{{Short description|American writer and illustrator (1928–1984)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=June 2014}} {{Infobox writer | name = Ellen Raskin | birth_date = {{birth date text|March 13, 1928}} | birth_place = Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S.<ref name=kruse/> | death_date = {{death date and age|1984|8|8|1928|3|13}} | death_place = New York, New York<ref name=NYT/> | resting_place = | occupation = Writer, illustrator | education = University of Wisconsin | alma_mater = | period = | genre = Children's novels, picture books | subject = <!-- or: | subjects = --> | movement = | notableworks = * ''The Mysterious Disappearance of Leon (I Mean Noel)'' * ''Figgs & Phantoms'' * ''The Tattooed Potato and Other Clues'' * ''The Westing Game'' | spouse = {{plainlist| * Roy Kuhlman (m. 1957; div. 1958-1960) * Dennis Flanagan (m. 1960, second husband) }} | children = Susan Kuhlman Metcalfe<ref name=simmons/> | parents = {{plainlist| * Solomon Raskin * Margaret (Goldfisch) Raskin<ref name=simmons/> }} | relatives = | awards = {{awards|Newbery Medal|1979|The Westing Game}} <!-- major awards only --> | signature = | signature_alt = }}
'''Ellen Raskin ''' (March 13, 1928 – August 8, 1984) was an American children's writer and illustrator. She won the 1979 Newbery Medal for ''The Westing Game'', a mystery novel, and another children's mystery, ''Figgs & Phantoms'', was a Newbery Honor Book in 1975.
In 2012 ''The Westing Game'' was ranked number nine all-time among children's novels in a survey published by ''School Library Journal'', a monthly with a primarily-U.S. audience.<ref name=SLJChapter2012/>
==Life== Raskin was born in Milwaukee, where she grew up during the Great Depression. She was educated at the University of Wisconsin with a major in fine art.<ref name=kruse/><ref name=bestnotes/>
Raskin was an accomplished graphic artist. She worked in New York City as a commercial artist for about 15 years. Among other things, she designed more than 1000 dust jackets for books, including the first edition of Madeleine L'Engle's ''A Wrinkle in Time'', the 1963 Newbery Medal winner.<ref name=kruse/>
In 1957, she married graphic designer Roy Kuhlman, but they soon divorced. In 1960 she married Dennis Flanagan, editor of ''Scientific American.''<ref name=kruse/><ref name=bestnotes/>
Raskin died at the age of 56 on August 8, 1984, in New York City, as a result of a connective-tissue disease.<ref name=NYT/>
== Education == At the age of 17, Raskin entered the University of Wisconsin with the intention of majoring in journalism. However, after visiting an art exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/authors/raskin/main.htm|website=ccbc.education.wisc.edu|access-date=2019-05-08|title=Archived copy|archive-date=April 8, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190408210426/http://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/authors/raskin/main.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> she changed her major to fine arts.
==Works== {{Library resources box|by=yes|viaf=13605190}}
===Children's picture books === Raskin wrote and illustrated twelve picture books, published by Atheneum Books except as noted.<ref name=bibliog/> *''Nothing Ever Happens on My Block'', 1967 *''Silly Songs and Sad'', Thomas Y. Crowell Co., 1967 *''Spectacles'', 1968 *''Ghost in a Four-Room Apartment'', 1969 *''And It Rained'', 1969 *''A & The, or, William T. C. Baumgarten Comes to Town'', 1970 *''The World's Greatest Freak Show'', 1971 *''Franklin Stein'', 1972 *''Moe Q. McGlutch, He Smoked Too Much'', Parents, 1973 *''Who, Said Sue, Said Whoo?'', 1973 *''Moose, Goose & Little Nobody'', 1976 *''Twenty-Two, Twenty-Three'', 1976
===Children’s novels=== Raskin wrote four novels, all published by E. P. Dutton.<ref name=bibliog/> *''The Mysterious Disappearance of Leon (I Mean Noel)'', 1971 *''Figgs & Phantoms'', 1974 *''The Tattooed Potato and Other Clues'', 1975 *''The Westing Game'', 1978
===As illustrator=== Raskin also illustrated more than twenty books by other writers.<ref name=bibliog/> * ''Happy Christmas: Tales for Boys and Girls'', edited by Claire H. Bishop, Ungar, 1956. * ''The Bound Man and Other Stories'', by Ilse Aichinger, transl. by Eric Mosbacher, New York: Noonday Press, 1956. * ''A Child's Christmas in Wales'', by Dylan Thomas (1950); J. M. Dent, 1968.<!