![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/WalterAnderson1.jpg\")
<\/a>\n
(Click to enlarge spread.)<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n
Several weeks ago, I blogged about a few new picture book biographies that made me happy. I was eager then to tell you about the title I’m featuring today, but I wanted to wait a bit to secure some spreads from it to share with you. This is, hands down, one of my favorite picture books from this year, and it seems to have come out of nowhere and surprised me. It’s called The Secret World of Walter Anderson<\/strong><\/a><\/em> (Candlewick, September 2009), it’s by an author with whom I was not previously familiar, Hester Bass<\/strong><\/a>, and it’s about “the most famous American artist you’ve never heard of,”<\/em> as Bass puts it. The book was illustrated by the one and only E.B. Lewis<\/strong><\/a>, whose work I’ve long adored. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Eventually, after Walter’s death in 1965, his wife unlocked the mystery room in his cottage and ventured inside — “and what she saw took her breath away…There was art everywhere.”<\/em> Indeed, inside this one room was art he had created and kept hidden, kept to himself. The walls were covered with paintings of his Gulf Shore adventures, birds and other animals, and a “giant zinnia on the ceiling.”<\/em> In a fascinating author’s note at the book’s close, Bass describes in more detail the events of Walter’s life and the events after his death, including the unfortunate storm surge from Hurricane Katrina that “took much of the legacy of the Anderson family out to sea.”<\/em> <\/p>\n Have I mentioned I love this book? I’ll say it again, though: I love the writing, and I love the art. Publishers Weekly<\/em> calls this a “powerful tribute to the lengths artists will go for their passions” and Kirkus<\/em>, a “gorgeous chronicle of a versatile southern American artist.” A more fitting illustrator, I think, could simply not<\/em> have been chosen, too. Lewis’ luminescent watercolors perfectly capture the beauty of the island and Anderson’s devotion to it. When I asked E.B. Lewis about this title, he said that …I am always inspired by the text first; however, this project was extremely special, because here was a chance to celebrate a great American artist. An opportunity to enrich a child’s life with art…. For me, as an artist, the process is far more important that the product. In researching Walter Anderson, I had the wonderful opportunity to visit his home, family, and the island that he loved, although much of that had been destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. This provided the nuance that I need to bring his world to life. I had a grand time working on this project.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n I also had a chance to ask the author, Hester Bass, about her work on this book. Without further ado, here she is, and I thank her—and E.B.—for stopping by.<\/p>\n 7-Imp<\/font><\/strong>: I know you mention this in the Author’s Note, but can you talk a bit—for those folks who haven’t read the book—about how and when your admiration for Walter’s work began?<\/font><\/p>\n Hester<\/font><\/strong>: Some time in 1982, a friend in Mississippi sent us an issue of Horizon<\/em> magazine with an article about Walter Anderson. I was instantly enchanted. His work has a liveliness to it that drew me in, his writings are equally absorbing, and his life was the stuff of legend. I wanted to hop in the car and drive down to Ocean Springs, Mississippi, to see everything for myself. Which is wonderfully mysterious, because some readers have told me that this book had the same effect on them. That\u2019s one of the best reviews I could ever hope for.<\/p>\n Fast-forward nearly fifteen years, and my family moves to Ocean Springs, when my husband becomes the director of the Walter Anderson Museum of Art<\/strong><\/a>. We meet the Anderson family, visit Horn Island<\/strong><\/a>, and simply enjoy being surrounded by the same environment that so inspired him. My children were young, and those were halcyon days. The more I saw of Walter Anderson\u2019s work, the more deeply I admired it.<\/p>\n 7-Imp<\/font><\/strong>: You wrote in the book (your back-flap bio) that you were once asked what story you most wanted to publish — and that this was it. When did the idea of writing about Walter first come to you?