This March: Children’s Book Creators Who Embody “Art as Life, Life as art.”
- lindsey4824
- Feb 28
- 5 min read
Updated: Sep 25
Many artists including Keith Haring and Ai Weiwei have espoused the idea that art is life and life is art. This means that art is not only an essential way to express, reflect, and understand ourselves and others, but it is also an all-encompassing approach to living and appreciating the world around us.
Ruth Stiles Gannett, Ruth Chrisman Gannett, and Wanda Gág are three creators with exhibits at The Rabbit hOle who embody this philosophy. Progressive, creative, experimental, and accomplished women, each of them extended their artistic practice into all aspects of their lives — and their lives were intertwined with one another.
This month join us for Story Hours and adult programming to learn more about these creators and celebrate their inspiring legacies.
Wanda Gág 1893-1946
When Anton Gag was on his deathbed, he told his 15-year-old daughter Wanda that although he would never realize his dream of becoming a successful artist, she must fulfill hers. His final words to her were: "Was der Papa nicht thun konnt', muss die Wanda halt fertig machen." ( What Papa couldn't do, Wanda will have to finish.)
Wanda was born in the German community of New Ulm, Minnesota, and was the oldest of seven children. Before both her parents died and left a teenage Wanda to raise her siblings, they created a household that celebrated art and writing despite their financial struggles. And ultimately art became a means of survival for Wanda and siblings – making greeting cards, selling writing and illustrations to the Minneapolis Journal, and teaching art classes to local children.
Throughout her life Wanda kept a diary, and even published some of them in the book Growing Pains: Diaries and Drawings from the Years 1908-17. At seventeen she wrote, “My Own Motto –– Draw to Live and Live to Draw.”
While working to support her siblings, Wanda attended art schools in Minneapolis and New York. After moving to New York she changed her last name from Gag to Gág in hopes it would help people pronounce it correctly. Her instructions were to, “Pronounce it ‘Gaag’ ––to rhyme with jog, not bag please!”
Some of her first jobs as a commercial artist were creating fashion illustrations and soap advertisements. By the mid-1920s, Wanda began earning recognition as a fine artist. A number of her drawings, lithographs, and watercolors were exhibited in several New York galleries. Wanda was also politically active, attending socialist lectures and submitting work to the progressive publication the Nation, where Lewis Stiles Gannett (the father of Ruth Stiles and second husband of Ruth Chrisman) was a writer and editor. Wanda and the Gannetts became good friends.
In 1928 with the help of editor Ernestine Evans at the brand publishing company Coward-McCann, Wanda published her first children’s book, Millions of Cats. The book was an immediate success and has never gone out of print, making it the oldest American picture book continuously in print. In total, she created 10 children’s books, including The Funny Thing, which is featured as an exhibit at The Rabbit hOle. Her work was often grounded in folk and fairy tales, and her unique illustration style provided a sense of rhythm and movement.
With the success of her children’s books, Wanda was able to buy a farm which she affectionately named “All Creation.” There she continued to create work and cultivate her passion for gardening, always balancing the financial needs of her family and her artistic goals. At 52, a lung cancer diagnosis determined that she only had a few more months to live – though her husband and family withheld the diagnosis from her. When Wanda died in 1946, she had certainly finished what her father could not, having not only achieved immense success as an artist and children’s book creator, but also supporting her family throughout her life.
Ruth Chrisman Gannett 1896-1979 & Ruth Stiles Gannett 1923-2024
Both Ruth Chrisman Gannett and Ruth Stiles Gannett are best known for their book My Father’s Dragon and other books in the “Elmer and the Dragon” series. Ruth Stiles Gannett wrote the first story when she was in her mid-twenties and between jobs. Random House accepted the book for publication, and her stepmother, Ruth Chrisman Gannett, illustrated the book. In 1948 it won a Newbery Honor.
Both Ruths (which for clarity we’ll refer to as Chrisman or Stiles) immersed themselves in art when they were children.
Chrisman was born in Santa Ana, California, and began drawing at a young age. She went on to study art at the University of California, Berkeley. According to MyFathersDragon.org, she “broke with the art department gender barrier, picking up her easel and setting it down in the men’s class, where they were drawing a nude.” After teaching art in California, Chrisman moved to New York City to continue studying art and working at Vanity Fair and as a freelance artist. Beginning in the 1930s, she achieved notoriety by illustrating Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck, earning a Caldecott Honor for My Mother is the Most Beautiful Woman in the World by Rebecca Reyher, and winning the Newbery Award for Miss Hickory by Caroline Bailey. Art was also how she connected with the children of her second husband Lewis Stiles Gannett.
Stiles was born and raised in New York, attending the progressive City and Country School in Greenwich Village where her creativity was nurtured. She later recalled that "she benefited from being 'allowed and encouraged to write for fun' at certain times of the day,” and credited her success to the school’s philosophy of respecting children’s capacities and encouraging them to learn through doing. At Vassar College, Stiles studied chemistry, but began writing children’s books shortly thereafter. In total Stiles wrote five children’s books.
Both Chrisman and Stiles made their homes on farms, where they had space for their creative pursuits including gardening, cooking, making all sorts of things from recycled materials, and creating incredible environments for the children in their lives. Stiles raised seven daughters.
Chrisman died at her home in 1979, and her family notes, “A cat lover, she would have been pleased to know that her longtime companion Tookum, whom she had rescued from a terrible fate, jumped into the hearse taking her away to say farewell before she departed.”
Stiles died in 2024 when she was more than 100 years old. Her daughters credit part of her longevity to the fact that she ate oatmeal and blueberries for breakfast every morning.
The Rabbit hOle is currently collaborating with the Gannett family on a gallery show celebrating My Father’s Dragon and the world-building Chrisman and Stiles did on and off the page.
Related Events
 | Story HourWed 3/5 & Fri 3/7, 10:30 AMThis week's story: Millions of Cats Ages 3-7 |
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 | Story HourWed 3/12 & Fri 3/14, 10:30 AMThis week's story: Snippy and Snappy Ages 3-7 |
 | Story HourWed 3/19 & Fri 3/21, 10:30 AMThis week's story: The Funny Thing Wednesday 3/19 will include ASL interpretation Ages 3-7 |
 | Story HourWed 3/26 & Fri 3/28, 10:30 AMThis week's story: My Father's Dragon Ages 3-7 |
 | Let's Take a DiveFriday, 3/28, 5:30 - 7:00 PMLet's Take a Dive: Art as Life & Life as Art 21+ |
 | 21 + NightFriday, 3/28 5:00 - 7:00 PMCome visit The Rabbit hOle for an 21+ evening at the museum. |
