Krauss, Ruth

Ruth Krauss was born in 1901 in Baltimore, Maryland . She attended several universities and institutes. She received her bachelor's degree from the Parsons School of Fine and Applied Arts . In 1940, she married David Leisk (known as Crockett Johnson ). From 1944 until 1979, Krauss published many children's works, some of which she illustrated herself. Other children's books were collaborations with her husband, usually employing Krauss's text and Johnson's illustrations. Krauss's career as a writer of adult poetry began in the late 1950s, with publications spanning 1965-1977. Many of these adult poems were experimental theatrical poems, many of which were performed in New York, New Haven, and Boston. Krauss died in 1993.

From the guide to the Ruth Krauss Papers., undated, 1929-1992., (Archives & Special Collections at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center.)

Ruth Krauss was born July 25, 1911, in Baltimore, MD. She became a writer of stories for children and poetry for adults. She sold her first book, A Good Man and His Good Wife in 1940. During her career she collaborated on several books with illustrator Maurice Sendak. She became well known by using minimal text and precise language, and working in close collaboration with her illustrator. She died on July 10, 1993, in Westport, CT.

Biographical sources: Something About the Author, vols. 1, 30, 75; Children's Literature Review, vol. 42

From the guide to the Ruth Krauss Papers, 1954, (University of Minnesota Libraries Children's Literature Research Collections [clrc])