-- changed from New Directions, 1959, because our book article credits other illustrators of earlier editions --> * ''Mama, I Wish I Was Snow, Child You'd Be Very Cold'', by Ruth Krauss, Atheneum, 1962. * ''Philosophy and History. The Ernst Cassirer Festschrift'', ed. Raymond Klibansky and H. J. Paton, 1963. (second edition) * ''Poems of Edgar Allan Poe'', selected by Dwight MacDonald, Crowell, 1965. * ''We Dickinson's'', by Aileen Fisher and Olive Rabe, Atheneum, 1965. * ''The Jewish Sabbath'', by Molly Cone, Crowell, 1966. * ''Paths of Poetry: Twenty-Five Poets and Their Poems'', ed. Louis Untermeyer, Delacorte, 1966. * ''Songs of Innocence (Volumes 1 & 2)'', by William Blake (1789, 1794), music and illustrations by Ellen Raskin, Doubleday, 1966. * ''D. H. Lawrence: Poems Selected for Young People'', ed. William Cole, Viking, 1967. * ''Ellen Grae'', by Vera and Bill Cleaver, Lippincott, 1967. * ''Poems of Robert Herrick'', ed. Winfield T. Scott, Crowell, 1967. * ''Probability: The Science of Chance'', by Arthur G. Razzell and K. G. O. Watts, Doubleday, 1967. ‡ * ''This Is 4: the Idea of a Number'', by Razzell and Watts, Doubleday, 1967. ‡ * ''Books: A Book to Begin On'', by Susan Bartlett, Holt, 1968. * ''Inatuk's Friend'', by Suzanne Stark Morrow, Atlantic/Little, 1968. * ''A Paper Zoo: A Collection of Animal Poems by Modern American Poets'', edited by Renee K. Weiss, Macmillan, 1968. * ''Piping Down the Valleys Wild: Poetry for the Young of All Ages'', edited by Nancy Larrick, Delacorte, 1968. * ''Symmetry'', by Razzell and Watts, Doubleday, 1968. ‡ * ''We Alcotts'', by Aileen Fisher and Olive Rabe, Atheneum, 1968. * ''Circles and Curves'', by Razzell and Watts, Doubleday, 1969. ‡ * ''Come Along!'', by Rebecca Caudill, Holt, 1969. * ''Shrieks at Midnight: Macabre Poems, Eerie and Humorous'', edited by Sara and John E. Brewton, Crowell, 1969. * ''Three and the Shape of Three'', by Razzell and Watts, Doubleday, 1969. ‡ * ''Elidor'', by Alan Garner (1965), Walck, 1970. <!-- first US edition? --> * ''Goblin Market'', by Christina Rossetti (1862), Dutton, 1970.
: ‡ Raskin illustrated at least five volumes in a series of 32- and 48-page mathematics books by Arthur C. Razzell and Kenneth George Oliver Watts, which was inaugurated by Doubleday in 1964.<!-- see TALK#Mathematics -->
==References== {{reflist|30em |refs=
<ref name=kruse>[http://www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/authors/raskin/main.htm "Ellen Raskin: Notable Wisconsin Author"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120214120410/http://www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/authors/raskin/main.htm |date=February 14, 2012 }} [Biography]. Ginny Moore Kruse. Copyright 1981, 2000. ''Wisconsin Authors and Illustrators''. The Cooperative Children's Book Center ['''CCBC''']; School of Education; University of Wisconsin (ccbc.education.wisc.edu).</ref> <ref name=bibliog> [http://www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/authors/raskin/bib.htm "Books Written and Illustrated by Ellen Raskin"]. ''Wisconsin Authors and Illustrators''. CCBC. Retrieved 2010-12-25.</ref> <ref name=NYT> [https://www.nytimes.com/1984/08/10/obituaries/ellen-raskin.html "Ellen Raskin"]. ''The New York Times''. August 10, 1984.</ref>
<ref name=bestnotes> [http://thebestnotes.com/booknotes/Westing_Game_Raskin/Westing_Game_Study_Guide05.html "Free Study Guide for ''The Westing Game'' by Ellen Raskin"]. Ray Mescallado. The Best Notes (thebestnotes.com). May 15, 2008.</ref>
<ref name=SLJChapter2012>{{cite web |url= http://blog.schoollibraryjournal.com/afuse8production/2012/07/07/top-100-chapter-book-poll-results |title= Top 100 Chapter Book Poll Results |author= Bird, Elizabeth |publisher= A Fuse #8 Production. Blog. School Library Journal (blog.schoollibraryjournal.com) |date= July 7, 2012 |access-date= 2015-10-28 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120713031015/http://blog.schoollibraryjournal.com/afuse8production/2012/07/07/top-100-chapter-book-poll-results |archive-date= July 13, 2012 |url-status= dead }}</ref> <ref name=simmons>{{cite web |url=https://beatleyweb.simmons.edu/collectionguides/ManuscriptsCollection/MS085.html |title= Ellen Raskin Papers |work= MS 85 |institution= Simmons College Archives |location= Boston, MA, USA }}</ref> }}
==Further reading== * {{cite book |title=Ellen Raskin |last=Strasser |first=Marilyn |publisher=Twayne Publishers |year=1991 |volume=579 |series=Twayne's United States Authors Series: Children's Literature |isbn=9780805776270 }}
== External links == {{Portal|Children's literature |Visual arts }} * {{ISFDB name|82653}} * {{LCAuth|n80037053|Ellen Raskin|46|}}
{{Ellen Raskin}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Raskin, Ellen}} Category:1928 births Category:1984 deaths
Category:20th-century American novelists Category:20th-century American women novelists Category:20th-century American illustrators Category:20th-century American women artists Category:American children's writers Category:American women children's writers Category:American children's book illustrators Category:American women children's book illustrators Category:American mystery novelists Category:Newbery Medal winners Category:Newbery Honor winners Category:University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni Category:Writers from New York City Category:Writers from Milwaukee Category:Artists from New York City Category:Artists from Wisconsin Category:American women mystery writers Category:Novelists from New York (state) Category:Novelists from Wisconsin