Richard Scarry

Last updated
Richard Scarry
BornRichard McClure Scarry
(1919-06-05)June 5, 1919
Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
DiedApril 30, 1994(1994-04-30) (aged 74)
Gstaad, Switzerland
OccupationAuthor, illustrator
Genre Children's books
Notable works Best Word Book Ever
SpousePatricia Murphy
Children1

Richard McClure Scarry (June 5, 1919 – April 30, 1994) was an American children's author and illustrator who published over 300 books with total sales of over 100 million worldwide. [1] He is best known for his Best Ever book series that take place primarily in the fictional town of Busytown, "which is populated by friendly and helpful resident [animals...such as] Mr. Frumble, Huckle Cat, Mr. Fixit, Lowly Worm, and others..." [2] The series spawned a media franchise.

Contents

Early life and education

Scarry was born in Boston, Massachusetts to Mary McClure and John Scarry Sr., who were of Irish-American ancestry and ran a small department store chain. [3] [4] Scarry had four siblings: older brother John Jr., younger sister, Barbara, and younger brothers, Edward and Leo. [5] The family enjoyed a comfortable life at their 32 Melville Avenue home in the Dorchester neighborhood, [5] even during the Great Depression.

Following high school, Scarry enrolled in Boston Business School, but dropped out in 1938. [6] [7] He then studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Archipenko Art School in Woodstock, New York, and the Eliot O'Hara Watercolor School in Goose Rocks, Kennebunkport, Maine, [8] before being drafted into the U.S. Army in 1942.

Career

After entering the Army, Scarry was assigned to the military's radio repair school. After a small success in that trade, he was chosen to paint a large sign and then made an art director after receiving a medical dispensation "from strenuous physical activity". Later he became "Editor and Writer of Publications for the Information and Morale Services Section of the Allied Force Headquarters", served in North Africa, and was discharged from the Army in 1946. [7] [9] After the war, Scarry worked in magazine and advertising in New York City, including a very brief stint at Vogue . In 1949, he made a career breakthrough with Little Golden Books. [7]

Scarry's most famous series of books was about Busytown and revolved around anthropomorphic animals. While his books are largely populated by common animal species, he proved to be quite adept at giving human characteristics to a seemingly endless number of creatures, machines, and creations. Many of his later illustrations feature characters in traditional Swiss clothing and show architecturally correct drawings of half-timber houses.

The fabric of Scarry's world was woven with a strong sense of community and cooperation. His characters work together, be it building a house or constructing a highway. And he endowed his characters with an honest humanity that underscores his tales. Scarry knew children needed to know that they did not have to be perfect all the time. [10]

Scarry was a disciplined worker. [7] Scarry was closely associated with mass-market children's publisher Ole Risom. They worked together on dozens of books, including I Am a Bunny, which Risom wrote and Scarry illustrated. First published in 1963, it is still in print. [11] Risom and Walter Retan also co-wrote the illustrated biography, The Busy, Busy World of Richard Scarry. [12] In the 1980s and 1990s, many of Scarry's Best Ever books were produced as animated videos and aired during TLC's now-defunct Ready Set Learn block. The Busytown books were also adapted into an animated series, The Busy World of Richard Scarry , which was produced by Canada-based CINAR (now WildBrain) and Paramount Television and aired on the pay-TV channel Showtime from 1993 to 1997. It reran in the late 1990s on Nickelodeon and its sister channel Noggin (now Nick Jr.). A further animated series, Busytown Mysteries , was commissioned by CBC from the Cookie Jar Group (the successor to CINAR) in 2007, and airs on the Kids' CBC morning program block.

Busytown was featured at the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh from June 13 to September 8, 2002, in an interactive exhibit, Richard Scarry's Busytown. [13] His books were popular with children throughout the world with over 100 million copies sold. [1]

From 1976 to around 1978, Playskool planned Richard Scarry's Puzzletown, a series of toy sets featuring plastic figures of Scarry characters and vehicles as well as cardboard scenery that the child could set up in a grid of trenches in a plastic base. [14] [15]

Changes to Best Word Book Ever

A snapshot of Scarry's illustration style from the book Busy, Busy Town. Richard Scarry Example of Work and Outdated Social Constructs Therein.jpg
A snapshot of Scarry's illustration style from the book Busy, Busy Town.

