Marie Hall Ets
Marie Hall Ets was an influential author and illustrator in children's literature, with a career that spanned over thirty years and included over twenty books primarily aimed at preschoolers. She is best known for her acclaimed book "Nine Days to Christmas," which received the prestigious Caldecott Medal in 1960. Ets's work is distinguished by her artistic style and a strong focus on nature, as well as her commitment to representing diverse cultures, particularly African American and Latino communities, in children's books. Born in North Greenfield, Wisconsin, Ets had a rich family background that included a physician grandfather and a philosopher brother, which may have influenced her diverse interests.
Ets pursued formal education in art, studying at institutions such as Lawrence College and the New York School of Fine and Applied Arts. She initially embarked on a career in social work, which informed her understanding of children's experiences and shaped her writing. Her books, often reflecting her childhood explorations of nature, showcase her artistic talent and thoughtful preparation. Beyond "Nine Days to Christmas," Ets authored several other noteworthy titles, including "Gilberto and the Wind" and "My Dog Rinty." She retired in Florida after her last publication in 1974 and passed away in 1984, leaving behind a legacy that continues to resonate in children's literature.
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Marie Hall Ets
Writer
- Born: December 16, 1893
- Birthplace: North Greenfield, Wisconsin (now part of Milwaukee, Wisconsin)
- Died: 1984
Biography
In a career spanning over thirty years, Marie Hall Ets contributed over twenty books, mainly books for preschoolers, to the canon of children’s literature. She is perhaps best known for her book Nine Days to Christmas, which won the Caldecott Medal in 1960, but all of her work is characterized by an interest in nature, a concerted effort to expand the subjects of children’s books to embrace children of African American and Latino culture, and an imaginative, artistic style.
Ets was born in North Greenfield, Wisconsin, which later became part of Milwaukee. She was one of six children born to Walter August Hall, who was a doctor and later a minister, and Mathilde (Carhart) Hall. Her brother, Everett Wesley Hall, was a noted philosopher, and her grandfather, John Wesley Carhart, was a well-known physician, minister, poet, and inventor. Ets reminisced about her childhood years, which she spent in the north woods hunting snakes and exploring the Wisconsin lakeshore, and she credited those childhood experiences as the source for her later interest in animals and nature in her books.
Her artistic talent was identified at an early age, and after studying art at Lawrence College in Appleton, Wisconsin, from 1911 to 1912, Ets went on to obtain a two-year certificate from the New York School of Fine and Applied Arts (now the Parsons School of Design) in 1913, where she studied art and interior design. She married Milton Rodig in 1917 and worked briefly as an artist in San Francisco. However, the couple had only been married a few weeks when Rodig died in an army camp in January, 1918. Ets moved to Chicago, where she studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and at the University of Chicago. She completed a Ph.D. in the University of Chicago’s School of Civics and Philanthropy in 1924. At the same time, she launched a career in social work in the Chicago area, most notably as a volunteer resident at the Chicago Commons Social Settlement House from 1919 to 1929. Between 1923 and 1924 she helped organize a child-health clinic in Pilsen, Czechoslovakia, under the auspices of the American Red Cross. In 1930 Ets married Harold Norris Ets, a physician and faculty member in the Loyola University School of Medicine. An exhibit on the subject of human embryos that her husband helped organize for the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair served as the basis for Ets’s thoroughly researched and groundbreaking children’s book on sex education, The Story of a Baby.
Ets left social work because of ill health and moved with her husband to New York City, where she continued her study of art. She focused on children’s interpretations of art at Columbia University and embarked upon a career writing and illustrating books for children. Sher published her first book, Mister Penny, in 1935. Illnesses, both hers and her husband’s, delayed her writing career for several years, and her second husband died in 1943. In the years from 1944 until her last publication, Jay Bird, in 1974, Ets published nearly twenty books for children, including the Caldecott Award-winning Nine Days to Christmas in 1959 (with Aurora Labastida) and four Caldecott Honor Books: In the Forest, Mr. T. W. Anthony Woo, Play with Me, and Just Me. Her books were included on numerous lists of best books for children.
Ets’s books offer a showcase for her artistic ability, but they also reflect her wish to write books, like Gilberto and the Wind and My Dog Rinty, that reflect the experiences of the African American, Mexican, and Mexican American children that she knew from her travels and from her days as a social worker. Many of her books, like In the Forest and Play with Me, also build upon her childhood interest in and observations of nature and animals. Ets was noted for her careful and thorough preparation and research as well as for her trademark artistic technique of paper batik. Ets retired to Florida after the publication of her last book in 1974 and died in 1984.