<\/font><\/p>\n Hester<\/font><\/strong>: In the late 1990s, I was working as a storyteller, performing fairy tales and original material. When school groups would come to the museum, I often told them the story of Walter Anderson\u2019s life. Some of his adventures sound like mythology, but they\u2019re true, and the children were fascinated. Fidgety kids would relax into the tale of a man who drew with crayons as expertly as he did with ink, who rode a bicycle but didn\u2019t drive a car, who occasionally ate what washed up on the beach, and made friends with the animals on Horn Island. <\/p>\n I wrote the first draft in 1999. I find Anderson\u2019s art and writings, like nature itself, endlessly refreshing and wanted to share his story in the same way that one wants to tell friends about a fabulous restaurant or an engaging film. There were many books about Anderson for adults, but almost nothing for children. In workshops, writers are often told to \u201cwrite the story that only you can write.\u201d I took that advice to heart, and was compelled to tell the story of Walter Anderson. <\/p>\n 7-Imp<\/font><\/strong>: Tell me about your research for this book.<\/font><\/p>\n Hester<\/font><\/strong>: I\u2019ve heard some of the stories about Walter Anderson for over twenty-five years, so I had to separate the myth from the man. I read the books about Anderson and his art repeatedly and took notes, which I collected and collated and compared. I concentrated on the books that are as close to primary resources as I could get — The Horn Island Logs of Walter Inglis Anderson<\/em><\/strong><\/a>, edited by Redding S. Sugg Jr., and Approaching the Magic Hour<\/strong><\/a><\/em>, the memoir by his wife Agnes Grinstead Anderson, who was a superb writer. It\u2019s my good fortune to be acquainted with the Anderson family, as well as a former curator for the Walter Anderson Museum of Art, and they helped me refine the manuscript for accuracy. <\/p>\n Additionally, E. B. Lewis and I enjoyed a rare author-illustrator collaboration on this project. We both went to Mississippi in the summer of 2008 and visited the places where Walter Anderson lived and worked, including Horn Island. E. B. works in the classic style of posing models for reference photography, so we set up each of the scenes in the book, working from his sketches. Lucky for us, two of Walter Anderson\u2019s children agreed to pose as their parents (the resemblance is striking), and his other two children helped us gain access to his cottage and get to Horn Island. <\/p>\n We\u2019re so grateful for the participation and assistance of the Anderson family and the staff at the Walter Anderson Museum, who helped me find many of the photographs of Anderson\u2019s work that illustrate the Author\u2019s Note. Working with everyone at Candlewick has been a pleasure and confirmed my belief that creating a picture book is akin to making a film \u2013 many hands work together to craft something wonderful.<\/p>\n 7-Imp<\/font><\/strong>: I think the biography is so beautifully-written. Can you talk a bit about your writing process? How many drafts did you go through to get to this well-crafted book you offer readers now?<\/font><\/p>\n Hester<\/font><\/strong>: First of all, thank you for the compliment! I remember vividly my first trip to Horn Island, and I wanted to share that sense of an adventurous journey and depict art as a way of life. My first draft was about 2,500 words and then the distillation process began, trying to convey someone\u2019s life story in as few words as possible. I really couldn\u2019t tell you how many drafts I went through. It was a lot though — a whole lot.<\/p>\n After trying it several different ways, I decided to focus on the last part of his life, when he was spending so much time on Horn, for the main story, telling the rest in the Author\u2019s Note. Anderson\u2019s work falls into three distinct periods—Ocean Springs, Oldfields, and Horn Island—and he is best known for the Horn Island watercolors. Plus, when I would tell his story to the school children visiting the museum, that\u2019s the part they liked best, when he was living under his boat on the beach and painting the wildlife. <\/p>\n As to my writing process, while I would certainly enjoy the luxury of spending entire days writing, like most people, I have commitments to family and community. My goal is to spend three or four hours a day writing, then throw in a little time on marketing. <\/p>\n Lately, I\u2019ve put in a lot of hours on marketing efforts to get the word out and create what I\u2019m calling a Shoestring Tour. That\u2019s actually a term used by SIBA, the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance<\/strong><\/a>, and it\u2019s appropriate for what I\u2019m doing, which is seeing how much I can tour on as little money as possible. These days authors have to do everything they can to compete in the marketplace, and I truly enjoy author visits and signings and blog tours -\u2013 thanks for having me!