Garth Williams, American Illustrator: A Life

by Elizabeth K. Wallace, James D. Wallace

Open the pages of so many children's classics - "Stuart Little," "Charlotte's Web," "Mister Dog," "The Cricket in Times Square," "The Rescuers, " the Little House books - and you will see page after page of the artistry that brought those stories to life. And behind the illustrations sparking the imagination of generations was a man who had an extraordinary existence.

Born in New York City in 1912, Williams was educated in England and trained on the continent. After enduring the Blitz in London, he returned to New York, where he encountered the vibrant art and cultural scene of the 1940s. He made his home first in New York, then Aspen, and finally Guanajuato, Mexico and was married four times. During his life he met people who shaped and exemplified the twentieth century: Winston Churchill, E. B. White and Ursula Nordstrom, Laura Ingalls Wilder, and countless more.

This is a biography of Garth Williams as an artist and an illustrator. It is the story of how his journey led him from winning sculpture awards at the Royal College of Art in London, to capturing the essence of frontier life in the American West, to rendering the humanity of beloved animal characters. The biography also explores the historical context that affected Williams life and art, both in the old world and the new. Against the frenetic pace of post-war suburbanization, Williams illustrations nurtured a connection with the animal world and with a vanishing agrarian life. By tapping into American themes, Williams spoke to a postwar yearning for simplicity.

Complete with more than 60 illustrations, this is the first full biography of Garth Williams written with the help and cooperation of his family."

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, Art, History, Childrens, Adult, Books About Books

250 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2016

Reviews

[Shelley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Garth Williams is one of the few illustrators as famous as a writer, and illustrated so many classics. This is organized by major work (Little House, Charlotte's Web, Little Golden Books, etc), and is both about his life and his work. He seemed to be kind of jerk, honestly, in how he treated his wives and kids. And how his wives kept getting younger than his kids. And the organization of the book means that things were referred to out of order and were a little confusing--people were said to be dead before we'd heard about their work, for example. Generally interesting, but not a must read.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

You'd be hard pressed to find anyone of my generation or older who grew up in America reading children's books who isn't familiar with Garth Williams' illustrations. Even if you aren't familiar with his name, one look at his signature drawing style and his most famous work is instantly recognizable.

Garth Williams is most well-known for his illustrations of the Little House series and Charlotte's Web but he was actually a prolific illustrator who accomplished a lot more in his life. The book goes into detail about his life, from his earliest accomplishments of winning a prestigious arts award and becoming a sculptor to starting a family young and needing to pay the bills to becoming an illustrator by necessity. It covers his series of disastrous marriages and his unfortunate contracts with publishers that did not give him his economic dues but left him disgruntled, bitter, and in constant need of money.

The book talks about his signature art style as well as some different techniques he attempted towards the end of his illustration career, as new artists were taking over the field.

I appreciated all of the mentions of other books he illustrated. I will definitely check them out!

[Vincent Desjardins · Rating 3 out of 5]

Note: This review is based on an Advanced Reader's Copy (ARC) of the book. This book starts out with what seems like a litany of dates, names and places pertinent to the life of Williams and consequently is a little on the dry side. The book becomes more interesting once it begins to delve into the creation of the illustrator's most iconic works: Stuart Little, Charlotte's Web and the Laura Ingalls Wilder Little House books. The authors’ do a good job of putting the illustrations of Garth Williams into context of other work being done at the time and show how a good illustrator can add details to a story that weren't stated in an author's text. The history of Williams' work and his working methodology were for me the best part of this book. Where I felt the book failed was getting under the skin of Garth Williams as a man. Other than the fact that I learned he was married 4 times and fathered his last child when he was in his late sixties, I never felt I really got to know him as an individual. There are a few excerpts from letters he wrote to Maurice Sendak and Ursula Nordstrom his editor at Harper & Row, including a number of angry letters dealing with contract and royalty disputes but the book seems to be lacking in first hand anecdotes about what Garth Williams was really like. This seems strange considering several of his children are still alive. His youngest daughter Dilys does offer a paragraphs worth of remembrances but there are no direct quotes from his son Dylan, which may not be surprising considering that the authors drop a hint that Williams did not treat his son very well (one of several things that disillusioned me about one of my favorite illustrators).

