The Snowy Day and the Art of Ezra Jack Keats

 Reproduced with permission of the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation
from "Whistle for Willie" (1964)

Good news for lovers of Ezra Jack Keats! From September 9th to January 29th, the Jewish Museum in New York is holding the first major US exhibition of the children's book writer's gorgeous illustrations. I won't be going north for a bit so I'll miss this, but here's hoping this becomes a travel exhibition....

Reproduced with permission of the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation
from "The Snowy Day" (1962)

Reproduced with permission of the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation
from "Jennie Hat" (1966)

Reproduced with permission of the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation
from "A Letter to Amy" (1968)

Reproduced with permission of the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation
from "Hi, Cat!" (1970)

Reproduced with permission of the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation
from "Over in the Meadow" (1971)

Reproduced with permission of the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation
from "The Trip" (1978)

{For more beautiful images, see"The Ezra Jack Keats Foundation" and"The Jewish Museum"}

The Sally Draper Reading List

via Booklicious

Inspired by this 1955 found photograph of an 11 year old girl engrossed in her book despite sitting in the middle of living room amongst her non-reading family members, a blogger for the New York Public Library blog saw a resemblance to "Mad Men's" own Sally Draper and so imagined what the fictional girl may have been reading (aside from Nancy Drew) during 1964 and 1965, the years in which the fourth season of the show is set.

And so here's the NYPL list of books published in 1964 and 1965 that might have been right up Sally's alley:

"Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" - Roald Dahl
"Harriet the Spy" - Louise Fitzhugh
"Over Sea, Under Stone" - Susan Cooper
"Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" - Ian Fleming
"The Phantom of Pine Hill" - Carolyn Keene
"The Long Secret" - Louise Fitzhugh
"The Black Cauldron" - Lloyd Alexander
"The Mouse and the Motorcycle" - Beverly Cleary
"The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds" - Paul Zindel

I love this list and want to read or reread all of these works - don't you? And be sure check out the post's comments section too for great books that Sally would have totally been reading even though they weren't necessarily published in 1964-'65 like "Seventeenth Summer" (1942) by Maureen Daly and "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" (1943) by Betty Smith.

It's snowing!

And now if I could only move into this cozy little illustration....

from "The Happy Rabbit" (1963)

illustrations by Patricia Barton

via Estelle and Ivy

Kennedys in summer

Mark Shaw photo via svenskamobler.com

Having lived in Massachusetts for a large part of my life, I know how much the Kennedys mean to so many (New England is as obsessed with them as it is with Whitey Bulger and stories of the Irish Mob in Boston). And, with the death of Ted Kennedy, the history of this family is again being passionately discussed (I saw a great documentary about them the other night on PBS).

They were a beautiful and engaging family. And, as the reaction to Ted Kennedy's death exemplifies, their political and altruistic interests greatly shaped modern American life (I liked this brief article on Slate.com about the littlest brother's political legacy). They were, however, also a very troubled family that used their influence and power to win elections and cover-up scandals (see, now, the dark side of Ted Kennedy's legacy).

The Kennedys seemed (and continue to seem) to exist on extreme sides of a spectrum. There is the beautiful myth captured in these photographs of a young family glowing with the haze and light of summer. There are the hard facts of profound and important political, social, and cultural accomplishments. And then there is the dark underbelly revealed in newspaper pictures of a car being dragged out of water and in stories of unfaithful husbands. The Kennedy family has such a contradictory and rich legacy, and we have such a complicated love for them.

(Most, if not all, of these pictures (I can't id the last one) of this young Kennedy family were taken by Mark Shaw in the late 1950s, early 60s.)

photograph via markshawphoto.com

photograph via markshawphoto.com

Mark Shaw photo via ultraswank.net

photograph via markshawphoto.com

photograph via markshawphoto.com

image via ffffound.com

"Mad Men" and us

We are all such fans of "Mad Men" that we jumped at the chance to create our own avatars via "MadMenYourself." So here are the ladies of "Hiving Out"... (and, yes, steaming hot coffee cups are true to each of our identities as is, apparently, the same, um, dominant nose).

Lorelei

Mae

Vivi

Reason to love rain (#1)

One of the prettiest films I've ever seen is the French musical "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg" (1964) directed by Jacques Demy (I just the other day made the connection that Demy was married to Agnès Varda). Rich with yellow and pinks and constant rain. Is there anything more romantic?

"Selecting A Reader"

First, I would have her be beautiful,
and walking carefully up on my poetry
at the loneliest moment of an afternoon,
her hair still damp at the neck
from washing it. She should be wearing
a raincoat, an old one, dirty
from not having money enough for the cleaners.
She will take out her glasses, and there
in the bookstore, she will thumb
over my poems, then put the book back
up on its shelf. She will say to herself,
"For that kind of money, I can get
my raincoat cleaned." And she will.

by Ted Kooser

A sampling of "Umbrella" posters:

I like these as a pair. Because of the blue and musical notes.

Hello yellow. Notice how 3 of these posters are of the exact same image? Her umbrella, his arm.

I love the vertical lines, as rain, in these two.

And why not make it a double feature with that other soggy, but vibrant musical - "Singin' in the Rain" (1952)?

....that girl!

I recently watched the documentary "Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr Leonard Cohen" which is about the legendary songwriter when he was a young dark-haired poet taking us around snowy Montreal in 1965. It's an interesting little film as a study of the "artist as a young man," but it's also great to look at.

I especially liked the young Canadian women with their thick black eyeliner that stayed put even when those made-up eyes entered into bistros and coffee shops from wet wintry streets. They reminded me of Marlo Thomas and that late 1960s sitcom "That Girl" which I loved, loved, loved when I was little.

And with Ann Marie's array of candy-colored shift dresses, her single girl apartment (especially those two little steps and platform on the inside of her front door so every time she entered her apartment - she entered onto a stage. I think Laverne and Shirley had this same "entering on a stage/platform" effect during their Hollywood years...) and her dark lashes and that black eyeliner - well, it that made being a grown-up look so darn cute.