<\/p>\n 7-Imp<\/font><\/strong>: You’re welcome and my pleasure. <\/p>\n What was it like for you to see E.B. Lewis’ art work for the book for the first time?<\/font><\/p>\n Hester<\/font><\/strong>: Very emotional. Just seeing the rough sketches brought tears to my eyes, to see my manuscript coming to life, especially since E. B. Lewis was my first choice for illustrator. He\u2019s a skilled watercolorist, and I felt he would understand Walter Anderson\u2019s journey as an artist. I had found quotes online attributed to E. B. that I could easily have believed had been said by Walter Anderson; they seem to share a certain sensibility when it comes to nature as subject matter. <\/p>\n I admire E. B.\u2019s marvelous treatment of water and changing light conditions, so the cake was when he came on board, and the icing was becoming friends on our trip to Ocean Springs. I was absolutely thrilled to see the finished sketches, and then the proofs, and then the book itself. E. B. also made a special effort to make sure I saw the original paintings, which were like a string of pearls one after the other. I love the cover; it captures the joy Walter felt on those journeys to Horn.<\/p>\n 7-Imp<\/font><\/strong>: What has the response to the book been from Walter’s family?<\/font><\/p>\n Hester<\/font><\/strong>: From what I hear, they are pleased with it, which makes me happy. I wanted it to be a book that they would feel proud to read to his great-grandchildren. I hope that\u2019s true.<\/p>\n 7-Imp<\/font><\/strong>: What’s next for you? Any books you are working on now that you can talk about?<\/font><\/p>\n Hester<\/font><\/strong>: What\u2019s next is a lot of traveling in support of The Secret World of Walter Anderson<\/em>. I enjoy getting out there and meeting people who love art and books, so I\u2019ll be appearing at schools, libraries, museums, conferences, and bookstores. My schedule is on my website<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n I enjoy reading picture book biographies, so I\u2019m working on more of those, as well as some fiction. I\u2019ve started a somewhat philosophical YA and a middle grade novel set in an alternative past. Writing is hard work, but it\u2019s playing with words. It\u2019s a constant search for those words that play well with others, and that is so much fun.<\/p>\n THE SECRET WORLD OF WALTER ANDERSON. Text copyright \u00a9 2009 by Hester Bass. Illustrations copyright \u00a9 2009 by E.B. Lewis. Reproduced by permission of the publisher, Candlewick Press, Somerville, MA. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" “There once was a man whose love of nature was as wide as the world. There once was an artist who needed to paint as much as he needed to breathe. There once was an islander who lived in a cottage at the edge of Mississippi, where the sea meets the earth and the sky. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,26,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogger-interviews","category-nonfiction","category-picture-books"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1808\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}“There once was a man whose love of nature was as wide as the world,”<\/em> the book opens. “There once was an artist who needed to paint as much as he needed to breathe.”<\/em> Meet Walter Anderson, born in 1903, who lived in a cottage along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. An artist who saw his work as an adventure, he had one room in his cottage to which no one else was ever invited: “He didn’t let anybody in there—maybe a possum or a mouse, but not his wife or his children. Nobody. Ever. That was <\/em>his little room.”<\/em> He’d pin a note to that cottage door and often head out to the deserted Horn Island: “…{F}or Walter, to paint on Horn Island was to be in paradise.”<\/em> He’d scrounge for food, use his boat for shelter, write in his journals, and “draw and paint all his {animal} friends on Horn Island from sunrise till after nightfall…Some people called him crazy for living like a hermit just to paint fish and animals and birds and plants. But Walter Anderson spent some of the happiest times of his life on Horn Island.”<\/em> Bass devotes the story to his trips to the island and his life of solitude and wonderment there. <\/p>\n
“{s}ince watercolor was {Anderson’s} medium-of-choice, as is mine, I think this makes a great marriage,” adding: <\/p>\n<\/a>
\n
until he pulled the skiff onshore.”
(Click to enlarge spread.)<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n<\/a>
\n
Walter Anderson, and on an island, no food is ever wasted.”<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n