Barbara Cooney Papers
Scope and Contents
The collection contains production material for forty titles published between 1940 and 1985, and includes both manuscript and illustrative material with an emphasis on the latter. The collection contains illustrations done in a variety of media many with separations, dummies, layouts, proofs, sketches and studies, photocopies, color samples, typescripts, galley proofs, some correspondence and research material.
Dates
- Creation: 1940-1985
Creator
- Cooney, Barbara, 1917-2000 (Person)
Language of Materials
English
Access and Use:
Collection is open for researchers with no restrictions. Registration with the collection is required.
Copyright:
This collection is protected by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U.S. Code). It is the user's responsibility to verify copyright ownership and to obtain all necessary permissions prior to the reproduction, publication, or other use of any portion of these materials.
Biographical Sketch
Barbara Cooney was born August 6, 1917 in Brooklyn, New York, and spent many summers in Maine as a child. She graduated from Smith College with a B.A. in 1938, traveled in Europe in the 1930s, and attended in the Art Students League in New York City in 1940; she also served in the Women's Army Corps during World War II. Barbara Cooney began working as a free-lance artist and illustrator in 1938, and illustrated her first book, Bertil Malmberg's Ake and His World, in 1940. The following year she wrote and illustrated The King of Wreck Island. Throughout her long career, Barbara Cooney has juggled the roles of wife, mother, writer , and artist, and has always sought to maintain artistic integrity and technical skills that make her work so popular and highly praised. Barbara Cooney believes that one should never write down to a child and while she may understate her technical abilities, critics have cited her attention to detail and the care she takes in her research, making sure the background and details are accurate in her stories regardless of their geographical or historical setting. Barbara Cooney has often drawn on her childhood memories of the New England landscape. She won her second Caldecott Award in 1980 for Ox-Cart Man, an historical picture book set in rural New England. Barbara Cooney won the 1959 Caldecott Award for Chanticleer and the Fox,an adaptation of Geoffrey Chaucer's story. Both works demonstrate Barbara Cooney's love for a good story and her interweaving of text and illustrations. Barbara Cooney works in a variety of media and her books include adaptations of fairy and folk tales, and Greek and Roman myths, always making sure that story and pictures merge to create a work children can enjoy. Barbara Cooney received the Kerlan Award in 1992.
Extent
0.3 Linear Feet (manuscripts); 11.5 cubic feet (illustrations)
Abstract
Barbara Cooney's papers focus on her work as an author and illustrator of children's books, with an emphasis on the latter. The collection contains production material for forty titles published between 1940 and 1985, and includes both manuscript and illustrative material. The collection includes correspondence, typescripts, galley proofs, illustrations done in a variety of media many with separations and overlays, sketches and studies, dummies, proofs, paste ups, layouts and specifications, and research material.
Physical Location
See Detailed Descriptions for Each Title Item for Box Locations
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of Barbara Cooney.
- Title
- Barbara Cooney Papers
- Author
- Christina Cowan
- Date
- November 1995
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- Description is in English
Collecting Area Details
Contact The Children's Literature Research Collections Collecting Area
