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Lit Crit: Harold and the Purple Crayon
The amazing surfeit of children’s books produced, printed and pushed onto the shelves every year threatens to eclipse some of the more exceptional and profound contributions to children’s literature - I am speaking of the classics here. While some classics are endearing, simply because they speak to our nostalgia and strike those quiescent emotional chords, many of these beloved classics may also pale in comparison to the verve and visual splendor of some of the newer contemporary offerings. Thankfully, the austere poetry of Harold and the Purple Crayon, by Crockett Johnson, does not suffer this fate, not even close.
First published in 1955 (with more than two-million copies sold and having never gone out of print), Harold and the Purple Crayon is an unapologetic product of its time. In some respects, you could trace the growing mid-century awareness of Freudian and Jungian theory and analysis, as this narrative functions more or less as an existential celebration of the human capacity to create meaning out of relative nothingness (but that is a whole other story).
For anyone unfamiliar with this tome, it posits Harold, a baby-faced boy, in a world of endless, boundless, and limitless white space, armed with nothing more than his imagination and a purple crayon. He moves through the pages of the book creating characters, situations, and interactions that are purely of his own making. He draws a dragon, which frightens him. He draws a picnic with nine kinds of pie. And he draws a cavernous cityscape devoid of any true human element (yes, there is a policeman, but he is of little help). Throughout there are moments of peril for Harold that require him to craftily (and artfully) draw himself out of (he draws himself over the ledge of a cliff and then quickly sketches a hot air balloon to facilitate a safe landing). Ultimately, Harold is moved to find his way home. This is achieved, not by lifting him out of the tabula rasa world he has created and bringing him back to a reality with parents and three dimensions, but by allowing Harold to solve his own problem and orient himself by the moon, and then draw his room, bed, and comforts of home around himself moments before he falls off to sleep.
The magical and exceptional thing about this book is that there are no life lessons or adults dictating behavior; there is just pure experience, imagination and childhood run wild. It is a celebration of fantasy, but above that it is an inspired movement through nothingness towards total expression and consciousness.
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12 comments
add your comment »My favorite books were the Harold series & the Hungry Baby Bunny, sometimes called Baby Bunny (printed by Whitman). These books actually taught me to read.
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This is a wonderful book. I still have the copy from my childhood. Thanks for reminding me of it.
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There appears to be a series of Harold...Purple Crayon books
by different authors. What gives?
Does anyone know of a children's book of the 50s titled "This Book" about a tree growing up and being used to make the paper to make this book? All four of my now well matured children remember it fondly. I'd love to find a copy.
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OMG that was like my favorite book when I was little! (That and anything by Dr. Seuss.) My dad used to read it to me before bedtime. Ah, nostalgia :-)
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Nice review! What a creative concept for a childrens' book.
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In the early 60s, I remember a lot of our books for children were in black and white. I would tell my kids that those types of books made our imaginations work more because we had to think in many possible ways what colors were the clothes of the characters, how hot was the sun in the picture as it beat down on the scene, how frightening the storm on the sea must have been, and so on, depending on the story. While Harold and the Purple Crayon isn't in black and white, the need to create a world out of one color is also a great exercise for the child's imagination as one follows Harold through his creations.
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Thanks for the review of such a wonderful story of mind creations without limits! I must find this book. My childhood favorite is entitled LITTLE LOST ANGEL and unfortunately, I've forgotten the author's name. I have also lost my copy of this book so I'm looking for it, I hope to get lucky surfing the web for it.
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I recently gave this wonderful classic to my 4 y.o. grandson, along with Bread and Jam for Frances, and he LOVES them both.
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I grew up in the 50's with Harold and the Purple Crayon. This is a great book. We put "children's books" in a separate category and sometimes look down on them, but each of us has a child, and this child is important. By any measure, this is a great book. Buy it for yourself. For even greater impact, read it to a young child!
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Such a wonderful book. What flights of fancy. A nice reminder of who's creating one's experience. I must go find my purple crayon.
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