Holling Clancy Hollings: About the Author

Holly Clancy Holling

Born: August 2, 1900 Jackson County, Michigan

Died: Septermber 7, 1973 Pasadena, California

Holling Clancy Holling (originally named Holling Allison Clancy) was born into a fairly upper-middle-class existence as the son of a Jackson County, Michigan’s superintendent of schools.  The area he grew up in was and remains to this day an agrarian section of Central Michigan located between Battle Creek and Ann Arbor.  During his childhood, Holling felt a strong connection to the natural world and fondly recalled many trips to the forests of Michigan where he fostered a strong curiosity about all plants and animals he came in contact with.  From an early age he also began to express himself artistically through writings and drawings of the natural world around him.  In his Something About the Author profile, Holling is said to have claimed that by his early adolescence he had made up his mind that he intended to one day eventually become a professional writer and illustrator of children’s literature.

 
In order to make his dream a reality, Holling left Michigan as young man to attend the School of the Art Institute in Chicago where he studied draftsmanship and the graphic processes in print-making.  He graduated from this program in 1923.  During his studies he had the opportunity to explore many emerging techniques in graphic design and illustration that he would later apply to his children’s books. The most significant of these being full color print work that became a staple of his children's books.  His final year in the program was spent off-campus at the Taos art colony in New Mexico where he met with many influential artists of the 20’s such as Ansel Adams and Georgia O'Keeffe.  Following his time in the program at the Art Institute, he worked from 1923-26 in Chicago’s Field Museum as a member of the taxidermy department.  Here he was able to pursue much of his passion for the natural world and combine it with his skills as a professional artist.  It was during this period that he married his wife Lucille Webster (a fellow artist) whom he married in 1925.  Lucille played a very active role in nearly every children’s book Holling produced and contributed a great deal to the artistic layout and illustration of each story.  He and his wife would later leave the Midwest and settled in southern California. Despite dedicating their lives to children's literature, the Hollings never had any children of their own. 
 
Holling spent the next decade working at a series of occupations in which he was able to utilize his artistic ability professionally.  He served as an art instructor on NYU’s University World Cruise from 1926-27 after which he spent several years working in advertising as a creative consultant while conducting freelance work for newspapers.  He wrote and illustrated a series of Sunday comic strips entitled The World Museum during the 1930’s which detailed various scenes from natural history or famous historical events that could be cut out and assembled by children into a three dimensional diorama.  

One of Holling's World Museum Pieces

                                                           

The Hollings with their World Museum dioramas.

It was during this period that Holling began to produce his first children’s books. Starting with New Mexico Made Easy published by himself in 1923, Holling began a career in creating children's books centered largely around the natural world and historical themes. His earliest works were limited to smaller presses and are difficult to track down today, however, with the publication of Paddle to the Sea in 1941 he was able to gain the attention of the larger publishing house of Houghton Mifflin and gained a wider audience of readers.  True to his own childhood fascinations, Holling’s works can be interpreted as encyclopedic presentations of the topics they cover.  His stories serve as a simple framework for an elaborate and almost almanac-style listing of facts to satisfy the curiosities of his readers.  What is most impressive about his work is that he is able to convey all these details and facts to a children’s audience in a very entertaining manner.  In one interview Holling explains his impetus in writing children’s literature stating that as a child “there were thousands of questions in my mind, and very few answers in the books I had.”  Holling was very critical of contemporary children’s books on history and the natural world, and argued they were overly simple and lacked the smaller details to satisfy childhood curiosity.  Children, as he understood them, were curious and inquisitive.  His books sought to satisfy their many questions and encourage them to seek out more on the various topics he covers in each book.

From a survey of his books it is easy to see that Holling never lost his childhood sense of curiosity and spent much of his adult life traveling to various places and asking questions about local history and nature everywhere he went.  The book for which he is most well known, Paddle to the Sea (1941), provides young readers with the tale of child’s toy model of a Native American in a canoe and its journey across the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean.  Along the way, Holling provides his readers with a very detailed geographic description of the Great Lakes region that feels quite similar to a very dynamic museum exhibit with the wide variety facts and information conveyed to the reader by his narration and illustrations.  This theme of a journey across space (and occasionally time) is his standard narrative device in each of his most popular children’s books.
 

Minn of the Mississippi ties in quite well with what readers expect of Holling.  His opening acknowledgment humorously states: “This is a book about a river, and a turtle in it.”  This book follows the journey of a young snapping turtle from the source of the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico.  Along the way we are presented with a large volume of geographic and scientific data including schematics of how river locks work and even instructions on building a terrarium for your own pet turtle.  A Kirkus review of the book describes the book as “a bountiful collection of loving detail and a good story, that is bound to keep the reader happy and busy for some time."  The book was very well received at the time and received a Newberry honor in 1952.  Much like his other publications, Minn has a strong shelf life with young readers and has been republished in many editions since its 1951 publication.  The illustrations and side notes continue to attract young readers’ interests well after the first reading.  Much like his other books, Minn showcases Holling’s fascination with the region he writes about and conveys that enthusiasm well to his young readership.   

Resources

Holling, Holling Clancy, Minn of the Mississippi. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1951.

"The World Museum: The Creeping Wall." The Atlanta Constitution. June 6, 1937: Third Comic Section.

"Holling C(lancy) Holling (1900-)." Something about the Author. Ed. Anne Commire. Vol. 15. Detroit: Gale Research, 1979. 135-138. Something About The Author Online. Gale. University Library,University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. 17 September 2012

“Review of Minn of the Mississippi.” in Virginia Kirkus’ Bookshop Service 19.18 (15 Sept. 1951): 530-531. Rpt. in Children’s Literature Review. Ed. Deborah J. Morad. Vol. 50. Detroit: Gale Research, 1999. Literature Resource Center. Web. 14 Sep. 2012.

Ramsey, Irvin L. "Holling C. Holling: Author and Illustrator." Authors and Illustrators of Children's Books: Writings on Their Lives and Works. R. R. Bower Company, 1972. 209-216. Rpt. in Children's Literature Review. Ed. Deborah J. Morad. Vol. 50. Detroit: Gale Research, 1999. Literature Resource Center. Web. 17 Sep. 2012.