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Photograph of Esther Averill
Esther Holden Averill
was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut on July 24, 1902. Her parents
were ornithologist Charles Ketchum and Helen Holden Averill.
Averill's interest in writing
and illustrating developed when she was a teenager, writing and
drawing cartoons for her local newspapers. After graduating from
Vassar College in 1923, she worked in the editorial department
of Women's Wear Daily, where she was further entranced
by the publishing trade.
In 1925, she moved to Paris,
and worked as an assistant to a photo-journalist who reported
on fashion and the arts. She remained there for over ten years.
In 1931, she embarked in the publishing industry with her own
imprint, The Domino Press. Her first product was Daniel
Boone. The biographical story of the adventurer was
illustrated by Feodor Rojankovsky (1891-1970), a Russian emigre
who later produced illustrations for over 100 books, including
Frog Went-A-Courtin', for which he received the Caldecott
Medal in 1956. The American version of the book was distributed
through The
Bookshop for Boys and Girls in Boston. Bertha
Mahoney's ground-breaking store opened in 1916 and championed
the publication of quality children's literature. Mahoney furthered
the cause of children's literature again in 1924 by co-founding
The
Horn Book Magazine, the first magazine devoted to
children's reading.
According to Averill, "the
aim of The Domino Press was to specialize in children's picture
books illustrated by gifted young artists and reproduced by means
of the excellent color processes that were available in Paris."
The work went slowly because
Averill was learning the trade, studying both contemporary works
and the texts of old French children's books, while she expanded
the business.
The Domino Press' next book was
Powder (1933), the story of a horse that was published
simultaneously in French under the Domino imprint and in English
by Faber and Faber (in England) and Harrison Smith and Robert
Haas (in America). A sequel, Flash, came out the same
way in 1934. That same year, another Domino book, The Fable
of a Proud Poppy, illustrated by Hungarian painter Emile Lahner
(1893-1980), came out.
International publishing, especially
in the turbulent years leading up to the WWII, proved beyond
the means of an experimental "fly-by-night" outfit
operating on a small budget, so Averill returned to America in
late 1934 and revised her imprint as The Domino Press: New York.
Averill brought two projects in progress with her. The Voyages
of Jacques Cartier appeared in print in 1937, and was the
press' first young adult text. Once again, Averill teamed up
with illustrator Rojankovsky.
The second Domino book published in America, Tales
of Poindi (1938), was the English version
of Contes de Poindi, the work of French poet and writer
Jean
Mariotti, who hailed from the South Pacific island of
New
Caledonia.
The Domino Press still had strong connections in Paris, and in
1938 the storm clouds of war ended the publishing chapter of
Averill's career.
Her next project was a book about
a shy black cat named Jenny Linsky. This red-scarfed heroine
was based on a cat owned by Averill, and she drew on the personalities
of her other cats, as well as those belonging to friends, for
the membership of the Cat Club. This book was written and illustrated
by Averill.
One can only speculate whether
the name of the charming character
that would reappear in a series of
books was based on The Horn Book's one-time managing editor
and
later editor from 1951 to 1958,
Jennnie
D. Lindquist. |
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See a virtual history exhibit celebrating
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Horn Book
"[My] next active involvement
with a printed book was a story that [I] wrote and illustrated
[myself], as best [I] could, with simple, pen and ink drawings.
It was about [my] own little black cat with the red scarf, Jenny
Linsky, and was entitled The
Cat Club. . . . . This launched me on my cat career."
The original Cat Club had 12
members, but with subsequent adventures the cast grew in number.
The established characters appear repeatedly throughout the novels,
sometimes in the center of the action and sometimes as peripheral
players, and the most of the tales unfold within the confines
of an established locale, "little old New York." Averill's
manner of chronicling the exploits of the feline ensemble led
her to claim she was "a kind of Balzac
of the Cat Club."
Averill appreciated the connection
that the Cat Club series brought her with people engaged in caring
for wayward cats, and recognized that the humanitarian effort
was extremely demanding work.
Jenny shy demeanor was based on the personality of Averill's
own unassuming cat, and all of the other cats' personae were
drawn from animals owned or known by the author. Even Tom (the
protagonist of The Hotel Cat) was based on a real feline
prototype, in that case a cat Averill knew when she lived in
a New York hotel.
Averill eventually wrote 12 Cat
Club books, which were published by Harpers. Recently, they were
combined into new editions by the New York Review of Books. The
original titles and publication dates are as follows:
The Cat Club, Harper, 1944
The School For Cats, Harper, 1947
Jenny's First Party, Harper, 1948
Jenny's Moonlight Adventure, Harper, 1949
When Jenny Lost Her Scarf, Harper, 1951
Jenny's Adopted Brothers, Harper, 1952
How the Brothers Joined the Cat Club, Harper, 1953
Jenny's Birthday Book, Harper, 1954
Jenny Goes to Sea, Harper, 1957
Jenny's Bedside Book, Harper, 1959
The Fire Cat, Harper, 1960
The Hotel Cat, Harper, 1969
She combined her work as an author
and illustrator with service as a librarian at the New York Public
Library.
In the 1980s, Averill renewed
her long-time interest in the influences of old French children's
books and illustrations. She had written Political Propaganda
in Children’s Books of the French Revolution, in 1934,
and returned to the subject of French illustration with her 1969
work, Eyes on the World; The Story & Work of Jacques Callot:
His Gypsies, Beggars, Festivals, "Miseries of war",
and Other Famous Etchings and Engravings, Together with an Account
of His Days.
On May 12, 1992, Averill died
in New York at age 89. But her gentle humor and charmingly innocent
illustrations live on in her immortal works.
Source: Something About the Author, Volume 28, 1982 |
Here's a fan letter
to Esther Averill
written by Milwaukee third-grader Kailee in 2009: 
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