Elizabeth Orton Jones
Encyclopedia
Early life
She was born "half past Christmas" in Highland Park, IllinoisHighland Park, Illinois
Highland Park is a suburban municipality in Lake County, Illinois, United States, about north of downtown Chicago. As of 2009, the population is 33,492. Highland Park is one of several municipalities located on the North Shore of the Chicago Metropolitan Area.-Overview:Highland Park was founded...
, to George Roberts Jones, a violinist, and Jessie May Orton, a pianist and a writer. Elizabeth was followed by a brother and a sister. During her youth, two Bohemian
Bohemian
A Bohemian is a resident of the former Kingdom of Bohemia, either in a narrow sense as the region of Bohemia proper or in a wider meaning as the whole country, now known as the Czech Republic. The word "Bohemian" was used to denote the Czech people as well as the Czech language before the word...
girls served as cook and nurse in her home, providing an alternative set of cultural norms which surely served as an encouragement for Elizabeth to develop her artistic side.
During Elizabeth's youth, she and her siblings made many creative outlets for ther imagination. Setting up "tasks" for herself, she taught lessons to her dolls and eventually read the entire Bible. A more collaborative project between her and her siblings was the creation of the "Beagle Language", named after one of their pets.
Jones' great-grandfather, Joseph Russell Jones, a friend of Abraham Lincoln, was minister to Belgium under President Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant was the 18th President of the United States as well as military commander during the Civil War and post-war Reconstruction periods. Under Grant's command, the Union Army defeated the Confederate military and ended the Confederate States of America...
. Her grandmother was a professional pianist and her grandfather owned a bookstore.
Education
Jones won the "Silver Cup for English Composition" at her high school, the House in the Pines. In 1932, Jones received her Ph.B. from the University of Chicago. Afterward she spent time in France, studying at the École des Beaux Arts in Fontainebleau, receiving a diploma in the same year, then studying in Paris at the Académie ColarossiAcadémie 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....
and under the artist Camille Liausu. Upon returning, she presented at the Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
a solo display of color etchings of French children which she called the "Four Seasons". She also spent time studying at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Professional life and work
After Paris, Jones began writing and illustrating her first book, Ragman of Paris and His Ragamuffins (1937), which was based on her experiences in France. Other books followed and evidenced her experiences as well: Maninka's Children was influenced by the Bohemian girls she knew growing up. Her home in Mason, New HampshireMason, New Hampshire
Mason is a town in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 1,382 at the 2010 census. Mason, together with Wilton, is home to Russell-Abbott State Forest.-History:...
served as the model for her illustrations of a publishing of Little Red Riding Hood
Little Red Riding Hood
Little Red Riding Hood, also known as Little Red Cap, is a French fairy tale about a young girl and a Big Bad Wolf. The story has been changed considerably in its history and subject to numerous modern adaptations and readings....
by Golden Books from 1948 through 1979. Her book Big Susan
Big Susan
Big Susan is a 1947 book by Elizabeth Orton Jones. It is generally considered a Christmas story by reflecting the author's love of Christmas....
reflected her love of dolls.
Her work was very much influenced by the editions of Horn Book Magazine
Horn Book Magazine
The Horn Book Magazine, founded in Boston in 1924, is a bimonthly periodical about literature for children and young adults. It began life as a "suggestive purchase list" prepared by Bertha Mahony Miller and Elinor Whitney Field, proprietresses of the country's first bookstore for children, The...
that she got. Her friend Bertha Mahony Miller, an editor of Horn Book, would frequently call from seventeen miles away with ideas for Elizabeth to write about.
Small Rain: Verses from the Bible, a book she illustrated in 1944, was chosen as a Caldecott Honor Book, and in 1945, Prayer for a Child
Prayer for a Child
Prayer for a Child is a 1944 book by Rachel Field. Its artwork by Elizabeth Orton Jones won it a Caldecott Medal in 1945. The whole book is narrated by a little girl, but it represents children as a whole...
, written by Rachel Field
Rachel Field
Rachel Lyman Field was an American novelist, poet, and author of children's fiction. She is best known for her Newbery Medal–winning novel for young adults, Hitty, Her First Hundred Years, published in 1929. She won the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award twice...
and illustrated by Jones, received the Caldecott Medal
Caldecott Medal
The Caldecott Medal is awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children , a division of the American Library Association, to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children published that year. The award was named in honor of nineteenth-century English...
