R.I.P. Aldren Auld Watson, 96 (Artist/illustrator: "Gulliver's Travels," 1947)

[leno...@yahoo.com]

He lived in Etna, New Hampshire.

http://www.vnews.com/news/obituaries/6056492-95/aldren-auld-watson

Excerpts:

.....He was born in 1917 in Brooklyn, the son of two pioneer color block print artists. His mother, Eva Auld Watson, was also a painter and bookbinder. His father, Ernest W. Watson, taught design and composition at Pratt Institute and co-founded the Berkshire Summer School of Art in Monterey, Mass. Ernest was founder and editor of American Artist magazine and co-founder of Watson-Guptill Publications.

In addition to extensive training in drawing, printmaking, mural painting, bookbinding, and design provided by his parents, Aldren studied at the Art Students League of New York.

He was best-known for his distinguished career as a book illustrator. He was also author and illustrator of several classic nonfiction titles, including Country Furniture, The Village Blacksmith, and Hand Tools: Their Ways and Workings. His illustrations have appeared in many magazines including WoodenBoat, American Artist, Vermont Life, and Fine Woodworking....

.....In his studio on the third floor of a bustling household, he created over 175 books for children and adults, while he and Nancy also raised milk goats, chickens, eight children, and a vegetable garden to feed them all. In addition to his illustrating work, Aldren found time for the woodworking he loved, creating the cabinet work for the old Vermont home he and Nancy purchased; designing and making many wooden trucks, bulldozers, boats, and cars for his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren; inventing and creating numerous tools, gadgets, and implements. He carried on the print-making and book-binding traditions his parents had begun. He pursued his creative projects almost every day of his life, but often said that his children were his greatest work. He was a loving, patient, enthusiastic, and supportive father, as well as a teacher and mentor, passing on his many skills and knowledge to the next generation.

Over the past 15 years, Watson had turned his attention to painting, creating a series of detailed watercolors of the Brooklyn waterfront based on photographs taken by his father on the many explorations of the New York waterfront they undertook together on foot, by ferryboat, and by tugboat. These paintings form the body of his last book, Waterfront New York: Images of the 1920’s & ‘30’s......

(snip)

http://thewendywatsonblog.blogspot.com/2013/05/aldren-watson-1917-2013.html
(by his daughter; it includes a photo)


http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&um=1&hl=en&q=aldren+auld+watson+
(artwork)

https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1680&bih=888&q=aldren+watson+%22gulliver%27s+travels%22&oq=aldren+watson+%22gulliver%27s+travels%22&gs_l=img.12...3996.3996.0.8581.1.1.0.0.0.0.334.334.3-1.1.0...0.0...1ac.1.14.img.7kKs3BiGSEU
(some woodcuts from "Gulliver's Travels," which also appear in the 1955 "The Illustrated Treasury of Children's Literature" - BTW, he also illustrated Kipling's "Jungle Books")

The only thing that annoys me about that edition of GT is that some squeamish editor saw fit to censor all sorts of passages from the book! (Namely, almost anything to do with human bodies and bodily functions....)

There are a few videos of Watson, but I can't get them right now.


WRITINGS BY THE AUTHOR:
SELF-ILLUSTRATED


The Village Blacksmith, Crowell, 1958, new edition, 1977.


My Garden Grows (juvenile), Viking, 1962.
(With father, Ernest William Watson) The Watson Drawing Book, Reinhold, 1962.
Hand Bookbinding: A Manual of Instruction, Reinhold, 1963, 3rd edition, 1975.
The River: A Story Told in Pictures, Holt, 1963.
Town Mouse, Country Mouse (juvenile), Holt, 1966.
Very First Words for Writing and Spelling: A Picture Dictionary (juvenile), Holt, 1966.


A Maple Tree Begins (juvenile), Viking, 1970.
Country Furniture, Crowell, 1974.
Where Everyday Things Come From, Platt, 1974.


