Johnny Gruelle
| Johnny Gruelle | |
|---|---|
| Born | John Barton Gruelle December 24, 1880 Arcola, Illinois, United States |
| Died | January 9, 1938 (aged 57) Miami Springs, Florida, United States |
| Occupation | Artist, writer |
| Nationality | American |
| Genre | Children's literature |
| Notable works | Raggedy Ann |
Johnny Gruelle (December 24, 1880 – January 9, 1938) was an American artist, political cartoonist, children's book author and illustrator, and songwriter. He is known as the creator of Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy.
John Barton Gruelle was born in Arcola, Illinois, on December 24, 1880. A the age of two, he moved with his family to Indianapolis, Indiana, where his father, Richard Gruelle, who was a painter, became associated with the Hoosier Group of painters. Richard Gruelle’s friends included poet James Whitcomb Riley, whose poems “The Elf-Child”, later titled “Little Orphant Annie” (1885) and "The Raggedy Man" (1888), would form the basis for Johnny Gruelle's naming of Raggedy Ann.
John Gruelle's cartoons first appeared in print in the Indianapolis Star in 1905. From 1906 to 1911, his cartooning work appeared in many newspapers usually signed as Grue, including The Toledo News-Bee,The Pittsburgh Press,The Tacoma Times, and The Spokane Press.
After he beat out 1,500 entrants to win a cartooning contest sponsored in 1911 by The New York Herald, Gruelle created Mr. Twee Deedle, which was in print from that year to at least 1914.
Gruelle biographer Patricia Hall notes that according to oft-repeated myth, Gruelle's daughter Marcella brought from her grandmother's attic a faceless doll on which the artist drew a face, and that Gruelle suggested that Marcella's grandmother sew a shoe button for a missing eye. He then combined the names of two James Whitcomb Riley poems, "The Raggedy Man" and "Little Orphant Annie" and suggested calling the doll Raggedy Ann. Hall says the date of this supposed occurrence is given as early as 1900 and as late as 1914, with the locale variously given as suburban Indianapolis, Indiana, downtown Cleveland, Ohio, or rural Connecticut. In reality, as Gruelle's wife Myrtle told Hall, it was Gruelle who retrieved a long-forgotten, homemade rag doll from the attic of his parents' Indianapolis home sometime around the turn of the 20th century. As Myrtle Gruelle recalled, "There was something he wanted from the attic. While he was rummaging around for it, he found an old rag doll his mother had made for his sister. He said then that the doll would make a good story."
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