- physdesc
-
{"format"=>"structured", "physdesc_components"=>[{"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"3.25 linear feet", "unit"=>"linear feet"}, {"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"8 boxes, 5 map case folders", "unit"=>"containers"}], "supress_display"=>true}
- unitdate
-
{"value"=>"1940s-1970s", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1940/1979"}
- unittitle
-
{"value"=>"William Pène Du Bois papers"}
- repository
-
{"value"=>"<span class=\"corpname\">The New York Public Library. <span class=\"subarea\">Manuscripts and Archives Division</span></span> <div class=\"address\"> <span class=\"addressline\">New York, New York</span></div>"}
- abstract
-
{"value"=>"William Pène Du Bois (1919-1993) was an illustrator and award winning children's author. His collection includes correspondence, manuscripts, mock-ups, posters, and original artwork for several of the books he illustrated, including his own works Otto at Sea and Otto in Texas."}
- prefercite
-
{"value"=>"<p>William Pène du Bois papers, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library.</p>"}
- origination
-
{"value"=>"Du Bois, William Pène, 1916-", "type"=>"persname"}
- bioghist
-
{"value"=>"<p>William Sherman Pène du Bois was an illustrator and award-winning children's author. He was born May 9, 1916 in Nutley, New Jersey, into a family of distinguished painters, stage designers, and architects dating back to the 1700s. His father, Guy Pène du Bois, was an art critic and artist known for his landscapes and portraits. His mother, Florence Sherman, was a successful children's clothing designer. His younger sister, Yvonne, also became a landscape painter.</p> <p>When \"Billy\" was eight, his family moved to France where he attended the Lycee Hoche at Versailles and the Lycee de Nice. Pène du Bois excelled in sports, especially tennis, and mathematics. He particularly enjoyed spending time at the French circus, the subject of several of his books. Although he wasn't an avid reader, Pène du Bois was captivated by book illustrations, which he studied.</p> <p>The Pène du Bois family returned to New Jersey when William was fourteen. After finishing high school, he was accepted, with a scholarship, to the Carnegie Technical School of Architecture. But his college plans dissolved when he sold a book he wrote to pass time during a vacation. The Great Geppy was published before Pène du Bois' nineteenth birthday. College was passed over for a career writing and illustrating children's books. By the time he entered the armed forces at age twenty-five, he had written and illustrated five more children's books.</p> <p>He spent his army years (1941-1945) with the coast artillery stationed in Bermuda, where he worked as a correspondent for Yank, edited the camp newspaper and illustrated strategic maps and calendars for Bermuda (copies included in the collection).</p> <p>Over his five-decade career, Pène du Bois wrote and illustrated over twenty-five of his own books and provided illustrations for numerous others, notably works of Jules Verne, Isaac Bashevis Singer and John Steinbeck. He also illustrated many magazine articles and advertisements, including two covers for Town and Country.</p> <p>He was awarded the American Library Association's 1948 John Newberry Medal (most distinguished American children's book published the previous year) for his book, Twenty-One Balloons, and two Caldecott Honor Awards, for Bear Party and Lion.</p> <p>Pène du Bois was the founding editor of the Paris Review. He married debutante Jane Bouche in 1943 (divorced) and theatrical designer Willa Kim in 1955. In the 1960s he developed an interest in vintage cars, going to great pains and expense to refurbish a 1931 Brewster Croydon Coupe Rolls-Royce P11. Pène du Bois died of a stroke on February 5, 1993 in Nice, France.</p> <p>Sources: Contemporary Author Online, Gale, 2003. Retrieved October 10, 2003: http://galenet.galegroup.com/BioRC</p> <p>Daly, Josette Guevara. Sketches. The Royal Gazette and Colonist Daily (Bermuda), 1944 May 10.</p>"}
- scopecontent
-
{"value"=>"<p>The William Pène du Bois papers (1940s-1970s) document his career as an author and illustrator. The bulk of the collection consists of materials for twenty-two of the children's books he wrote and illustrated. The file for each book includes one or more of the following: manuscripts, typescripts (edited or unedited), galley proofs, author's notes, mock-ups (text only or illustrated), dust jackets, original artwork, photostats of illustrations, or newspaper reviews. The collection also includes his original art work for books by other authors.</p> <p>In addition, the collection includes a small amount of correspondence with friends, his publisher, and with the company restoring his vintage Rolls Royce. His personal files include a scrapbook containing clippings of his artwork published in magazines, and the articles he wrote as an Army newspaper editor/reporter during World War II; citations and awards; photographs; a recording of radio interview made during the early 1970s; files of information on his father, art critic and painter Guy Pène du Bois, and his cousin, stage designer Raoul Pène du Bois; and a mock-up book sent to him by fellow children's book author Mary Chalmers.</p>"}
{"value"=>"<p class='list-head'>The William Pène Du Bois papers are arranged in four series:</p>\n<ul class='arrangement series-descriptions'>\n<li><div class='series-title'><a href='/mss/851#c191510'>Series I. Correspondence</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1940s - 1970s</div>\n</li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/mss/851#c191514'>Series II. Book Materials</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1940s - 1970s</div>\n</li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/mss/851#c191634'>Series III. Illustrations</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1945 - 1970s</div>\n</li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/mss/851#c191651'>Series IV. Personal Files</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1940s - 1980s</div>\n</li></ul>\n", "type"=>"arrangement"}
- arrangement
-
{"value"=>"<p>The William Pène du Bois papers are organized in the following series:</p> <p>Series I. Correspondence, 1940s - 1970s; Series II. Book Materials, 1940s - 1970s; Series III. Illustrations, 1945 - 1970s; Series IV. Personal Files, 1940s - 1980s.</p>", "supress_display"=>true}
{"value"=>"<p>[Use only when there are no series to describe arrangement of entire collection.]</p>"}
- acqinfo
-
{"value"=>"<p>Donated by Willa Kim (Mrs. William Pene du Bois), 1996.</p>"}
- relatedmaterial
-
{"value"=>"<span class=\"archref\"> The May Massee Collection. William Allen White Library, Emporia State University, Emporia, Kansas (Collection guide available in the reading room.).</span>"}
- unitid
-
{"value"=>"MssCol 851", "type"=>"local_call"}
{"value"=>"851", "type"=>"local_mss"}
- langmaterial
-
{"value"=>"English"}
- processinfo
-
{"value"=>"<p>Compiled by Michala Biondi; machine readable finding aid created by FAKER.</p>"}
- date_inclusive_start
-
1940
- date_inclusive_end
-
1979
- keydate
-
1940
- extent_statement
-
3.25 linear feet (8 boxes, 5 map case folders)
- date_start
-
1940
- date_end
-
1979