Hand Tools: Their Ways and Workings, Norton, 1982.
(With Theodora Poulos) Furniture Making Plain and Simple, Norton, 1984.
Blacksmith: Ironworker and Farrier, Norton, 1990.


ILLUSTRATOR

Eileen O'Faolain, Little Black Hen: An Irish Fairy Story, Random House, 1940.
Meindert DeJong, Wheels over the Bridge, Harper, 1941.
Aesop's Fables, Peter Pauper, 1941.
Le Clair Alger, The Golden Summer, Harper, 1942.
Elizabeth Goudge, The Blue Hills, Coward, 1942.
Frances Frost, Christmas in the Woods, Harper, 1942, new edition, 1976.
May Justus, Dixie Decides, Random House, 1942.
Dahris Martin, The Wonder Cat, Crowell, 1942.
Washington Irving, Rip Van Winkle and the Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Peter Pauper, 1943.
The Song of Songs Which Is Solomon's, Peter Pauper, 1944.
Clement Clarke Moore, A Visit from St. Nicholas, Peter Pauper, 1945.
One Hundred and Fifty-Four Sonnets of William Shakespeare, Crowell, 1945.
A. E. Houseman, Shropshire Lad, Peter Pauper, 1945.
Fairy Tales of the Grimm Brothers, Peter Pauper, 1945.
Henry David Thoreau, Walden; or, Life in the Woods, Peter Pauper, 1946.
O'Faolain, Miss Pennyfeather and the Pooka, Random House, 1946.
Robb White, Three against the Sea, Harper, 1946.
Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels, Grosset, 1947.
Rudyard Kipling, Jungle Books, two volumes, Doubleday, 1948.
Harold W. Felton, Pecos Bill: Texas Cowpuncher, Knopf, 1949.


Felton, John Henry and His Hammer, Knopf, 1950.
Giovanni Verga, Cavalleria Rusticana and Other Narratives, selected by J. I. Rodale, Rodale Press, 1950.
F. B. Jacobs, Neighbors, Harper, 1950.
Felton, Cowboy Jamboree: Western Songs and Lore, Knopf, 1951.
F. Lape, Barnyard Year, Harper, 1951.
Meridel LeSueur, Chanticleer of Wilderness Road: A Story of Davy Crockett, Knopf, 1951.
A. White, Prehistoric America, Random House, 1951.
Ruth H. Thomas, Crip, Come Home, Harper, 1952.
Lewis Carroll, Hunting of the Snark, Peter Pauper, 1952.
Stephen Crane, The Red Badge of Courage, Peter Pauper, 1953.
Nancy Dingman Watson (wife), What Is One?, Knopf, 1954.
N. D. Watson, Whose Birthday Is It?, Knopf, 1954.
Mabel Louise Robinson, All the Year Round, Harper, 1954.
LeSueur, River Road: A Story of Abraham Lincoln, Knopf, 1954.
Kay Avery, All for a Horse, Crowell, 1955.
Felton, Fire-Fightin' Mose, Knopf, 1955.
Humphrey Francis Ellis, Vexations of A. J. Wentworth, Little, Brown, 1955.
N. D. Watson, Toby and Doll, Bobbs-Merrill, 1955.
N. D. Watson, When Is Tomorrow?, Knopf, 1955.
N. D. Watson, What Does A Begin With?, Knopf, 1956.
Avery, All for a Friend, Crowell, 1956.
N. D. Watson, The Fairy Tale Picture Book, Garden City Books, 1957.
Avery, All for a Ghost, Crowell, 1957.
N. D. Watson, Annie's Spending Spree, Viking, 1957.
John Parke, Moon Ship, Pantheon, 1958.
Elizabeth Jane Coatsworth, Down Tumbledown Mountain, Row, Peterson, 1958.
Jan Struther, A Pocketful of Pebbles, Harcourt, 1958.
Ruth L. Holberg, John Greenleaf Whittier: Fighting Quaker, Crowell, 1958.
Lois Baker Muehl, My Name is ...: A Game of Letters and Their Sounds, Holiday House, 1959.
N. D. Watson, adapter, The Arabian Nights Picture Book, Garden City Books, 1959.


