Joe Krush

Joe Krush

I was first introduced to the illustrations of Beth and Joe Krush in All-of-a-Kind Family Downtown. It's the only title of the five they did, and it fits in nicely with the work of Helen John, Mary Stevens and Gail Owens.

Beth and Joe were both born in 1918, Beth in Washington DC on March 31 and Joe in Camden, NJ on May 18. Both drew as children, but it was a passion for Beth, less so for Joe, though he won prizes for his drawings of boats and planes as a boy. They studied at the Philadelphia Museum School of Art, where they met on the first day of class. They married during WWII, while Joe worked as a graphic designer for the O.S.S. (One fascinating aspect of his life is that he was the courtroom sketch artist during the Nuremberg Trials!) Beth, meanwhile, taught illustration and drawing at Moore College of Art.

Their book illustration work began after the war, with each publishing books in 1947. The two had quite a career and each did plenty individual illustration. Among other things, Joe decorated many LP covers and illustrated Andre Norton's first fantasy novel, while Beth collaborated with Sarah Scott Fisher (daughter of Dorothy Canfield Fisher) frequently. Both worked with Eudora Welty (though on different projects.) They actually planned to work separately, but collaborated to meet deadlines, and this was noticed and approved by editors.

Sometimes it's hard to tell how whose work is whose, especially when they collaborated on the same drawing. Beth explained their process, "usually they pick the incidents and talk over the staging together. Then, Joe does the first composition and perspective sketch; and Beth reworks that, adding her two cents and looking up costumes, furniture, plants, animals, and people. Most often Joe does the final rendering in his own decorative line."

Recently, I was surprised to discover that they had illustrated a Beverly Cleary book, Emily's Runaway Imagination. Newly reprinted paperbacks, which definitely have a fresh look, are by a different illustrator, but the Krush pictures have been there a long time! And this wasn't their only collaboration. Together, they worked with Cleary on at least three other occasions, though these books seem geared older than Cleary's normal audience and don't appear to be readily available. 

They are well-known for Miracles on Maple Hill by Virginia Sorensen, which won the 1957 Newbery Medal, and for their work on Elizabeth Enright's Gone-Away Lake and Return to Gone Away. (Reprints of these are easy to find, but earlier editions much harder.) They collaborated with many others, including Jean Fritz (Magic to Burn) and Eleanor Cameron of Mushroom Planet fame (The Terrible Churnadryne and The Mysterious Christmas Shell). But the Krushes are probably most famous for Mary Norton's Borrowers series, of which they did all five.

Their illustrations (at least the ones I've seen) are charming sketches, often seemingly simple, yet with an attention to detail both in costume and surroundings that bear a closer look.

Beth passed away in February 2009, but Joe lasted until he was nearly 104, passing early in 2022!

VIDEO TRIBUTE: 

Joe Krush: A Life Well-Illustrated

 

Books illustrated by Joe Krush alone:

Florence Parry Heide (some with Roxanne Heide): Body in the Brillstone Garage, Fear at Brillstone, Face at the Brillstone Window, Brillstone Break-In, Black Magic at Brillstone, Time Bomb at Brillstone

Gerald James Holton (pseud: James Geralton): Story of Sound

Norma Kassirer: Magic Elizabeth

Mari´a Cristina Mena (1893-1965): Boy Heroes of Chapultepec, A Story of the Mexican War (Winston Adventure)

Andre Norton: Huon of the Horn (adaptation of Huon de Bordeaux)

Philip Rush: Minstrel Knight

Wilbur Schramm: Windwagon Smith and Other Yarns (1947)

Sally Scott: Chica

Geoffey Trease: Trumpets in the West, Secret Fiord, Shadow of the Hawk

Eudora Welty: The Ponder Heart

Jessamyn West: Cress Delahanty

 

Other books illustrated by Joe AND Beth Krush:

Carol Madden Adjoran: Cat Sitter Mystery

Marilyn D. Anderson: Come Home, Barkley

Peter Archer: Stagecoach Robbery

Elizabeth (Gillette) Baker: This Stranger, My Son

Eleanor Cameron: The Terrible Churnadryne, Mysterious Christmas Shell, The Beast with the Magical Horn, A Spell is Cast

Ruth Christopher Carlsen: Ride a Wild Horse

Betty Cavanna: Petey

Helen Chetin: Perihan's Promise, Turkish Relatives, and the Dirty Old Imam

Beverly Cleary: Fifteen, Jean and Johnny, Sister of the Bride

Elizabeth K. Cooper: Fish From Japan

Alberta Wilson Constant: Those Miller Girls, Motoring Millers

Harold Courlander: The Piece of Fire and Other Haitian Tales

Stuart A. Courtis and Garnette Watters: The Courtis-Watters Illustrated Golden Dictionary for Young Readers

