona]

Search on his name in Google Videos and you'll find read-alouds of Frog Went A-Courtin', The Three Bears, and Over in the Meadow (a counting song, if you don't know - there was another version with a musical score and a different illustrator in Better Homes and Gardens Storybook, vol. 1).

Anyway, here's a 5:24 minute slideshow of his work for Robinson Crusoe, with dramatic music:

From Major Authors and Illustrators for Children and Young Adults:

Russian-born illustrator and author Feodor Rojankovsky dated the inception of his interest in animals and art to two events in his youth: "I was taken to the zoo and saw the most marvelous creatures on earth," he said in Caldecott Medal Books, 1938-1957 : "bears, tigers, monkeys, and reindeer, and, while my admiration was running high, I was given a set of color crayons. Naturally, I began immediately to depict the animals which captured my imagination." He was nine years old when he illustrated his first "book"--a rendering of Robinson Crusoe that was never published. (Sixty years later, however, Rojankovsky's illustrated edition of the same story was published by Golden Press.) In school, Rojankovsky's illustrations of his reports in natural history were highly commended by his teacher. The other source of Rojankovsky's interest in art was his father's library, which included a treasured edition of Milton's Paradise Lost and Gustave Doré's illustrated editions of Don Quixote and the Bible.

In 1912, Rojankovsky graduated from the Moscow Fine Arts Academy and, following military service in World War I, began to illustrate children's books. After the Russian Revolution, Rojankovsky moved to Poland, where he worked as a stage decorator and as art director of book and magazine publishing houses. Later, Rojankovsky moved to Paris, where he lived and worked for fourteen years before the German invasion in 1940 forced him to emigrate to the United States....

[Lenona]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feodor_Stepanovich_Rojankovsky

This includes a long booklist - my guess is his erotic art was done before the Depression, though the article barely mentions it.

Here's where you can see some of his work, both for children and adults (warning: NSFW!)

https://www.invaluable.com/artist/rojankovsky-feodor-stepanovich-ktcd46aeha/sold-at-auction-prices/

Trouble is, when I do a general search in Google Images, I can't copy the URL. So, to see more of his erotic art, you have to type his name into Google Images first.

And I'd love to show his 1946 illustrations for the Old Testament in Pinterest, but I can't even OPEN Pinterest in the first place! (The other places to look - such as Amazon - only have the front cover or so.) Search on his name plus "Bible." The text was simplified by Jane Werner Watson. I own a copy. I just wish he'd illustrated the New Testament as well, but that was done by Alice and Martin Provensen instead.

Oh, and there's one suspicious detail - twice, in Genesis, Rojankovsky suggested in his drawings that humans and dinosaurs co-existed! I can't help but wonder if someone forced him to draw it that way. (The second picture, after the Flood ends, shows a drowned dinosaur on top of a human corpse.)

From 2012 - this has a few illustrations, plus a bit about his daughter Tatiana:

http://thetinyaviary.blogspot.com/2012/11/feodor-rojankovsky-and-vintage.html

A few more pix:

http://thewendywatsonblog.blogspot.com/2013/12/feodor-rojankovsky.html

[Lenona]

This is a brief bio, with a few book covers - it's sad to realize why he couldn't return home after World War One:

https://blog.bookstellyouwhy.com/caldecott-winning-illustrators-series-feodor-rojankovsky

For some reason, it says he was born in 1924! Ridiculous.

But this is amusing - I can't seem to copy and paste any of it, but he tells how he had five nationalities in his family, and he relates the story of a Polish Jew who insisted he wasn't Polish:

http://www.thesantis.com/html/feodor_rojankovsky.html

[Lenona]

Pictures from and commentary on The Tall Book of Nursery Tales (there was also a later edition, with a different illustrator):

http://www.juliasbookbag.com/2016/02/the-tall-book-of-nursery-tales.html

Check out the river of porridge! (You'll have to look closely.)

This has some real close-ups of The Tall Book of Mother Goose, plus many comments (that one also had a later edition with a different illustrator):

https://readrantrockandroll.wordpress.com/2017/09/10/shabby-sunday-the-tall-book-of-mother-goose-1942/

[Lenona]

WORKS:

All self-illustrated:

The Great Big Animal Book , Simon & Schuster, 1950.
The Great Big Wild Animal Book , Simon & Schuster, 1951.
Animals in the Zoo , Knopf, 1962.
Animals on the Farm , Knopf, 1967.
F. Rojankovsky's ABC: An Alphabet of Many Things , Golden Press, 1970.