Lloyd Arnold Brown, Map Making, Little, Brown, 1960.
William Bixby, The Impossible Journey of Sir Ernest Shackleton, Little, Brown, 1960.
Russian Proverbs, Peter Pauper, 1960.
Felton, Mike Fink: Best of the Keelboatmen, Dodd, 1960.
Margaret F. Bartlett, The Clean Brook, Crowell, 1961.
N. D. Watson, Cat Tales, Doubleday, 1961.
N. D. Watson, Pig Tales from Old English Nursery Rhymes, Doubleday, 1961.
N. D. Watson, Pony Tales from Old English Nursery Rhymes, Doubleday, 1961.
N. D. Watson, Puppy Dog Tales, Doubleday, 1961.
Bartlett, Where the Brook Begins, Crowell, 1961.
F. Emerson Andrews, Numbers, Please, Little, Brown, 1961.
Charles P. Graves, Mickey-Angelo, Funk, 1962.
Helen Harter, Carmelo, Follett, 1962.
Alberta W. Constant, Willie and the Wildcat Well, Crowell, 1962.
Holberg, American Bard: The Story of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Crowell, 1963.
N. D. Watson, Sugar on Snow, Viking, 1964.
Eva K. Evans, The Snow Book, Little, Brown, 1965.
N. D. Watson, Katie's Chickens, Knopf, 1965.
Maria Puccinelli, Catch a Fish, Bobbs-Merrill, 1965.
Regina Kelly, The Picture Story and Biography of John Adams, Follett, 1965.
Walter R. Brooks, Henry's Dog, Henry, Knopf, 1965.
Richard O'Connor, Young Bat Masterson, McGraw, 1967.
Carolyn Horton, Cleaning and Preserving Bindings, American Library Association, 1967.
Lilian Moore, Just Right, Parents Magazine Press, 1968.
N. D. Watson, Carol to a Child, music by daughter, Clyde Watson, World Publishing, 1969.
Bernice Kohn Hunt and G. David Weinick, A First Look at Psychology, Hawthorn, 1969.
Herbert H. Wong, Our Terrariums, Addison-Wesley, 1969.


N. D. Watson, New under the Stars, Little, Brown, 1970.
William Ivan Martin, Tatty Mae and Catty Mae, Holt, 1970.
Carleton Coon, The Hunting Peoples, Little, Brown, 1971.
N. D. Watson, Tommy's Mommy's Fish, Viking, 1971.
Bernard Middleton, Restoration of Leather Bindings, American Library Association, 1972.
Murray Hoyt, 30 Miles for Ice Cream, Stephen Greene, 1974.
Winthrop Dolan, A Choice of Sundials, Stephen Greene, 1974.
Frank Rowesome, The Bright and Glowing Place, Stephen Greene, 1975.
Howard Roger Garis, Uncle Wiggily's Happy Days, Platt, 1976.
Garis, Uncle Wiggily and the Sugar Cookie, Platt, 1977.
Garis, Uncle Wiggily and the Runaway Cheese, Platt, 1977.
Grant Heilman, Wheat Country, Stephen Greene, 1977.
J. Rahn, Weather for Gardeners, Garden Way Publishing, 1979.


Back to Basics, Reader's Digest Press, 1981.

"Contributor of self-illustrated articles on tools, trades, crafts, and wood-burning to Country Journal, Vermont Life, Horticulture, and other periodicals."


Lenona.

[leno...@yahoo.com]

Forgot his website:

http://www.aldrenwatson.com/index.html

(The bibliography, on one page, is in semi-alphabetical order.)


Lenona.