Armstrong Sperry
Encyclopedia
Armstrong Wells Sperry was an American writer
and illustrator
of children's literature
. His books include historical fiction
and biography
, often set on sailing ships, and stories of boys from Polynesia
, Asia
and indigenous American
cultures. He is best known for his 1941 Newbery Medal
-winning book Call It Courage
.
. He attended the Art Students League of New York
from 1915 to 1918, where he studied with F. Luis Mora
and George Bellows
. He then studied at the Yale School of Art
in the fall of 1918 until drafted into the United States Navy
at the very end of World War I
.
Inspired by reading the work of Herman Melville
, Robert Louis Stevenson
, and Jack London
as a boy, and then Frederick O'Brien's White Shadows in the South Seas in 1919, he traveled around the South Pacific from October 1920 to May 1921, spending time on Tahiti
, Raiatea
, Bora Bora
, New Zealand
, Australia
, the Fiji Islands & Hawai'i. In December 1921, his paintings of the South Seas were exhibited at the Art Centre, NYC.
In the summer of 1922, Sperry got his influence from his pet elephant named Oscar, and he was introduced to Kenneth Emory, an ethnologist at the Bishop Museum
, Honolulu
, by his foster sister, Anne Kinnear. He spent the spring of 1923 studying at the Académie Colarossi
in Paris, and continued to enroll at the Art Students League during the 1920s and early 1930s.
From September 1924 to May 1925, he was employed as an assistant to Emory on board the Kaimiloa, a yacht owned by Medford Kellum, sailing from Hawai'i to Fanning Island, Christmas Island
, Malden Island
, Penrhyn Island
, Tahiti
, Bora Bora
& Raiatea
on scientific research, although continuing to paint, exhibiting his work in Honolulu. before sailing to San Francisco in June 1925
Returning to New York, he married Margaret Robertson, a medical doctor and daughter of San Francisco bookseller and publisher A.M. Robertson, in 1930. He worked in an advertising agency, "drawing vacuum cleaners, milk bottles, Campbell's Soup, etc.," as an illustrator of pulp romances and magazines, writing south sea yarns for magazines, and finally, illustrating books and dust jackets, including the first edition of Tarzan and the Lost Empire
by Edgar Rice Burroughs
in 1929 and the first of several books he would illustrate by Helen Follet, Magic Portholes in 1932.
Sperry's great-grandfather was a sea captain, inspiring his love of the ocean and his book All Sail Set about the clipper ship Flying Cloud, which won him a Newbery Honor Book award in 1936. Although settled in New Canaan, Connecticut
, in 1934, Sperry and his family lived Santa Fe, New Mexico
for a year, inspiring several books, including Wagons Westward: The Story of the Old Trail to Santa Fe in 1936 and Little Eagle, a Navaho Boy in 1938.
On February 13, 1940 Call It Courage
was published by The MacMillan Company
, the story about a young boy on the island of Hikueru
in Polynesia
written and illustrated by Sperry. He was awarded the Newbery Medal
for 1940 on June 20, 1941 in Cambridge, Massachusetts
by the Children's Library Section of the American Library Association
. At his acceptance of the Medal, he said, "I had been afraid that perhaps in Call It Courage, the concept of spiritual courage
might be too adult for children, but the reception of this book has reaffirmed a belief I have long held: that children have imagination enough to grasp any idea, and respond to it, if it is put to them honestly and without a patronizing pat on the head."
Sperry purchased a farm in Thetford Center, Vermont in the late 1930s, and then moved to Hanover, New Hampshire
at the beginning of World War II
. In 1944, he won the New York Herald Tribune
Children's Spring Book Festival Award for Storm Canvas, a story of a boy on the U.S. frigate
Thunderbolt in 1814, and in 1949, he won the Boys' Clubs of America Junior Book Award for the 1947 publication of The Rain Forest.
Although established as a writer, Sperry continued to illustrate dustjackets for other well-known authors of young adult fiction of his era, including Howard Pease
, Agnes D. Hewes, Florence C. Means, and Hildegarde Hawthorne, as well as illustrating various basal reader
s for the Ginn Co. In 1951, he illustrated an adaptation by Allen Chaffee of Longfellow
's Story of Hiawatha
.
In 1942, he published his only novel for adult readers, No Brighter Glory, about the Astor family
.
, and John Paul Jones
, Fighting Sailor was reissued in 2006 as John Paul Jones, The Pirate Patriot by Sterling Point Books.