Susan Fleming: The Pig at 37 Pinecrest Drive

Jean Fritz: Magic to Burn

Genevieve Gray: Sore Loser

Elizabeth Hall: Stand Up, Lucy

Barbara Kinney Hargis: Why We Celebrate Christmas

Florence Highwater: Secret of the Crazy Quilt, Mrs. Wappinger's Secret

Isabelle Holland: God, Mrs. Muskrat, and Aunt Dot

Elizabeth Honness: Mystery of the Pirate's Ghost, Mystery of the Secret Message

Barbara Jeffers: Half-Angel

Norma Kramer: Norma Kramer's Storybook for Threes and Fours, The 2d Nora Kramer storybook

John Langstaff: The Swapping Boy, Ol' Dan Tucker

E. H. Lansing: Small Circus

Irving A. Leitner: Lady Poole and Mr. Potts

Jane Stevenson McIlvaine: Front Page for Jennifer

Mary Lawrence Shipman Mian: Nip and Tuck War

Alice-Leone Moats: At Home Abroad

Lillian Moore: The Golden Picture Dictionary

Phyllis Reynolds Naylor: To Make a Wee Moon

Mary Norton: Poor Stainless: A New Story About the Borrowers

Robert Pierik: Rookfleas in the Cellar

Lillian Pohlmann: Summer of the White Reindeer

Louis Untermeyer: The Magic Circle: Stories and People in Poetry

Mary Phraner Warren: Snake Named Sam, Ghost Town for Sale, River School Detectives

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Related Links
Wikipedia Biography
Joe & Beth Krush
Out of the Box Blog
Happy 100th Birthday, Joe Krush!
University of Southern Mississippi
Biographical sketch of the Krushes
Today's Inspiration Blog
Joe Krush, Graphic Designer
21 Items found
All-of-a-Kind Family Downtown
All-of-a-Kind Family Series #2
by Sydney Taylor, illustrated by Beth & Joe Krush
from Lizzie Skurnick Books
Family Stories for 2nd-6th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$12.95
Borrowers
Borrowers Series #1
by Mary Norton
from Harcourt
Fantasy for 3rd-6th grade
1952 Carnegie Medal
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
$9.99
Borrowers Afield
Borrowers Series #2
by Mary Norton
from Harcourt
Fantasy for 3rd-6th grade
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
$7.99
Borrowers Afloat
Borrowers Series #3
by Mary Norton
from Harcourt
Fantasy for 3rd-6th grade
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
$7.99
Borrowers Aloft
Borrowers Series #4
by Mary Norton
from Harcourt
Fantasy for 3rd-6th grade
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
$7.99
Borrowers Aloft
Borrowers Series #4
by Mary Norton
from Scholastic Inc.
Fantasy for 3rd-6th grade
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
Borrowers Avenged
Borrowers Series #5
by Mary Norton
from Harcourt
Fantasy for 3rd-6th grade
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
$7.99
Borrowers Series - Boxed Set
by Mary Norton
from Harcourt
Fantasy for 3rd-6th grade
in Boxed Sets & Literature Packages (Location: FIC-BOX)
$34.99
Emily's Runaway Imagination (Krush illustrations)
by Beverly Cleary, illustrated by Beth and Joe Krush
from HarperCollins
for 2nd-4th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
Gone-Away Lake
by Elizabeth Enright, illustrated by Beth & Joe Krush
from Harcourt
Realistic Fiction for 4th-6th grade
1958 Newbery Honor Book
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$9.99 $4.00 (1 in stock)
Miracles on Maple Hill
by Virginia Sorensen, illustrated by Beth & Joe Krush
from Harcourt
Family Stories for 4th-7th grade
1957 Newbery Medal winner
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$10.00 (1 in stock)
Miracles on Maple Hill
by Virginia Sorensen, illustrated by Beth & Joe Krush
2003 edition from Harcourt
Family Stories for 4th-7th grade
1957 Newbery Medal winner
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$7.99 $5.00 (4 in stock)
Mysterious Christmas Shell
by Eleanor Cameron, illustrated by Beth & Joe Krush
from Little, Brown & Company
for 3rd-6th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$16.00 (1 in stock)
Mystery of the Pirate's Ghost
by Elizabeth Honness, illustrated by Beth & Joe Krush
from J.B. Lippincott Co.
for 3rd-6th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$7.00 (1 in stock)
Prairie Town Boy
by Carl Sandburg, illustrated by Joe Krush
from Harcourt
Autobiography for 5th-8th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Return to Gone-Away
by Elizabeth Enright, illustrated by Beth & Joe Krush
from Harcourt
Realistic Fiction for 4th-6th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$7.99
Secret of the Crazy Quilt
by Florence Hightower, illustrated by Beth & Joe Krush
from Houghton Mifflin
for 5th-8th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
Shadow of the Hawk
by Geoffrey Trease, illustrated by Joe Krush
from Harcourt, Brace & Company
for 7th-10th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Summer of the White Reindeer
by Lillian Pohlmann, illustrated by Beth & Joe Krush
from Hale-Cadmus
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Terrible Churnadryne
by Eleanor Cameron, illustrated by Beth & Joe Krush
Trumpets in the West
by Geoffrey Trease, illustrated by Joe Krush
from Harcourt, Brace & Company