Crockett Johnson and Ruth Krauss Biography. Appendix A: American Committee for Spanish Freedom

Crockett Johnson studied typography from Frederic Goudy, Ruth Krauss learned about anthropology from Ruth Benedict, and they both knew Ad Reinhardt (who was a particular friend of Johnson’s).  Their acquaintances with the influential typographer, anthropologist, and abstract impressionist are all in the book – The Purple Crayon and a Hole to Dig: The Lives of Crockett Johnson and Ruth Krauss (forthcoming 2012). Because I’m fascinated by such intersections between people’s lives, here is the first of a series of connections I’ve had to omit.  Originally, I thought I might include these appendices, but the book is already longer than the publisher would like, and these would just take up more pages.

So, with links to relevant information about some of the names, here’s one on the American Committee for Spanish Freedom – a Popular Front group that opposed Franco’s fascists, and supported the Abraham Lincoln Brigades and others fighting for a democratic Spain.

Appendix A

American Committee for Spanish Freedom

55 West 42nd Street - New York 18, N.Y. - Lackawanna 4-9814

[December 1945]

 

NATIONAL OFFICERS

Bishop Lewis O. Hartman

Chairman

Dr. Ruth Nanda Anshen

Vice-Chairman

S. L. M. Barlow

Vice-Chairman

Hon. John M. Coffee

Vice-Chairman

Bartley C. Crum

Vice-Chairman

Allan Chase

Secretary

Samuel J. Novick

Treasurer

Joseph Sweat

Director

 

EXECUTIVE BOARD

Thomas Bouchard

Dr. Louis Finger

Leon Pomerance

Martin Popper

Edward Robinson

Herbert A. Wise

 

Artists & Scientists Committee

Bennett Cerf

Olin Downes

Paula Laurence

Yella Pessl

 

Interfaith Committee

Rev. W. Ellis Davies

Dr. T. S. Harten

Dr. John A. Mackay

Rev. William Howard Melish

Dr. A. Clayton Powell, Jr.

Dr. W. Stanley Rycroft

Dr. Robert W. Searle

 

Labor Committee

Eugene P. Connolly

Joseph Curran

Jay Rubin

 

Women’s Committee

Mrs. Ferdinand de Bermingham

Mrs. Burton Emmett

Mrs. B. W. Huebsch

Alice Jayson

Mrs. George Marshall

Mrs. Lionel Perera, Jr.

Mrs. Vincent Sheehan

 