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
and illustrator
Illustrator
An Illustrator is a narrative artist who specializes in enhancing writing by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text...
of children's literature
Children's literature
Children's literature is for readers and listeners up to about age twelve; it is often defined in four different ways: books written by children, books written for children, books chosen by children, or books chosen for children. It is often illustrated. The term is used in senses which sometimes...
. His books include historical fiction
Historical fiction
Historical fiction tells a story that is set in the past. That setting is usually real and drawn from history, and often contains actual historical persons, but the principal characters tend to be fictional...
and biography
Biography
A biography is a detailed description or account of someone's life. More than a list of basic facts , biography also portrays the subject's experience of those events...
, often set on sailing ships, and stories of boys from Polynesia
Polynesia
Polynesia is a subregion of Oceania, made up of over 1,000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean. The indigenous people who inhabit the islands of Polynesia are termed Polynesians and they share many similar traits including language, culture and beliefs...
, Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
and indigenous American
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
cultures. He is best known for his 1941 Newbery Medal
Newbery Medal
The John Newbery Medal is a literary award given by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association . The award is given to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children. The award has been given since 1922. ...
-winning book Call It Courage
Call It Courage
Call It Courage is a book in English written and illustrated by Armstrong Sperry that won the Newbery Medal for excellence in American children's literature in 1941....
.
The Early Training as an Artist
Born the third and youngest son of a businessman in New Haven, Sperry attended Stamford Preparatory School from 1908 to 1915. His older brother, Paul, invented the sole of the Sperry Top-SiderSperry Top-Sider
Sperry Top-Sider is the original brand of boat shoe designed in 1935 by Paul Sperry, older brother of author/illustrator Armstrong Sperry. The Top-Siders were the first boat shoes introduced into the boating market.-History:...
. He attended the Art Students League of New York
Art Students League of New York
The Art Students League of New York is an art school located on West 57th Street in New York City. The League has historically been known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists, and has maintained for over 130 years a tradition of offering reasonably priced classes on a...
from 1915 to 1918, where he studied with F. Luis Mora
F. Luis Mora
F. Luis Mora, also known as Francis Luis Mora , was an Hispanic American figural painter. Mora worked in watercolor, oils and tempera. He produced drawings in pen and ink, and graphite; and etchings and monotypes...
and George Bellows
George Bellows
George Wesley Bellows was an American realist painter, known for his bold depictions of urban life in New York City, becoming, according to the Columbus Museum of Art, "the most acclaimed American artist of his generation".-Youth:Bellows was born and raised in Columbus, Ohio...
. He then studied at the Yale School of Art
Yale School of Art
The Yale School of Art is one of twelve constituent schools of Yale University. It is a professional art school, granting only Masters of Fine Arts degrees to those completing studies in graphic design, painting/printmaking, photography, or sculpture....
in the fall of 1918 until drafted into the United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
at the very end of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
.
Inspired by reading the work of Herman Melville
Herman Melville
Herman Melville was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet. He is best known for his novel Moby-Dick and the posthumous novella Billy Budd....
, Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist and travel writer. His best-known books include Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde....
, and Jack London
Jack London
John Griffith "Jack" London was an American author, journalist, and social activist. He was a pioneer in the then-burgeoning world of commercial magazine fiction and was one of the first fiction writers to obtain worldwide celebrity and a large fortune from his fiction alone...
as a boy, and then Frederick O'Brien's White Shadows in the South Seas in 1919, he traveled around the South Pacific from October 1920 to May 1921, spending time on Tahiti
Tahiti
Tahiti is the largest island in the Windward group of French Polynesia, located in the archipelago of the Society Islands in the southern Pacific Ocean. It is the economic, cultural and political centre of French Polynesia. The island was formed from volcanic activity and is high and mountainous...
, Raiatea
Raiatea
Raiatea , is the second largest of the Society Islands, after Tahiti, in French Polynesia. The island is widely regarded as the 'center' of the eastern islands in ancient Polynesia and it is likely that the organised migrations to Hawaii, Aotearoa and other parts of East Polynesia started at...
, Bora Bora
Bora Bora
The commune of Bora-Bora is made up of the island of Bora Bora proper with its surrounding islets emerging from the coral reef, 29.3 km² in total, and of the atoll of Tupai , located north of Bora Bora...
, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, the Fiji Islands & Hawai'i. In December 1921, his paintings of the South Seas were exhibited at the Art Centre, NYC.
In the summer of 1922, Sperry got his influence from his pet elephant named Oscar, and he was introduced to Kenneth Emory, an ethnologist at the Bishop Museum
Bishop Museum
The Bishop Museum , is a museum of history and science in the historic Kalihi district of Honolulu on the Hawaiian island of O'ahu...
