The magic of illustrating and writing children’s books
By BILL DUNCAN
The News-Review
Cover Story/Currents Magazine on Jan. 24, 2008
No doubt you have seen their work a hundred times or more. Now because of the generosity of a retired Roseburg teacher and a group of her friends, Douglas County residents are offered a view of the creative genius of Berta and Elmer Hader that few in their lifetime will ever see, much less get and opportunity to touch and feel.
That opportunity came on Tuesday, Jan. 22 when the Berta and Elmer Hader exhibit opened at the Umpqua Valley Arts Association, 1624 W. Harvard Ave., Roseburg. The exhibit will be ongoing through Feb. 25, excluding Feb. 4 through Feb. 8, when the Arts Center will be closed for maintenance.
The Haders, although both lived in the west for a period of time, settled in Nyack, N.Y. where they did most of the work as artists and writers. Joy Rich of Roseburg, the niece of Berta Hoerner Hader, has inherited thousands of their illustrations, from original Christmas cards, to paper doll cutouts, and the original illustrations of all their books. The collection also includes the illustrations of books for famous authors, like a series of dust covers done on commission for John Steinbeck’s books, "The Grapes of Wrath," "Winter of Our Discontent," "East of Eden," and "Long Valley."
Joy, who once lived with the Haders in their New York home when she was 22, while her husband, Art, was overseas during World War II, believes, the Haders "would have wanted people to enjoy the gifts they left behind, the beautiful art, books they wrote and illustrated and the entertainment items they created for children and adults." The unbelievable number of art works even includes illustrated placemats feauring scenes from Mother Goose nursery rhymes.
On Friday, Jan. 25, there is an open house at the Art Center from 5 to 7 p.m. as part of the exhibit. An indepth discussion of the lives and works of Berta and Elmer Hader, will be presented by Joy at the Art Center on Jan. 30 from 4 to 6 p.m.
Joy has spent most of her life as a teacher and ran a private kindergarten in Roseburg for 28 years prior to the state authorizing kindergarten as part of the public school curriculum. Later she taught at Roseburg high school. Because of that background, she insisted on a hands-on exhibit of the Hader’s works so that children could touch and feel the art work. She wanted the children to have the freedom to dress the paperdolls and even give action to the movable figures the Haders created.
She said it is only a "sampling of their incredible, whimsical, creative, unforgettable work, which was found stored in the attic of their New York home after Berta died in 1976. "The Haders had saved every scrap of art work that they had created in their remarkable life together," Joy said. "They were packrats, but the public today is the benefiicary of that."
What remains in Joy Rich’s custody, is only about 20 percent of what was shipped to her from the Hader estate. She donated 80 cent to the Knight Library at the University of Oregon.
Berta is Joy’s aunt, the sister of her father, Godfrey Hoerner. Berta Hoener was born in the late 1800s, as was Elmer. Berta studied art in San Francisco and New York. Elmer studied art in San Francisco and Paris. They met in San Francisco and fell in love, a love affair that Joy describes as "the most devoted couple I have ever known." They worked smoothly together to become a creative, dynamic team, published a book about the experience in 1937, "Working Together: The inside story of the Hader books" to explain how they were able to work so closely as creative persons. Interestingly, the entire book, illustrated by the pair, is in the cursive handwriting of Berta, explaining each step of the creation of a children’s book.
They illustrated more than 100 children’s books, 60 of which they wrote themselves, but they also became famous as illustrators for other authors. The Haders won the coveted Caldecott award in 1949 for their book, "The Big Snow," a book that is still in print. Their first book was released by their publisher, the Macmillan Co., in the 1920s and their last book published by Macmillan in 1965, was "Two is Company, Three’s A Crowd," a delightful book about wild geese and a farm couple.
Elmer painted 300 oil paintings, many of them found in the attic of their New York home after Berta died. Elmer had preceded her in death by three years.
From letters saved by the Haders, their niece has a treasure in itself with a list of famous people whom the Haders had as friends. The list is long and includes Rose Wilder, the daughter Laura Elizabeth Ingalls. It was the Haders who got their publisher to look at the manuscript for "Little House on the Prairie," after Rose told them she had stories written by her mother.
Joy has letters written to the Haders from Dorothy Parker, Roi Patridge, Imogene Cunningham, Helen Hays, among many others.
Berta and Elmer produced inserts for McCall’s, Ladies Home Journal, Women’s Home Companion and the Christian Science Monitor and children would carefully cut out a Betsy McCall Doll or a Tootsie Doll or one of the action toys that allowed popups when assembled.
Or they would make shadowboxes from shoe boxes that would feature the cutouts in three dimension when a child peeked through the small hole in front.
The Haders illustrated the Mother Goose books and many of those characters were first seen in the magazine and newspaper inserts.
In children’s books, the Haders pioneered the way books are illustrated even today. One of the characteristic features of the Haders works, is that they drew people in proper proportion and animals were presented realistically, not as cartoon drawings.
Their last published book, "Two is Company Three’s a Crowd," is one of the great examples of the fine-tuned art produced by Berta and Elmer Hader.
Much of this treasure will be shared by Joy Rich with residents of Douglas County when the Hader exhibit opens at the Umpua Valley Arts Center.