[Danielle T · Rating 3 out of 5]

Garth Williams illustrated many notable classics, including Stuart Little, Charlotte's Webb by EB White and the reissue of the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder as well as dozens of Little Golden Books and some of his own, but how did he end up in children's literature illustration? This biography is relatively short and covers his tumultuous life (1912-1996) spanning continents, four marriages, and six children, writing folks at Harpers about royalties and projects to pay for it all. It was an interesting read, but there were several typos (highlighted in pencil by a previous reader of this library copy...!) which surprises me for an academic work (which is kiiiind of where I suspect some of these chapters derive from given the end notes).

[Tara Sypien]

Skimmed. Read the introduction and the section about illustrating the Little House books. He went to all the actual places in the books to get a feel for the scenes and how he should draw them. His art added so much to the story! Interesting that he got very little royalties from those books even though his illustrations are completely enmeshed within the story in my mind.

[Eileen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable and informative.

[Olga Vannucci · Rating 4 out of 5]

His drawings helped us learn
Of Laura's Little House,
Of Wilbur and of Fern,
Of Stuart, little mouse.

[Michael Fitzgerald · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not overly impressed. There were several times that the authors included material that seemed fairly tangential to Williams's biography. There were also a few fairly minor errors of fact that should have been caught by any editor familiar with children's literature. For example, The Family Under the Bridge is most definitely not the second in the Orphelines series by Natalie Savage Carlson. And Williams did not illustrate two more in the series after The Happy Orpheline, only one: A Brother for the Orphelines.

Now I know something about Williams's life and work (including his resentment at Lillian Hoban doing all the other Frances books). He doesn't seem like a particularly friendly person or a cooperative collaborator. Certainly if he only did the Little House books and the two E.B. White books, he'd be in the pantheon, but it seems like he really couldn't get his act together to be number one.

I did learn of a couple books I'd like to read, should I get the opportunity:
Bread-and-Butter Indian
Bread-And-Butter Journey

[Amy Grier · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book fascinating. Garth Williams illustrated many of the books I loved as a child -- Charlott's Web, the Laura Ingalls Wilder books, Over and Over. This biography gave me insight into the role the editor plays in bringing together the artist and author. I spent a happy Labor Day holiday reading this book.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Williams illustrated two of my favorite children's books by E.B. White. This comprehensive biography would have rated five stars had there been even more illustrations and photographs.

[Bonnie Lambourn · Rating 3 out of 5]

To clarify, this is an adult biography on the life and work of picture book illustrator Garth Williams.

I grew up with Garth Williams art in my picture books as a child, then in my first chapter books - Stuart Little, Charlotte's Web, the Little House seres. He was the first illustrator name I actually attached to artwork, and could recognize his style, and fell into it. He may be the reason I went beyond loving art and studied illustration in art school, and wanted to become a picture book illustrator.

So this book was totally worth reading to me. However, I did find much of the writing tedious. When parts did flow it was a noticeable change. Numerous times in trying to be scholarly the book felt bogged down in the way details were presented. Also some details were given out of date order or repeated in, I suppose, in attempts to become more fluid, and avoid this date-driven data.

Hard to say with two authors whether changes occurred due to this collaboration or difficulty with this, the editing, or the sheer volume of research becoming unwieldy. I certainly could not take on this task.

I also found that in looking back at historical times, the voice was also set in the past. If this were due to quotes, I would totally accept and understand this. If this was written as a whole long ago, also understandable. But the copyright says 2016, so disappointed the language of the book feels dated.

Nevertheless, any illustrator would glean good information about how things worked back in the early days till recent times of Williams' career, and a good deal more about him personally if you loved his work and are curious to know him more, or surmise perhaps how one affected the other.