, Honolulu
Honolulu, Hawaii
Honolulu is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Hawaii. Honolulu is the southernmost major U.S. city. Although the name "Honolulu" refers to the urban area on the southeastern shore of the island of Oahu, the city and county government are consolidated as the City and...
, by his foster sister, Anne Kinnear. He spent the spring of 1923 studying at the Académie Colarossi
Académie Colarossi
The Académie Colarossi is an art school founded by the Italian sculptor Filippo Colarossi. First located on the Île de la Cité, it moved in the 1870s to 10 rue de la Grande-Chaumière in the VIe arrondissement of Paris, France....
in Paris, and continued to enroll at the Art Students League during the 1920s and early 1930s.
From September 1924 to May 1925, he was employed as an assistant to Emory on board the Kaimiloa, a yacht owned by Medford Kellum, sailing from Hawai'i to Fanning Island, Christmas Island
Christmas Island
The Territory of Christmas Island is a territory of Australia in the Indian Ocean. It is located northwest of the Western Australian city of Perth, south of the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, and ENE of the Cocos Islands....
, Malden Island
Malden Island
Malden Island, sometimes called Independence Island in the nineteenth century, is a low, arid, uninhabited island in the central Pacific Ocean, about in area...
, Penrhyn Island
Penrhyn Island
Penrhyn is the most remote and largest atoll of the 15 Cook Islands in the south Pacific Ocean.-Geography:...
, Tahiti
Tahiti
Tahiti is the largest island in the Windward group of French Polynesia, located in the archipelago of the Society Islands in the southern Pacific Ocean. It is the economic, cultural and political centre of French Polynesia. The island was formed from volcanic activity and is high and mountainous...
, Bora Bora
Bora Bora
The commune of Bora-Bora is made up of the island of Bora Bora proper with its surrounding islets emerging from the coral reef, 29.3 km² in total, and of the atoll of Tupai , located north of Bora Bora...
& Raiatea
Raiatea
Raiatea , is the second largest of the Society Islands, after Tahiti, in French Polynesia. The island is widely regarded as the 'center' of the eastern islands in ancient Polynesia and it is likely that the organised migrations to Hawaii, Aotearoa and other parts of East Polynesia started at...
on scientific research, although continuing to paint, exhibiting his work in Honolulu. before sailing to San Francisco in June 1925
Tarzan and the Lost Empire
Tarzan and the Lost Empire is a novel written by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the twelfth in his series of books about the title character Tarzan. It was first published as a serial in Blue Book Magazine from October 1928 through February 1929; it first appeared in book form in a hardcover edition from...
by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Edgar Rice Burroughs
Edgar Rice Burroughs was an American author, best known for his creation of the jungle hero Tarzan and the heroic Mars adventurer John Carter, although he produced works in many genres.-Biography:...
in 1929 and the first of several books he would illustrate by Helen Follet, Magic Portholes in 1932.
From Illustrator to Award-Winning Writer
Sperry's first book, One Day with Manu, a colorfully illustrated tale of everyday life in Bora Bora, appeared in 1933. Critic Joan McGrath, cautions modern readers to take his depictions of other cultures in context, stating,"His early work, such as the tales of Manu, Jambi, and Tuktu, are unlikely to be found in library collections of today, in an era rendered more sensitive to the feelings of minority cultures and racial pride than in the 1930's. Coloured as they were by the prevailing attitudes of his day, Sperry's ethnological works for young readers would by critics of today be stigmatized as condescending in their approach: it is all too easy to lose the historical perspective that would credit him with enlightenment and objectivity, given their date of publication."
Sperry's great-grandfather was a sea captain, inspiring his love of the ocean and his book All Sail Set about the clipper ship Flying Cloud, which won him a Newbery Honor Book award in 1936. Although settled in New Canaan, Connecticut
New Canaan, Connecticut
New Canaan is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States, northeast of Stamford, on the Fivemile River. The population was 19,738 according to the 2010 census.The town is one of the most affluent communities in the United States...
, in 1934, Sperry and his family lived Santa Fe, New Mexico
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Santa Fe is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. It is the fourth-largest city in the state and is the seat of . Santa Fe had a population of 67,947 in the 2010 census...
for a year, inspiring several books, including Wagons Westward: The Story of the Old Trail to Santa Fe in 1936 and Little Eagle, a Navaho Boy in 1938.
Call It Courage
Call It Courage is a book in English written and illustrated by Armstrong Sperry that won the Newbery Medal for excellence in American children's literature in 1941....
was published by The MacMillan Company
Macmillan Publishers
Macmillan Publishers Ltd, also known as The Macmillan Group, is a privately held international publishing company owned by Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group. It has offices in 41 countries worldwide and operates in more than thirty others.-History:...
