raggedy ann and andy books by johnny gruelle

Gruelle had a long-standing heart condition, and died from this ailment in Miami Beach Florida, on 8th January 1938. He spent a year in Ashland, Oregon, from 1923-24. Gruelle lived in the Silvermine section of New Canaan, Connecticut, where the dolls were first mass-produced, and later moved his home and company to neighbouring Wilton, Connecticut. Woodin (1868 – 1934), who in 1933 was appointed Secretary of Treasury under Franklin Roosevelt. His ‘Sunny Songs’ were set to music by William H.

Possessed, with a heavy countenance, and … with the only thing he would bear to have near him as a reminder of Marcella a rag doll.Īside from the books and dolls, Gruelle also wrote songs on the ‘Raggedy Ann’ theme. After this blow, family friends described Gruelle as: His beloved Marcella contracted diptheria and died at the age of thirteen. Gruelle’s life was struck by immense personal tragedy however. One such example is his masterful, Nobody’s Boy – illustrations for Hector Malet’s Sans Famille. Gruelle was an extremely talented illustrator as well as author, and often had such confidence in his designs that he would create the final ink work without first sketching in pencil. These became Volland’s major source of revenue. Three years later, in 1918, the ‘PF Volland Company’ published Raggedy Ann Stories, and Gruelle went on to create an extremely popular series on the same theme, as well as a further collection of Raggedy Ann dolls.

Origins of Fairy Tales from Around the World.

“That love,” says Valencia, “was a lot of what Johnny brought to life in Raggedy. The artist moved forward with the plush - for his little girl. Before her father had secured the patent for the doll, Valencia says, the 13-year-old died of “complications from a vaccine,” which historians have reported was for smallpox. Only Marcela never got to celebrate the success of her favorite lovey. “So he fixed her up, painted a face on her, and thought, ‘Marcella loves this doll so much, maybe there’s some magic here.’”

Gruelle knew he had a money maker and quickly licensed P.F. “She found this doll all ragged and torn up,” says Valencia. The Raggedy Ann character was copyrighted in 1915 by Johnny Gruelle, a commercial artist. Johnny Gruelle (Photo: Courtesy of the Gruelle Family)īut the road to, well, rags wasn’t without some drama along with way - much like the “toyland comes to life ideas” that Valencia says Gruelle’s Raggedy Ann book series reveals as Ann and her friends experience their “fantasy world adventures.”Īs the story goes, Gruelle’s daughter, Marcella, found a doll in her grandmother’s attic that instantly sparked the illustrator’s creativity.

Raggedy ann and andy books by johnny gruelle