Ezra Jack Keats, born Jacob Ezra Katz on March 11, 1916, is one of the most important children's books authors/illustrators of the 20th century. Keats’ parents were poor Eastern European Jewish immigrants who settled in in Brooklyn, New York where Keats was born. East New York, Brooklyn would eventually become a place that inspired his earliest illustrations and molded his personal concerns for children. Growing up in the fast-paced and industrial city of New York, Keats faced extreme levels of poverty and anti-Semitism, which spurred him to change his name to Ezra Jack Keats and formed his lifelong sympathy and compassion for those suffering from discrimination, hardship and lack (2012, http://www.ezra-jack-keats.org/introduction/a-biography/).
Keats’ experiences in his youth, his concern for children especially in the black community, as well as for people that were burdened by poverty and prejudice, helped to shape his motives as a vanguard of multiculturalism in his children stories. This short biography will explore the life and work of Ezra Jack Keats in three parts: his early life, his career as an artist and author, as well as the impact of his legacy in world children's literature in the 20th century and thereafter.
Throughout his youth and despite the impoverished circumstances in his life, Ezra Jack Keats excelled in the fine arts and various creative endeavors. In Thomas Jefferson High School, he “won a national student contest run by the Scholastic Publishing Company for one of his oil paintings, depicting hobos warming themselves around a fire and in 1945 at his high school graduation, he won the senior class medal for excellence in art” (2012, http://www.ezra-jack-keats.org/introduction/a-biography/). These awards encouraged the young, creative artist to persevere in his craft regardless of the obstacles surrounding him.
Throughout his youth and despite the impoverished circumstances in his life, Ezra Jack Keats excelled in the fine arts and various creative endeavors. In Thomas Jefferson High School, he “won a national student contest run by the Scholastic Publishing Company for one of his oil paintings, depicting hobos warming themselves around a fire and in 1945 at his high school graduation, he won the senior class medal for excellence in art” (2012, http://www.ezra-jack-keats.org/introduction/a-biography/). These awards encouraged the young, creative artist to persevere in his craft regardless of the obstacles surrounding him.
Career
Ezra Jack Keats developed as a professional artist while working under the Works Progress Administration as a mural painter in1937. One of his first experiences in publishing as an illustrator was for the Captain Marvel comic strip. After enlisting in the United States Army in 1943, he was able to put his artistic talents to work designing camouflage patterns for Army fatigues. When he returned home from the war, his career in publishing took off. He illustrated fir several magazines and circulars including the New York Times Book Review, The Reader’s Digest, Playboy, and Colliers.
Keats’s first endeavor in children’s books came in 1954 when he illustrated a book called Jubilant for Sure by Elizabeth Hubbard Lansing. His work with this book was widely praised and he subsequently hired to illustrate for several other children’s books and series. In 1960, Keats wrote his first children’s book called My Dog is Lost about a Puerto Rican boy who has recently arrived in the United States and goes looking for his lost dog despite the fact that he speaks little English.After My Dog is Lost was published, Keats’s career as an author/publisher took off. The books for which Keats’s is perhaps most known are his books feature a character called Peter. Peter was inspired by a photo that Keats had seen in Life magazine in 1940. Keats said, “None of the manuscripts I’d been illustrating featured any black kids…My book would have him simply because he should have been there all along. Years befire I had cut from a magazine a strip of photos of a little black boy…I just loved looking at him. This was the child who would be the hero of my book.”
Keats was famous for the unique artistic techniques that he implemented in his illustrations such as blending gouache with collage and his mixing of several different art formats. Likewise, many of Keats’s books feature minority protagonists and have problem-solving themes in which the main character faces a challenge that is particular to the age group targeted.
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| Statue of Peter & Willie in Prospect Park, Brooklyn |
Over the course of his long and successful career, Keats illustrated over 85 books, 24 of which were written by him. His contribution to the genre of children’s literature has been very influential in the development of early childhood literacy in the United States and around the world. His childlike vision and compassion as an author, his unique style as an artist/illustrator, and his humanity demonstrated in his commitment to multicultural literature, appeals to readers of all backgrounds and reinforces the universal themes in his works.
While he is often cited for his forward thinking in choosing an African-American child, Peter, as his protagonist, it was not his goal to make a statement or cause out of his work. In The Snowy Day, and his other books that chronicle Peter’s adventures, he simply wished to express the wonder and experiences of childhood. When The Snowy Day was published in 1962 it met criticism for not making an issue of Peter's race, but others celebrated it including the legendary Langston Hughes who wrote Keats fanmail. Contemporary authors, including Sherman Alexie (National Book Award Winner), Katherine Patterson (Newbury and National Book Award Winner) and Bryan Collier (Ezra Jack Keats Award Winner) have also spoken about the influence of Ezra Jack Keats in their own works.
Keats garnered the prestigious Caldecott Medal for The Snowy Day in 1963 and a Caldecott Medal Honor for the book Goggles! in 1970, and he was also part of a United States State Department Touring Exhibition in 1971. He appeared on television with Mr. Rogers several times and was honored at universities and literary festivals. Although he left this life in 1983, his name and impact have been memorialized around the world in playgrounds, concerts, parades, exhibitions, a roller rink, botanical gardens, and schools. The royalties from his work support art and literacy programs in public schools and libraries through The Ezra Jack Keats Foundation, which was founded by Mr. Keats in 1964. In 2002, some of his best works were published as Keats’s Neighborhood: An Ezra Jack Keats Treasury, including his originally unpublished final story 'The Giant Turnip'. And most recently in 2011, a travelling exhibition honoring his work and legacy was put together by the Jewish Mueseum in New York City.
2012 marks the 50th anniversary of the publishing of The Snowy Day, and as we still work to embrace multiculturalism in the United States and around the world it is easy to see why the books of Ezra Jack Keats continue to shine as original, innocent, and revolutionary works of art. His stories have been translated into 19 languages as testament to the global impact of his vivid imagination and literary style. Without a doubt, Ezra Jack Keats will continue to inspire and excite young readers of many nationalities and cultural backgrounds for years to come.
References
Alderson, Brian. (1994) Ezra Jack Keats: Artist and Picture-Book Maker. New York: Pelican Publishing Company.
Engel, Dean and Freedman, Florence. (1995) Ezra Jack Keats: A Biography with Illustrations. New York: Silver Moon Press.
Ezra Jack Keats. (n.d.). Retrieved June 28, 2012 from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ezra_Jack_Keats
Graeber, Laura. (2011) Hommage to a Picture-Book Rebel. The New York Times. Retrieved from: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/09/arts/design/the-snowy-day-art-of-ezra-jack-keats-at-jewish-museum.html
Nahson, Claudia. (2011). Ezra Jack Keats and His Art. Retrieved from: http://www.thejewishmuseum.org/keatsandhisart
National Public Radio. (2012) 'The Snowy Day': Breaking Color Barriers Quietly. All Things Considered. Retrieved from: http://www.npr.org/2012/01/28/145052896/the-snowy-day-breaking-color-barriers-quietly
The Ezra Jack Keats Foundation. (n.d.). A Biography. Retrieved from: http://www.ezra-jack-keats.org/introduction/a-biography/
Zipp, Yvonne. (2012) 'The Snowy Day,' first picture book with black child as hero, marks 50 years. The Washington Post. Retrieved from: http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/the-snowy-day-first-picture-book-with-black-child-as-hero-marks-50-years/2011/12/04/gIQA3a8yUP_story.html