SPONSORS

Rev. Melvin Abson

Rev. Charles B. Ackley

Louis Adamic

Samuel Hopkins Adams

James Luther Adams

Stella Adler

Marian Anderson

Claudio Arrau

Bishop J. C. Baker

Wade Crawford Barclay

S.N. Behrman

Albert Bein

William Rose Benet

Elmer A. Benson

Mrs. Nicolai Berezovsky

Leonard Bernstein

Alvah Bessie

Rev. L. M. Birkhead

Algernon D. Black

Anita Block

Isidore Blumberg

Dr. Ernst P. Boas

Alexander Brallowsky

Joseph Brainin

Van Wyck Brooks

Prof. Edwin Berry Burgum

Sam Burt

Merlyn A. Chaffel

Stewart Chaney

Jerome Chodorov

Thomas Christensen

Rev. Karl M. Chworowsky

Walter Van Tillburg Clark

Mrs. Alma Clayburgh

Charles Collins

Rev. T. C. Cooper

Aaron Copland

Bishop Fred P. Corson

Norman Corwin

William Cosgrove

John H. Cowles

Dr. Leo M. Davidoff

Jo Davidson

Rev. A. Powell Davies

M. R. Davis

Dale Dewitt

Howard Dietz

Dr. R. E. Diffendorfer

Dean Dixon

Mrs. Louis Dolivet

Guy Pene DuBois

Vernon Duke

Frederick May Eliot

Clifford Evans

William Feinberg

Lawrence Fernsworth

Jose Ferrer

Betty Field

Mrs. W. Osgood Field

Abram Flaxer

Eleanor Fowler

Charles Friedman

Walter Frisbie

Stephen H. Fritchman

William S. Gailmor

Hugo Gellert

Mortimer Gellis

Irving Gilman

Mrs. Harold K. Ginzburg

H. Glintemkamp

Louis Goldblatt

Mrs. Israel Goldstein

Ruth Gordon

D. W. Greene

James Griesi

Wiliam Gropper

Chaim Gross

Rev. Albert R. Hahn

E. Y. Harburg

Mrs. J. Borden Harriman

Moss Hart

The Very Rev. H. S. Hathaway

Mrs. William C. Hayes

Rev. Stanley B. Hazzard

Dr. I. W. Held

Lillian Hellman

Rev. Warren C. Herrick

George R. Hewlett

H. G. Hightower

Randall S. Hilton

Rev Chester E. Hodgson

Libby Holman

Leo Huberman

Alice Hughes

Rev. M. P. Huntington

Mrs. Raymond V. Ingersoll

Stanley M. Isaacs

Burl Ives

Nathan Jacobson

Sam Jaffe

Crockett Johnson

Albert E. Kahn

Aben Kandel

George S. Kaufman

Dr. Foster Kennedy

Rockwell Kent

James V. King

Alexander Kipnis

Dr. C. Franklin Koch

Rev. John M. Krumm

Mrs. James L. Laidlaw

Harold Lane

Wilbur Laroe, Jr.

Kenneth Leslie

Rabbi Israel Leventhal

Samuel Lewis

David Lord

Rev. Donald G. Lothrop

Louis Lozowick

Pierre Luboshutz

Dr. John A. MacCallum

Fritz Mahler

Albert Maltz

Alicia Markova

Benjamin C. Marsh

Elsa Maxwell

Dorothy McConnell

Bishop Francis J. McConnell

John T. McManus

Lewis Merrill

Nathan Milstein

Hortense Monath

Rev. G. Moore Morgan

Dr. John R. Mott

Zero Mostel

Morris Muster

Frederick N. Myers

Mrs. Richard Myers

Rabbi F. Neuman

Rev. William L. Nieman

Isamu Noguchi

Rev. Rowland F. Nye

Clifford Odets

Sarah Oppenheimer

Sono Osato

Bishop G. Bromley Oxnam

Jack Paley

Cyrus R. Pangborn

Rev. E. W. Parmelee

Rev. Edward L. Parsons

Rev. B. Pascale

Elliot Paul

Dr. Norman Vincent Peale

Dr. John M. Pearson

Wilfrid Pelletier

W. W. Peters

A. C. Petty

Mishel Piastro

Gregor Piatigorsky

Dr. Louis W. Pitt

Rabbi Benjamin Plotkin

Dr. Gordon Poteat

Rabbi Julius J. Price

Michael J. Quill

Rev. David Ralston

Minnie F. Rands

Samson Raphaelson

Kenneth G. Read

Anton Refregier

Rev. Thomas Rehorn

Mrs. Bernard Reiss

Elmer Rice

Rev. B. C. Robeson

Raymond Robins

Mrs. Nathaniel Ross

Rev. John Saunders

Dr. Bela Schik

Mrs. William J. Schieffelin

Artur Schnabel

Mrs. M. Lincoln Schuster

Bernard Segal

Joseph Selly

Lisa Sergio

D. R. Sharpe

Dr. Guy Emery Shipler

William L. Shirer

Mrs. William L. Shirer

Herman Shumlin

Mrs. Kenneth F. Simpson

Dr. Joseph R. Sizoo

Edgar Snow

Dr. Ralph Sockman

Moses Soyer

Raphael Soyer

Dr. Sigmund Spaeth

Joseph Stack

Johannes Steel

Estelle M. Sternberger

Donald Ogden Stewart

Rev. Stanley I. Stuber

F. M. Swing

Genevieve Taggard

Alva W. Taylor

Frank E. Taylor

Max Torchin

Mark Van Doren

Pierre Van Passen

Erwin Wagner

Nym Wales

J. Raymond Walsh

Charles Weidman

Kurt Weill

Louis Weinstock

Henry N. Wieman

Rev. Claude Williams

James Waterman Wise

Mrs. Stephen S. Wise

Dr. Gregory Zilborg

Mrs. Gregory Zilborg

William Zorach

Source: letterhead and list of sponsors, on letter from Milton Wolff, National Commander, Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, to Miss Shirley Johnson (Rockwell Kent’s secretary), 6 Dec. 1945, reel 5155, frame 181-182, Rockwell Kent Papers, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian.

If you liked this post, you might find the following entries marginally interesting, since all concern the creation of The Purple Crayon and a Hole to Dig: The Lives of Crockett Johnson and Ruth Krauss:

2 Comments

  1. Reply

    Thanks, Leda. I hope the list will prove useful to others researchers (which was my motivation for including it in the book, too). Johnson and/or Krauss knew some of these folks personally, too: Artur Schnabel, Rockwell Kent, Jerome Chodorov….

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