[Phoebe · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is tough to name any other illustrator who is so instantly recognizable and who is so ingrained in the subconscious of anyone who read or was read to as a child. Many may not even know his name, but they sure will recognize his work. Arguably, the Little House books would not be the books they are without Garth Williams' art, astonishingly considering he was British and possibly an odd choice to be the "interpreter of American pioneer life." He had already attained recognition and fame as the illustrator of the game-changing Stuart Little, capturing "how the mouse becomes person-like through his desires and aspirations." The Adventures of Benjamin Pink? I adored this book as a child, but had forgotten about it until I saw the art again. Little Fur Family? It must be the oddest and yet most precious collaboration between Williams and Margaret Wise Brown. Of course, Charlotte's Web, while masterfully written, with not a word out of place, becomes truly transcendent because of Williams. This title is the sole in-depth adult biography and study of Williams' life, his art, and his influence, and it is a great read. The biographical details are interesting, describing a rather messy life with all of his marriages, children, money troubles, and traveling; almost more interesting are the backstories for the books, his communications with Ursula Nordstrom and E.B. White, and of course, his road trip to meet Laura Ingalls Wilder and then visit and sketch all of the places described in her books. Readers will be happy to know his money woes were finally resolved with the help of a good lawyer, after years of being taken advantage of by publishers. How unjust. This is an essential read for anyone who works with and loves children's literature.

[Angela Holland · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have a few different thoughts on this book. To start with I really wanted to like it as he did the illustrations for my favorite author's series of all time - The Little House books. Because of that I wanted to know more about this illustrator. There were parts of this book that read really quickly for me like the chapter about the Little House books. I also enjoyed reading about how he came to illustrate Stuart Little and Charlotte's Web. It was also interesting to me that he illustrated a number of Golden Books. What I did not like was that many parts of this book was slow reading for me. In fact I put this book down at least twice and was not going to finish it but my curiosity got the best of me and I wanted to finish it. I will say I learned quite a bit about this man from the fact that he was married four different time one right after the other to the fact that he was from England, Canada as well as the US and in his adult life lived in Italy and Mexico. I really liked all of his illustrations that were included in this book. To sum it up it was an interesting book just a little dry for me.

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

Finally got to this bio we purchased at Rocky Ridge Farm in Mansfield, MO several years ago. I'm of two minds about it. While the subject matter was interesting as I learned about the life of someone who illustrated many of my favorite childhood books, the writing was rather stilted. It's well-researched with lots of notes to the research material, interviews with his children, and some analysis of his work, it wasn't a gripping biography. It was a nice read. It also could have used a good proofreader. I'm getting tired of reading egregious spelling errors, names in the wrong order, missing words, etc. They were all here in abundance.

[Donna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I do wish that we could search for books in all types of book data bases by illustrator. Garth Williams illustrations always enhance the authors books. This biography contains a complete bibliography of William’s works! Now I can find and read/look at the illustrations in all of them. A huge thank you to these authors for this research, so sad to heR how poorly he was compensated for his beautiful work.

[Charlotte Hoffman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I appreciated learning about this artist’s life. I especially enjoyed learning of Williams’ research for his book illustrations and his artistic choices. My one disappointment was no mention of my favorite childhood book - The Tall Book of Make-Believe by Jane Werner(1950). I got lost in the illustrations while my mother read the poems and stories to me. However, this biography gave me even more appreciation for his other work.

[Karen · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was pretty dry, but of course I liked the bits about LHOTP and charlotte’s web. Not trying to be mean, but his life wasn’t all that interesting?

[Karen Stuhlfeier · Rating 4 out of 5]

Garth Williams is one of may favorite illustrators. It was really interesting to learn about his life and about his process.

[Diana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Garth Williams illustrated my childhood. It was so fun to read about his life in this thorough biography. I enjoyed seeing some of his artwork throughout the book.

[Victoria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super interesting little autobiography!

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this account of the life of illustrator Garth Williams, well known for his drawings in "Charlotte's Web", "Stuart Little" and the "Little House" books.