Illustrator:

Esther Holden Averill and Lila Stanley, editors, Daniel Boone: Historic Adventures of an American Hunter among the Indians , Domino Press (Paris), 1931.
Averill, Powder: The Story of a Colt, a Duchess and the Circus , H. Smith & R. Haas, 1933.
Rose Celli, Les Petits et les Grands , Flammarion (Paris), 1933, translation published as Wild Animals and Their Little Ones , Artists & Writers Guild, 1935.
Averill, Flash: The Story of a Horse, a Coach-Dog and the Gypsies , Faber, 1934.
Averill, The Voyages of Jacques Cartier , Domino Press, 1937, published as Cartier Sails the St. Lawrence , Harper, 1956.
Margaret Wise Brown, The Children's Year, adapted from the French of Lacote, Harper (New York, NY), 1937.
Jean Mariotti, Tales of Poindi (translated from the French by Averill), Domino Press, 1938.
Hans Christian Andersen, Old Man Is Always Right , Harper, 1940.
Algeronon Blackwood, Adventures of Dudley and Gilderoy , edited by Marion B. Cothren, Dutton, 1941.
The Tall Book of Mother Goose , Harper, 1942.
Rudyard Kipling, How the Camel Got His Hump , Garden City Publishing, 1942.
Kipling, How the Leopard Got His Spots , Garden City Publishing, 1942.
Kipling, How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin , Garden City Publishing, 1942.
Kipling, The Elephant's Child , Garden City Publishing, 1942.
Hazel Lockwood, Golden Book of Birds , Simon & Schuster, 1943.
Tall Book of Nursery Tales , Harper, 1944.
Georges Duplaix, Animal Stories , Simon & Schuster, 1944, published as Animal Tales , Golden Press, 1971.
Pictures from Mother Goose , Simon & Schuster, 1945.
Ester Averill, Daniel Boone, Harper & Brothers (London, England), 1945.
Andersen, Ugly Duckling , Grosset, 1945.
Bible, Golden Bible: From the King James Version of the Old Testament , edited by Jane Werner Watson, Simon & Schuster, 1946, published as The Golden Bible: Stories From the Old Testament , Golden Press, 1966.
Kipling, Butterfly That Stamped , Garden City Publishing, 1947
Kipling, The Cat That Walked by Himself , Garden City Publishing, 1947.
Covelle Newcomb, Cortez: The Conqueror , Random House, 1947.
The Three Bears , Simon & Schuster, 1948, new edition edited by Kathleen N. Daly, Golden Press, 1967.
G. Duplaix, Gaston and Josephine , Simon & Schuster, 1948.
Kathryn and Byron Jackson, Big Farmer Big , Simon & Schuster, 1948.
Phyllis McGinley, A Name for Kitty , Simon & Schuster, 1948.
Elsa Ruth Nast, Our Puppy , Simon & Schuster, 1948.
Favorite Fairy Tales , Simon & Schuster, 1949.
K. Jackson and B. Jackson, The Big Elephant , Simon & Schuster, 1949, reprinted, Western Publishing, 1974.
The Great Big Animal Book, Simon and Schuster (New York, NY), 1950.
Mikhail Mikhailovich Prishvin, Treasure Trove of the Sun (translated from the Russian by Tatiana Balkoff-Drowne), Viking, 1952.
Claire Huchet Bishop, All Alone , Viking, 1953.
Elizabeth Jane Coatsworth, Giant Golden Book of Cat Stories , Simon & Schuster, 1953.
Coatsworth, Giant Golden Book of Dog Stories , Simon & Schuster, 1953.
Nicholas Kalashnikoff, My Friend Yakub , Scribner, 1953.
Florence Esther Tchaika, Trouble at Beaver Dam , Messner, 1953.
Coatsworth and Kate Barnes, Horse Stories , Simon & Schuster, 1954.
Dorothy Clarke Koch, I Play at the Beach , Holiday House, 1955.
Jane Werner Watson, The True Story of Smokey the Bear, Simon and Shuster (New York, NY), 1955.
John Langstaff, editor, Frog Went A-Courtin' , Harcourt, 1955, 1991.
Felix Riesenberg, Balboa: Swordsman and Conquistador , Random House, 1956.
Langstaff, Over in the Meadow , Harcourt, 1957.
Jane Thayer, The Outside Cat , Morrow, 1957.
More Mother Goose Rhymes , Simon & Schuster, 1958.
Kathleen Daly, Wild Animal Babies , Western Publishing, 1958.
Jean Fritz, The Cabin Faced West , Coward, 1958.
Bible, Catholic Child's Bible , edited by J. W. Watson and Charles Hartman, Simon & Schuster, 1958.
Ann Rand, Little River , Harcourt, 1959.
Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe , edited by Anne-Terry White, Golden Press, 1960.
Wild Animals, Golden Press, 1960.
Jane Werner Watson, Animal Dictionary, Golden Press, 1960.
Bible, Holy Bible , edited by Watson and Hartman, Guild Press, 1960.
Carl Memling, Ten Little Animals , Golden Press, 1961.
Dimitry Varley, The Whirly Bird , Knopf, 1961.
Rand, So Small , Harcourt, 1962.
The Dog and Cat Book , Golden Pleasure, 1963.
Aileen Lucia Fisher, A Cricket in a Thicket , Scribner, 1963.
Jeanette Krinsley, The Cow Went over the Mountain , Western Publishing, 1963.
C. Memling, I Can Count , Golden Press, 1963.
(Illustrator with others) The Tall Book of Let's Pretend , E. Ward, 1964.
Marie Colmont, Christmas Bear (translated by Constance Hirsch), Golden Press, 1966.
John Graham, A Crowd of Cows , Harcourt, 1968.
Guy Daniels, editor and translator, The Falcon Under the Hat: Russian Merry Tales and Fairy Tales , Funk, 1969.
Carol E. Lester, To Make a Duck Happy , Harper, 1969.
Nina Rojankovsky, editor, Rojankovsky's Wonderful Picture Book: An Anthology , Golden Press, 1972.
Bill Hall, A Year in the Forest , McGraw, 1975.