, the story about a young boy on the island of Hikueru
Hikueru
Hikueru, Tiveru, or Te Kārena, is one of the Central Tuamotu atolls. The closest land to Hikueru is Tekokota Atoll, located 22 km to the north....
in Polynesia
Polynesia
Polynesia is a subregion of Oceania, made up of over 1,000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean. The indigenous people who inhabit the islands of Polynesia are termed Polynesians and they share many similar traits including language, culture and beliefs...
written and illustrated by Sperry. He was awarded the Newbery Medal
Newbery Medal
The John Newbery Medal is a literary award given by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association . The award is given to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children. The award has been given since 1922. ...
for 1940 on June 20, 1941 in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
by the Children's Library Section of the American Library Association
American Library Association
The American Library Association is a non-profit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with more than 62,000 members....
. At his acceptance of the Medal, he said, "I had been afraid that perhaps in Call It Courage, the concept of spiritual courage
Courage
Courage is the ability to confront fear, pain, danger, uncertainty, or intimidation...
might be too adult for children, but the reception of this book has reaffirmed a belief I have long held: that children have imagination enough to grasp any idea, and respond to it, if it is put to them honestly and without a patronizing pat on the head."
Sperry purchased a farm in Thetford Center, Vermont in the late 1930s, and then moved to Hanover, New Hampshire
Hanover, New Hampshire
Hanover is a town along the Connecticut River in Grafton County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 11,260 at the 2010 census. CNN and Money magazine rated Hanover the sixth best place to live in America in 2011, and the second best in 2007....
at the beginning of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. In 1944, he won the New York Herald Tribune
New York Herald Tribune
The New York Herald Tribune was a daily newspaper created in 1924 when the New York Tribune acquired the New York Herald.Other predecessors, which had earlier merged into the New York Tribune, included the original The New Yorker newsweekly , and the Whig Party's Log Cabin.The paper was home to...
Children's Spring Book Festival Award for Storm Canvas, a story of a boy on the U.S. frigate
Frigate
A frigate is any of several types of warship, the term having been used for ships of various sizes and roles over the last few centuries.In the 17th century, the term was used for any warship built for speed and maneuverability, the description often used being "frigate-built"...
Thunderbolt in 1814, and in 1949, he won the Boys' Clubs of America Junior Book Award for the 1947 publication of The Rain Forest.
Although established as a writer, Sperry continued to illustrate dustjackets for other well-known authors of young adult fiction of his era, including Howard Pease
Howard Pease
Howard Pease was an American writer of adventure stories from Stockton, California. Most of his stories revolved around a young protagonist, William Todhunter Moran who shipped out on tramp freighters during the interwar years...
, Agnes D. Hewes, Florence C. Means, and Hildegarde Hawthorne, as well as illustrating various basal reader
Basal reader
Basal readers are textbooks used to teach reading and associated skills to schoolchildren. Commonly called "reading books" or "readers" they are usually published as anthologies that combine previously published short stories, excerpts of longer narratives, and original works...
s for the Ginn Co. In 1951, he illustrated an adaptation by Allen Chaffee of Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was an American poet and educator whose works include "Paul Revere's Ride", The Song of Hiawatha, and Evangeline...
's Story of Hiawatha
Hiawatha
Hiawatha was a legendary Native American leader and founder of the Iroquois confederacy...
.
In 1942, he published his only novel for adult readers, No Brighter Glory, about the Astor family
Astor family
The Astor family is a Anglo-American business family of German descent notable for their prominence in business, society, and politics.-Founding family members:...
.
Titles in print
In addition to Call It Courage, which has been in print continuously since first published in 1940 and translated into several dozen languages, All Sail Set and Wagons Westward were reissued in 1986 and 2001 respectively by David R. GodineDavid R. Godine
David R. Godine is the founder and president of David R. Godine, Inc., a small publishing house located in Boston, Massachusetts. The company is independent and its list tends to reflect the individual tastes of its president....
, and John Paul Jones
John Paul Jones
John Paul Jones was a Scottish sailor and the United States' first well-known naval fighter in the American Revolutionary War. Although he made enemies among America's political elites, his actions in British waters during the Revolution earned him an international reputation which persists to...
, Fighting Sailor was reissued in 2006 as John Paul Jones, The Pirate Patriot by Sterling Point Books.
- Call It Courage ISBN 978-1416953685
- All Sail Set ISBN 978-0879235239
- Wagons Westward ISBN 978-1567921281
- John Paul Jones, The Pirate Patriot ISBN 978-1402736155