Evaline Ness
Evaline Ness was an accomplished American artist and children’s book illustrator, born in 1911 in Union City, Ohio. She demonstrated artistic talent from a young age while growing up in Pontiac, Michigan. Following her studies at Ball State Teachers College, Ness became immersed in commercial art, eventually supporting herself as a professional illustrator by 1935. In 1938, she married Eliot Ness, a notable figure in American law enforcement, but retained her surname after their divorce in 1946. During World War II, she taught art to children in Washington, D.C., and later moved to New York City, where she worked as a fashion illustrator and furthered her studies in Rome.
Ness gained national acclaim for her cover design of Scott O'Dell's "Island of the Blue Dolphins," which won the Newbery Medal in 1961. Her own children's book, "Josephina February," published in 1963, marked the beginning of a successful writing career, culminating in her winning the Caldecott Medal in 1967 for "Sam, Bangs, and Moonshine." Her contributions to children's literature were recognized internationally when she was nominated for the Hans Christian Andersen award in 1972, highlighting her significance in the field of children's illustration and storytelling.
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Subject Terms
Evaline Ness
Fiction Writer
- Born: April 24, 1911
- Birthplace: Union City, Ohio
- Died: August 12, 1986
- Place of death: New York
Biography
Evaline Ness was born in 1911 in Union City, Ohio. She exhibited a marked artistic inclination even as a child growing up in Pontiac, Michigan. Her earliest career ambitions were limited but while attending Ball State Teachers College in Muncie, Indiana, during 1931 and 1932, she became acquainted with an illustrator who introduced her to the idea of making a living as a commercial artist. Shortly thereafter, Ness entered into a short-lived marriage to an illustrator named Mac and began studying painting and anatomy at the Art Institute of Chicago. By 1935 she was supporting herself as a commercial artist.
In 1938 she married fabled former U.S. Treasury Department agent Eliot Ness, then public safety director of Cleveland, Ohio. Although the couple would divorce in 1946, and Evaline would marry a third time (in 1959 she wed mechanical engineer Arnold A. Bayard), she kept Ness’s surname. During World War II, the Nesses moved to Washington, D.C., where Evaline both studied and taught art to children at the Corcoran Gallery of Art. The couple then moved to New York City, where Ness worked as a fashion illustrator for Saks Fifth Avenue and as a freelance illustrator before studying at the Accademia de Belle Arti in Rome from 1951 to 1952. She resumed her teaching career at the Parsons School of Design, where she worked from 1959 to 1960.
Although Ness illustrated her first book for children in 1954, it was not until 1961 that she received national recognition when a book for which she had designed the cover, Scott O’Dell’s Island of the Blue Dolphins, won the Newbery Medal in 1961. Ness supplied illustrations for several other noted children’s books written by others before writing her first book for children, Josephina February (1963). It and several subsequent books were both critical and popular successes, and in 1967 Ness received the top prize in her field when her book Sam, Bangs, and Moonshine won the Caldecott Medal. International recognition came in 1972, when Ness was named the United States nominee for the prestigious Hans Christian Andersen award.