Books by Richard Scarry were revised over the course of their several editions, often to make them conform to changing social values. His Best Word Book Ever, which first introduced in 1963, was issued in 1980 as a "new revised edition" which altered images and text to remove material which could be perceived as offensive due to gender, ethnic, or religious misconceptions. Characters in "cowboy" or "Indian" costumes were either removed or given nondescript clothing. Moral and religious elements and depictions of gender roles were altered or removed (for instance, a menorah was added into a Christmas scene, and the words "he comes promptly when he is called to breakfast", referring to a father bear, were changed to "he goes to the kitchen to eat his breakfast"). Characters engaged in activities reflecting traditional gender roles were altered so as to make the scenes more gender-neutral (e.g., a male character was added into a kitchen scene, a cowboy was replaced with a female gardener and a female scientist, the phrase "pretty stewardess" was changed to "flight attendant", and male characters engaged in traditionally masculine activities such as driving a steamroller were altered into female characters by the addition of hair bows or pink flowers, etc.). In some cases these changes necessitated removing whole sections altogether, including the "Out West" section, the "buildings" section (which had depicted a church, a cathedral, and a French Foreign Legion fortress), and sections on painting and music making. [16] [17]

Scarry's papers and drawings are collected in the University of Connecticut archives. [18]

Personal life and family

While working as a free-lance illustrator, Scarry met Patricia "Patsy" Murphy, a writer of children's textbooks, when they collaborated on one such book, and they married in 1948. [7] She is credited with writing many of the stories in his subsequent children's books, such as Good Night, Little Bear, The Bunny Book, and The Fishing Cat. Before moving to Europe, the family lived on a farm in Ridgefield, Connecticut. [19]

In 1972, Scarry and his wife moved to Lausanne, Switzerland, and in 1974 bought a chalet in nearby Gstaad, where Scarry enjoyed spending time with his adult son, Richard Scarry Jr.; skiing; coin collecting; and sailing. [20] [10] [21]

Scarry's son is also an illustrator who sometimes works under the name Huck Scarry in his father's style. He moved to Vienna, Austria, and has four children. [3] [20] [22]

Death

On April 30, 1994, in Gstaad, Switzerland, Scarry died of a heart attack, caused by complications from esophageal cancer, at the age of 74. [1] [7]

Bibliography

Scarry began his book career in 1949 as an illustrator of books by other people, specifically Kathryn & Byron Jackson's Mouse's House. He continued as only or primarily an illustrator through 1955, then began turning out original books.

His titles, in order of publication, are: [2]

Golden Books
Random House
Golden Books
Random House
Golden Books
Random House

Many of these titles are preceded by his name ("Richard Scarry's ..."), and may be so listed in library and booksellers' databases. Some (Pie Rats Ahoy!, Best Mistake Ever! and The Early Bird) were published under the Beginner Books (Grolier and Early Moments only) imprint, and others (Chuckle with Huckle! and Other Easy-to-Read Funny Stories and The Worst Helper Ever [Early Moments only]) as Bright and Early Books, although all are targeted at beginning readers. Scarry also illustrated a 1963 edition of The Fables of La Fontaine, and in 1993 put his own stamp on a series of familiar nursery stories (Little Red Riding Hood, The Little Red Hen, The Three Bears, The Three Little Pigs).

Stories made to video

Golden Book Videos:

Random House Videos: (by 2006 these were taken out of print)

Richard Scarry's:

PolyGram Videos:

The Busy World of Richard Scarry:

Richard Scarry's:

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Picture book</span> Book with images at least as important as words

A picture book combines visual and verbal narratives in a book format, most often aimed at young children. With the narrative told primarily through text, they are distinct from comics, which do so primarily through sequential images. The images in picture books can be produced in a range of media, such as oil paints, acrylics, watercolor, and pencil. Picture books often serve as pedagogical resources, aiding with children's language development or understanding of the world.

