Ruth Krauss

Ruth Krauss (1901–1993) was a playwright and a poet as well as an author for children. She attended the Peabody Institute of Music in Baltimore and received a BA from the Parsons School of Applied Art in New York City. During the 1940s and 1950s Krauss spent time at the Bank Street Writers Laboratory, where authors were encouraged to work directly with children; her book A Hole Is to Dig (1952) was written collaboratively with nursery-school students and was illustrated by Maurice Sendak. The many outstanding illustrators Krauss worked with in the course of her long career include Marc Simont, with whom she collaborated on The Backward Day, published by NYRB Kids, and her husband, Crockett Johnson, the author of Harold and the Purple Crayon.

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