.
In her Caldecott acceptance speech, she said:
Later life
In 1945 Elizabeth visited New Hampshire for a business trip. The picturesque landscape caught her imagination, and she moved to MasonMason, New Hampshire
Mason is a town in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 1,382 at the 2010 census. Mason, together with Wilton, is home to Russell-Abbott State Forest.-History:...
soon afterward. Jones became a well-respected figure in Mason, as she served to collect and preserve the history of the town in Mason Bicentennial, 1768-1968 a book she edited. She was known there, not by her given name, but by the nickname "Twig
Twig (book)
Twig is a 1942 book by Elizabeth Orton Jones. It features Twig, a little girl who turns a tomato can into a house for fairies....
", the title character from one of her books. Many Masonians do not know her as anything other than that.
She died on May 10, 2005 at the Monadnock Community Hospital in Peterborough, New Hampshire
Peterborough, New Hampshire
Peterborough is a town in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 6,284 at the 2010 census. Home to the MacDowell Art Colony, the town is a popular tourist destination....
, of a brief illness. On June 25, 2005, the Mason Public Library renamed its Junior Room the "Twig Room" in her honor; a scrapbook of Twig memorabilia is available there.
Perhaps one of "Twig's" greatest, most enduring accomplishments was her adamant support of a local summer children's theater, known as Andy's Summer Playhouse. Every year for the last 40 years of her life, she offered artistic advice and guidance to many of the children in the community who participated in the Playhouse.
Written and Illustrated
- Ragman of Paris and His Ragamuffins, Oxford University Press, 1937.
- Minnie the Mermaid (with Thomas Orton Jones), Oxford University Press, 1939.
- Maminka’s Children, Macmillan, 1940, reissued, 1968.
- TwigTwig (book)Twig is a 1942 book by Elizabeth Orton Jones. It features Twig, a little girl who turns a tomato can into a house for fairies....
, Macmillan, 1942, reissued, 1966. - Big SusanBig SusanBig Susan is a 1947 book by Elizabeth Orton Jones. It is generally considered a Christmas story by reflecting the author's love of Christmas....
, Macmillan, 1947, reissued, 1967. - Little Red Riding HoodLittle Red Riding HoodLittle Red Riding Hood, also known as Little Red Cap, is a French fairy tale about a young girl and a Big Bad Wolf. The story has been changed considerably in its history and subject to numerous modern adaptations and readings....
(reteller), Simon & Schuster, 1948. - How Far Is It to Bethlehem?, Horn Book, 1955.
Children's Books Illustrated
- Bible, David, Macmillan, 1937.
- Adshead, Gladys L., Brownies—Hush!, Oxford University Press, 1938, reissued, Walck, 1966.
- Meigs, Cornelia Lynde, Scarlet Oak, Macmillan, 1938.
- Association for Childhood Education, Told under the Magic Umbrella: Modern Fanciful Stories for Young Children, Macmillan, 1939, reissued, 1967.
- Hunt, Mabel Leigh, Peddler’s Clock, Grosset, 1943.
- Jones, Jessie Mae, editor, Small Rain: Verses from the Bible, Viking, 1943, reissued, 1974.
- Field, Rachel, Prayers for a Child, Macmillan, 1944, reissued, 1973.
- Adshead, Gladys L., What Miranda Knew, New York, Oxford University Press, 1944.
- Farjeon, Eleanor, Prayer for Little Things, Houghton, 1945.
- Jones, Jessie Orton, Secrets, New York, Viking, 1945.
- Jones, Jessie Mae, Little Child—The Christmas Miracle Told in Bible Verses, New York, Viking, 1946.
- Jones, Jessie Mae, editor, This Is the Way: Prayers and Precepts from World Religions, Viking, 1951.
- St. Francis of Assisi, Song of the Sun, Macmillan, 1952.
- Thurman, Howard, Deep River, Harper, 1955.
- Bridgman, Elizabeth, Lullaby for Eggs, Macmillan, 1955.
- Trent, Robbie, To Church We Go, Follett, 1956.