- There Was a Crooked Man
I missed a couple of exhibit openings while I was on vacation, including “You Fit into Me: Works by David Carpenter and Lindsey Maestri” at the Historic Arkansas Museum and “Draw Me a Story: A Century of Children’s Book Illustration” at the Laman Library in North Little Rock. Here’s a preview of the library show: William Wallace Denslow’s “There Was a Crooked Man.” Denslow is better remembered as the illustrator for L. Frank Baum’s “Wizard of Oz” series. According to Wikipedia, he bought an island in Bermuda from his “Wizard” royalties, crowned himself Denslow I and drank himself to death. Other illustrators in the show, which has 40 works, include Maurice Sendak, Lois Lenski, William Steig, Chris Van Allsberg and other worthies, though none royal.
I’ll post a jpeg from the HAM show when I can get one.