Busytown is a fictional town depicted in several books by American children's author Richard Scarry. Busytown is inhabited by an assortment of anthropomorphic animals, including Huckle Cat, Lowly Worm, Mr. Frumble, police Sergeant Murphy, Mr. Fixit, Bananas Gorilla and Hilda Hippo.

Appaloosa Interactive was a corporation, founded in 1982 in Hungary, that produced video games, computer programs and television commercials during the 1980s and 1990s.

Fiona is a feminine given name. The name is associated with the Gaelic traditions of Ireland and Scotland, but has also become popular in England. It can be considered either a Latinised form of the Gaelic word fionn, meaning "white", "fair", or an Anglicisation of the Irish name Fíona. The Scottish Gaelic feminine name Fionnghal is sometimes equated with Fiona. In ninth-century Welsh and Breton language 'Fion' referred to the foxglove species and is also a female given name as in Ffion Hague.

<i>The Busy World of Richard Scarry</i> American/Canadian/French animated childrens television series

The Busy World of Richard Scarry is an animated children's television series, produced by CINAR Animation and France Animation in association with Paramount Television, which aired from 1994 to 1997, first on Showtime, later on Nickelodeon, and ran for 65 episodes. The television series was based on the books drawn and written by Richard Scarry. Reruns of the show formerly aired in syndication as part of the Cookie Jar Kids Network block, but the show now continues to air on the Cookie Jar Toons block on This TV until October 26, 2013. Reruns of the show aired on Qubo from May 13, 2013, to September 25, 2016. However, it returned to Qubo on March 28, 2017, as part of the network's Night Owl block until May 26, 2018, and has also aired on Light TV, but has since left the network.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beginner Books</span> Publishing imprint of Random House

Beginner Books is the Random House imprint for young children ages 3–9, co-founded by Phyllis Cerf with Ted Geisel, more often known as Dr. Seuss, and his wife Helen Palmer Geisel. Their first book was Dr. Seuss's The Cat in the Hat (1957), whose title character appears in the brand's logo. Cerf compiled a list of 379 words as the basic vocabulary for young readers, along with another 20 slightly harder "emergency" words. No more than 200 words were taken from that list to write The Cat in the Hat. Subsequent books in the series were modeled on the same requirement.

<i>Richard Scarrys Busytown</i> 1993 educational video game and its 1999 remake

Richard Scarry's Busytown is a 1993 educational video game that was developed by Novotrade for preschool gamers. It was released for DOS, Macintosh, and Sega Genesis. This game was based on the series of Best...Ever! series of VHSes distributed by Random House's home video division preceding the TV series' The Busy World of Richard Scarry that was produced by CINAR and Paramount Television. It was remade in 1999 by Pearson Software for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS, with the visuals and animation updated to resemble that of The Busy World of Richard Scarry, and the dialogue re-recorded with Boston actors.

Diane D'Aquila is an American-Canadian actress. She has appeared in both television and film roles, but is best known for her stage appearances at the Stratford Festival.

Richard Jones is a Canadian voice actor, voice director, writer and content developer. Since 1982, he has worked with Fox, Disney, Universal, Hanna-Barbera, Alphanim, Cinar and Nelvana. Jones has been nominated for a Gemini Award twice in 1988 and 2003.

This is a list of the works of Mercer Mayer.

<i>The Busy Little Engine</i> 2005 film by Desmond Mullen

The Busy Little Engine is a 2005 children's DVD written and directed by Desmond Mullen. It was selected for the 2006 San Diego International Children's Film Festival and reviewed in the professional library journals Booklist, School Library Journal, and Video Librarian. The Busy Little Engine was picked Best DVD by Parenting Magazine in July 2006.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jim Thurman</span> American screenwriter

James Frederick Thurman was an American actor, writer, director, cartoonist, and producer. He is best known for the writings of TV gags for the likes of Bob Hope, Bob Newhart, Carol Burnett, Bill Cosby, and Dean Martin.

