George and Martha and Frog and Toad are among the most memorable duos in children’s literature, beloved for the way their relationships convey the true value of friendship. Their creators, James Marshall (George and Martha) and Arnold Lobel (Frog and Toad), are now the subjects of two picture book biographies, JIM! Six True Stories About One Great Artist: James Marshall by Jerrold Connors, released by Dial in May; and Outside In and the Inside Out by Emmy Kastner, about Lobel’s life, due out from Viking on September 23.
Marshall was the author and illustrator of more than 70 children’s books between 1972 and his death in 1992. Marshall’s George and Martha books, the Cut-Ups, the Fox series (which he wrote under his penname, Edward Marshall), and the Stupids and Miss Nelson books (written by Harry Allard), are remembered for his distinctive illustration style, their humor, and their emphasis on kindness.
Former Viking publisher Regina Hayes worked with Marshall on 13 books at three different publishing houses. “Jim worked incredibly hard,” she told PW. “He would redo a text or a picture endlessly until it met his standards. His books had the unique ability to delight children while also providing enormous enjoyment to the adult reader.”
Marshall’s books were popular, but it wasn’t until his version of Goldilocks and the Three Bears received a Caldecott Honor in 1989 that he achieved the critical recognition enjoyed by his close friend Maurice Sendak. “Much has been written concerning the sheer deliciousness of Marshall’s simple, elegant style,” Sendak wrote about Marshall in the New York Times in 1997. “The simplicity is deceiving; there is richness of design and mastery of composition on every page.”
Connors hatched the idea for the his picture book bio after being awarded the 2017 James Marshall Fellowship by the University of Connecticut, where Marshall’s papers are housed. After a week “digging through a massive amount of Jim’s sketchbooks, letters and art,” he said, “I spent one particularly lovely afternoon with Bill Gray, Jim’s partner, who was kind enough to host me at their home and let me spend some time in Jim’s attic studio.”
That experience led him to connect with people to whom Marshall had dedicated his books and track down out-of-print books Marshall had cited as inspiration. His first-hand research helped him develop the six stories included in the book, but when it came to illustrations, he went his own way.
“As a lifelong fan of drawing cartoon animals, I can honestly claim the illustration style of JIM! as largely my own,” he said. “However, I made sure to include trademark Marshall elements like his famous ‘dot eyes.’ There’s some amount of homage in the compositions as well, as Jim enjoyed putting in little details for kids to dig into. I made sure to include a lot of Easter eggs for this reason.”
In his author’s note, Connors said he depicted Marshall as a fox because when asked about his 1982 picture book Fox and His Friends, Marshall said Fox was the character most like himself. One of the stories in the collection, “Friendly Competition,” explores the good-natured professional rivalry between Marshall, Sendak, and Lobel.
Unforgettable Friends
For author-illustrator Emmy Kastner, the route to creating Outside In and the Inside Out, about the life of Caldecott Medalist and Newbery Honoree Lobel started with “curiosity and admiration.” Lobel illustrated around 100 books in his career but met with the greatest success with his four-book Frog and Toad series, which debuted in 1970 and received a Caldecott Honor. His Fables won the Caldecott Medal in 1981. Kastner said that although “making a book about Arnold Lobel wasn’t even a thought in my mind,” reading a used copy of his biography led her “down a giant rabbit hole gathering every interview he ever gave.”
After receiving the Ezra Jack Keats/Kerlan Memorial Fellowship, Kastner spent a week poring through Lobel’s archives, which are housed at the University of Minnesota. “One of my favorite aspects of research was this opportunity to connect with his work in such a hands-on way,” she said. “To see his notes in the margins, conversations with his editor and art director, drafts, dummies, and finishes for 50 books was beyond significant for my book and who I am as an artist. What a gift to know someone’s work so intimately, to be able to witness their growth as an artist from years and years of work.”
Greenwillow Books founder Susan Hirschman worked with Lobel throughout his career. “From his first book through the many books and years that followed, Arnold never lost his passion and his excitement,” she told PW. “Working on his books was his joy, and for me, the day that Arnold delivered a perfect dummy or a spectacular new book is unforgettable. The emotion was undiluted and palpable, which is why, I think, the books are as fresh, important, and beloved today as they were 50 years ago.”
Kastner had some decisions to make when approaching the illustrations for her book. “I made an agreement with myself: I would use the same tools he used when making art—paint, pen and ink, and pencil— to make art how I make art,” she said. “I wanted to strike a balance of ensuring his work was recognizable—because I’m making a book about an iconic illustrator—while making art my way.” The story contained iconic characters, so she said she was worried that readers would want to see Frog and Toad on the pages “in the exact way we know them to be. Only when I let go of what I thought anyone else might be looking for, did the art start to take shape.”
Sadly, Marshall and Lobel’s careers were cut short. Both men were gay and died of AIDS during the height of the crisis in the ’80s and ’90s. Connors incorporated the layers of Marshall’s story into the book in different ways. “Marshall was an openly gay man which, while sadly not always an easy thing, was particularly brave in the 1980s,” he said. “To have skirted around his illness and death would have been disrespectful to his legacy. The story as I tell it shows Jim in the hospital surrounded by his loved ones with some of the dialogue coming from his recorded final conversations. As proud as I am of this biography, I was very happy to let Jim have the last word.”
“Jim died just after his 50th birthday,” Hayes said. “How sad for all of us, who missed out on the books he would have given us. His work is timeless; his books delight my grandchildren, who want to hear them over and over. I suspect their children will, too.”
Kastner weaves in Lobel’s real life love stories into Outside In and the Inside Out, incorporating both the family he had with his wife Anita, also an illustrator, and daughter Adrienne and son Adam, along with his later life with partner Howard Weiner. “From the moment I decided to make a book about the life of Arnold Lobel, I knew I needed to find the right way to talk about every aspect of him, including his death,” Kastner said. “Even on his deathbed he implored everyone to find him in his books.”
Marshall and Lobel were close friends, and Marshall even delivered a eulogy for him, including a mention of The Turnaround Wind, Lobel’s last book, about a giant wind that comes to a town and turns everything upside down. The book requires the reader to turn the book upside down and back and again to follow along. “It’s been said that this story is an allegory for the AIDS epidemic, which is especially heartbreaking as Arnold was battling AIDS as he made this book,” Kastner said. “This unlocked how I would talk about his death. I employed the same method I used throughout the rest of the book: I used his work to tell his story.” Toward the end of Outside In and the Inside Out, there is a section featuring the wind. In a nod to The Turnaround Wind, Kastner added upside-down text, that, as with the original, must be read by switching the orientation of the book. “The physical act of turning the book around both reflects Lobel’s shift in perspective and creates the time for the reader to spend with the loss and grief of a life cut short, and pays homage to Lobel’s final book,” Kastner said. “Then you’ve got to turn the book back around to keep moving forward. And that just feels right.”
JIM!: Six True Stories About One Great Artist: James Marshall by Jerrold Connors. Dial, $20.99 May ISBN 978-0-593-85934-6
Outside In and the Inside Out: A Story About Arnold Lobel by Emmy Kastner. Viking, $18.99 Sept. 23 ISBN 978-0-593-69250-9
