Johnny Gruelle
John Barton Gruelle (December 24, 1880 – January 9, 1938) was an American artist, political cartoonist, children's book and comics author, illustrator, and storyteller. He is best known as the creator of Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy dolls and as the author/illustrator of dozens of books. He also created the Beloved Belindy doll.[1] Gruelle also contributed cartoons and illustrations to at least ten newspapers, four major news syndicates, and more than a dozen national magazines. He was the son of Hoosier Group painter Richard Gruelle.
Johnny Gruelle
John Barton Gruelle
December 24, 1880
Arcola, Illinois, U.S.
January 9, 1938 (aged 57)
Miami Springs, Florida, U.S.
Artist, writer
Raggedy Ann Stories (1918),
The Magical Land of Noom (1922), and other books;
Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy characters
Early life and education[edit]
Gruelle was born in Arcola, Illinois, on December 24, 1880, to Alice (Benton) and Richard Buckner Gruelle.[2][3] In 1882, when Gruelle was two years old, he moved with his parents to Indianapolis, Indiana, and settled in a home on Tacoma Avenue in what is the present-day Lockerbie Square Historic District.[4][5] The Gruelles made Indianapolis their home for more than twenty-five years.[6]
John was exposed to art and literature at an early age. His father, Richard, who was a self-taught portrait and landscape painter who became associated with the Hoosier Group of American Impressionist painters. In addition to Richard Gruelle, the informal group included William Forsyth, T. C. Steele, Otto Stark, and J. Ottis Adams. Another Gruelle family friends was Hoosier poet James Whitcomb Riley, whose poems "The Elf-Child," later titled "Little Orphant Annie" (1885), and "The Raggedy Man" (1888), eventually formed the name for John Gruelle's iconic Raggedy Ann character.[5] Gruelle later honored Riley's memory in his own book, The Orphant Annie Story Book (1921), written in tribute to Riley's famous poem.[4]
John was the eldest child of the Gruelle family, which also included a younger sister, Prudence (1884–1966), and a brother, Justin (1889–1979). Gruelle's parents exposed all three children to music, literature, and art. John, who likely attended public schools in Indianapolis as a youth, became interested in art, and learned drawing from his father.[7][8] Prudence trained as a vocalist in New York City, performed in vaudeville theaters, and married Albert Matzke, an illustrator and watercolorist. She also became an author of children's books and a syndicated newspaper columnist. Justin studied art in Indianapolis and New York City and became a landscape painter, illustrator, and muralist.[9]
Marriage and family[edit]
Nineteen-year-old Gruelle met his future wife, Myrtle J. Swann, in Indianapolis, where they were married on March 23, 1901. Marcella, the first of their three children, was born on August 18, 1902, and died on November 8, 1915, at age 13.[8][10] The Gruelles also had two sons, Worth, who became an artist and illustrator, and Richard "Dick" Gruelle.[11] Gruelle's widow, Myrtle (Swann) Gruelle Silsby, who remarried for a brief period in 1945, died on April 25, 1968, at the age of eighty-three.[12]
John and Myrtle Gruelle began their married life in Indianapolis and moved with their young daughter to Cleveland, Ohio.[13] By 1910 they had left Cleveland and moved to the Norwalk, Connecticut, area, where Gruelle's parents had acquired a 16-acre (6.5-hectare) property in Silvermine, a present-day historic district and art colony along the Silvermine River comprising sections of Norwalk, New Canaan, and Wilton, Connecticut.[14][15] Gruelle and his family initially lived in a studio maintained by his father and brother on the former site of the Blanchard Fur Factory until they built a home in the Wilton section of Silvermine.[16] Gruelle's parents, his sister and her husband, and his younger brother also made their home in the Silvermine area.[17] After the death of their daughter, Marcella, in 1915 from an infected smallpox vaccine, John and Myrtle Gruelle moved with their two sons to Norwalk.[18] In addition to being closer to his family, Gruelle's relocation to the East Coast provided him with additional opportunities for freelance work in newspapers and magazines as an artist and journalist.[19]
Gruelle also spent a year in Ashland, Oregon, from 1923 to 1924.[20]
Later years[edit]
Gruelle and his wife relocated from Connecticut, to the Miami, Florida, area in 1932. In his later years Gruelle continued to write and illustrate books such as Raggedy Ann and the Golden Meadow (1935), which was completed with the assistance of his son, Worth. The father-and-son duo also collaborated on a series of illustrated Raggedy Ann proverbs that were syndicated in newspapers. In addition, Gruelle produced humorous cartoons and made public appearances, but took time away from work to pursue his hobby of collecting automobiles. Although the Great Depression of the 1930s caused some setbacks that included the bankruptcy of his primary publisher, P. F. Volland, and a lawsuit for patent and trademark infringement that he finally won on appeal in 1937, Gruelle and his family continued to experience an active life in Florida until stress took its toll on Gruelle's health.[48][49]
Death and legacy[edit]
He died unexpectedly of heart failure at his son Worth's home in Miami Springs, Florida, on January 9, 1938, two weeks after his fifty-seventh birthday.[50][51] Following Gruelle's death, his widow, Myrtle (Swann) Gruelle, took legal action to secure the rights to his works, trademarks, and patents. She also continued her efforts to promote his legacy through the Johnny Gruelle Company, the Bobbs-Merrill Company, and other commercial agreements.[52]
In a career that spanned forty years, Gruelle was an author and/or illustrator of dozens of books and contributed cartoons and illustrations to at least ten newspapers, four major new syndicates, and more than a dozen national magazines. Despite the diversity of his work, Gruelle is best known as the illustrator, author, and the creator of the Raggedy Ann doll and related books, illustrations, and characters. By the time of his death in 1938, his first Raggedy Ann book had sold more than 3 million copies.[53][54] The iconic Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy dolls that Gruelle designed and their related memorabilia have become sought-after collectors' items.[9]
Gruelle also left a legacy of other artistic and literary works. Although he was inspired by many sources and most of his work was based on traditional European folktales, Gruelle developed his own storytelling style. Many of his stories for children included parables about the virtues of "sharing, compassion, and telling the truth."[55] In addition to his prose, Gruelle used his illustrations to tell stories of magical lands, fanciful animals, and memorable characters, especially Raggedy Ann, Raggedy Andy, and their friends. While his early artwork used a romantic, dreamlike style that frequently included the gold-and-violet palette of his father, among other American Impressionists, Gruelle's later illustrations used a brighter color palette. Animation historian Donald Crafton described Gruelle's illustrations as having a typically "clean, curvilinear style that looks ahead to the Disney graphics of the 1930s."[55]
Cartoonists such as Sidney Smith, Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss), and Mary Engelbreit have named Gruelle among those who have inspired their work.[56] Gruelle's own creative work continues through the ongoing production of the Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy dolls and related items, numerous reprints of Gruelle's books, and adaptions of his work that includes numerous comic books, audio recordings, animated films, theatrical scripts and screenplays.[57]