<i>Best Word Book Ever</i> Book by Richard Scarry

Best Word Book Ever by Richard Scarry was published in 1963 and became a best-selling children's book. Scarry had been illustrating children's books since 1950, but this was his first as both author and illustrator. The book also marked the beginning of the author's work on the "Best Ever" series. The original edition contains over 1,400 labelled pictures and the book sold over seven million copies in 12 years. The word book is designed to entertain children while teaching them words and numbers. It is divided into subjects on each pair of pages. Subjects range from sports to houses, with examples from all over the world. The pages have a small amount of text, which often challenge the reader to find something on the page. The characters are all anthropomorphic animals, often cats, bears, rabbits and mice, but many other animals are also used. The art for Best Word Book Ever was first drawn in, then painted in, which was by that time Scarry's normal method.

<i>Busytown Mysteries</i> Canadian animated television series

Busytown Mysteries, also known as Hurray for Huckle!, is a Canadian animated television series created by Cookie Jar Entertainment. Currently, the series airs in Canada as part of the Kids' CBC block and on the Tiny Pop channel in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the show was originally going to be on Qubo, but it aired as part of the Cookie Jar TV block on CBS instead, and then returned to the United States on Starz.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cookie Jar Toons</span> Daily childrens block broadcast on This TV

Cookie Jar Toons was a daily children's programming block on the This TV digital broadcast network when that network was partially owned by the former Weigel Broadcasting. The block was programmed by Canada-based DHX Media.

Lowly Worm is a fictional character created by Richard Scarry; he frequently appears in children's books by Scarry, and is a main character in the animated series The Busy World of Richard Scarry and Busytown Mysteries. In The Busy World of Richard Scarry, he is voiced by Keith Knight. In Busytown Mysteries, he is voiced by Paul Wensley.

The Real Story of Happy Birthday to You is a French Canadian children's animated short film directed by Gerald Potterton as part of The Real Story of... / Favorite Songs animated anthology series. The short was produced by Cinar and France Animation in association with Crayon Animation and Western Publishing and was released in January 1992 in the United States. It also features the voices of Ed Asner and Roger Daltrey.

Luca Bottale is an Italian voice actor who contributes to voicing characters in movies, cartoons, anime, video games, and more. He is well known for voicing characters from popular TV programs such as Usopp from One Piece, Zane Truesdale from Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, and more. Bottale is also known for voicing Sly Cooper in the 1st three games of the Sly Cooper video game series.