Under pseudonym Rojan:

Lida, Panache l'ecureuil , Flammarion (Paris), 1934, translation by G. Duplaix published as Pompom, the Little Red Squirrel , Harper, 1936.
Lida, Froux, le lievre , Flammarion, 1935, translation by G. Duplaix published as Fluff, the Little Wild Rabbit , Harper, 1937.
Lida, Plouf, Canard Sauvage , Flammarion, 1935, translation by G. Duplaix published as Plouf, the Little Wild Duck , Harper, 1936, reprinted, Golden Press, 1966.
Lida, Bruin, the Brown Bear (translated from the French by Lily Duplaix), Harper, 1937, reprinted, Golden Press, 1966.
Lida, Scuff, the Seal (translated from the French by L. Duplaix), Harper, 1937, reprinted, Golden Press, 1966.
Y. Lacote, Children's Year (adapted from the French by Margaret Wise Brown), Harper, 1937.
Lida, Spiky, the Hedgehog (translated from the French by L. Duplaix), Harper, 1938, reissued, Golden Press, 1966.
Lida, The Kingfisher (translated from the French by L. Duplaix), Harper, 1940.
Lida, Cuckoo (translated from the French by L. Duplaix), Harper, 1942.


Lenona.

[Lenona]

Well, here are some good shots of The Golden Bible:

https://www.ebay.com/i/333630154154?chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-117182-37290-0&mkcid=2&itemid=333630154154&targetid=935083617347&device=t&mktype=pla&googleloc=1018127&poi=&campaignid=10829254299&mkgroupid=109161374840&rlsatarget=pla-935083617347&abcId=9300396&merchantid=119110993&gclid=CjwKCAjw_Y_8BRBiEiwA5MCBJhOsZCggnBFPNJqxiLpNRuk7FyZFQADH2qRTnX9j2FdTrQSMiRo8KxoCByAQAvD_BwE

You have to tap on the left to see all the photos.

[Lenona]

And...to my surprise, after dying in Bronxville, he was buried just south of Paris!

That is, in Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois, which is 14.6 miles from the center of Paris. The cemetery is Russian.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/137134844/feodor-stepanovich-rojankovsky

There are ten links underneath. Not sure how many of them still work.