Tinker and Tanker is a children's book series written and illustrated by Richard Scarry, and published in the U.S. by Doubleday from 1960 to 1963.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Pace, Eric (3 May 1994). "Richard Scarry, 74, Children's Book Author and Illustrator, Dies". New York Times. Archived from the original on 2 December 2017. Retrieved 5 February 2022.
  2. 1 2 Liukkonen, Petri. "Richard Scarry". Books and Writers (kirjasto.sci.fi). Finland: Kuusankoski Public Library. Archived from the original on 2 January 2008.
  3. 1 2 Stevenson, Alice (December 9, 2019). "Meet Busytown's Favorite Son, Huck Scarry". New York Historical Society. Archived from the original on 2021-11-17. Retrieved 2021-11-16.
  4. ↑ Mapes, Melissa (July 1, 2012). Richard Scarry’s Best Luck Ever. Literary Traveller.
  5. 1 2 1940 U.S. Census, familysearch.com
  6. ↑ American National Biography . Vol. 19. Oxford University Press. 1999. p. 350.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Branwen, Gwern. "Richard Scarry". Archived from the original on 2021-09-21. Retrieved 2021-11-16.
  8. ↑ Dinneen, Marcia B. (2000). "Scarry, Richard McClure (05 June 1919–30 April 1994)". American National Biography. doi:10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.1603321. Archived from the original on 12 October 2022. Retrieved 2021-11-16.
  9. ↑ "A Guide to the Richard Scarry Papers" . Retrieved 2021-11-16.
  10. 1 2 Owens, Darryl E. (September 23, 1995). "Scarry's talent: Finding magic in the mundane"". Orlando Sentinel. Archived from the original on 2022-04-17. Retrieved 2021-11-16.
  11. ↑ Lipson, E. R. (August 24, 2000). "Ole C. Risom, 80, Publisher of Children's Books". The New York Times . Archived from the original on November 19, 2016. Retrieved February 18, 2017.
  12. ↑ Retan, Walter; Ole Risom (1997). The Busy, Busy World of Richard Scarry. Harry N. Abrams. ISBN   9780810940000.
  13. ↑ "Carnegie Science Center". Carnegie Magazine. Archived from the original on 2008-10-12 – via carnegiemuseums.org.
  14. ↑ "Second Generation of Fun". wandering-scientist.com. Archived from the original on 2013-06-23. Retrieved 2013-02-23.
  15. ↑ "Richard Scarry's Puzzletown". CrescentStar.blogspot.com. 14 April 2011. Archived from the original on 11 March 2016. Retrieved 23 February 2013.
  16. ↑ Wade, Lisa (22 September 2010). "Social Change and Richard Scarry's Best Word Book Ever". The Society Pages . Archived from the original on 10 October 2014. Retrieved 7 August 2017.
  17. ↑ Taylor, Alan (23 November 2005). "The Best Word Book Ever, 1963 and 1991". Flickr . Archived from the original on 22 October 2013. Retrieved 16 October 2013.
  18. ↑ "A Guide to the Richard Scarry Papers". collections.ctdigitalarchive.org. Retrieved 2016-10-18.
  19. ↑ Sanders, Jack (2015). Hidden History of Ridgefield, Connecticut. Arcadia Publishing. p. 73.
  20. 1 2 Simon, Scott (August 23, 2014). "Lowly Worm Is Back! Richard Scarry Jr. Brings Dad's Manuscript To Life". National Public Radio. Archived from the original on 2021-09-29. Retrieved 2021-10-16.
  21. ↑ Munier, Alexis (September 10, 2015). "His Father's Son -- Huck Scarry on his Family's Past, Present & Future". GstaadLife. Archived from the original on September 29, 2021. Retrieved March 17, 2021.
  22. ↑ Blasberg, Derek (August 14, 2009). "Olympia Scarry". Interview Magazine. Archived from the original on 2021-09-29. Retrieved 2021-11-16.
  23. ↑ "3 Richard Scarry Animal Nursery Tales (Video 1986)". IMDb. 1986. Archived from the original on 2022-07-12. Retrieved 2018-06-30.
  24. ↑ "Richard Scarry's Old MacDonald's Farm and Other Animal Tales (Video 1986)". IMDb. 1986. Archived from the original on 2022-07-12. Retrieved 2018-06-30.
  25. ↑ "Get Ready for School (Video 1986)". IMDb. 1986. Archived from the original on 2022-07-12. Retrieved 2018-06-30.
  26. ↑ "Best ABC Video Ever! (Video 1989)". IMDb. 15 March 1989. Archived from the original on 10 February 2017. Retrieved 30 June 2018.
  27. ↑ "Best Counting Video Ever! (Video 1989)". IMDb. 31 August 1989. Archived from the original on 10 February 2017. Retrieved 30 June 2018.
  28. ↑ "Best Busy People Video Ever! (Video 1993)". IMDb. 17 August 1993. Archived from the original on 8 February 2017. Retrieved 30 June 2018.
  29. ↑ "Best Learning Songs Video Ever! (Video 1993)". IMDb. 17 August 1993. Archived from the original on 9 February 2017. Retrieved 30 June 2018.
  30. ↑ "Best Silly Stories and Songs Video Ever! (Video 1994)". IMDb. 23 August 1994. Archived from the original on 19 March 2017. Retrieved 30 June 2018.
  31. ↑ "Best Sing-Along Mother Goose Video Ever! (Video 1994)". IMDb. 23 August 1994. Archived from the original on 25 March 2017. Retrieved 30 June 2018.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.