Ruth Gannett

About Ruth Gannett

Ruth Chrisman Gannett (16 December 1896 to 8 December 1979) was an American book illustrator, best known for the drawings in My Father's Dragon (1948), written by her stepdaughter Ruth Stiles Gannett, and for illustrating three books that won Newbery or Caldecott recognition.

Born in Santa Ana, California, she took bachelor's and master's degrees at the University of California, Berkeley (1919 and 1920) and studied at the Art Students League, where her teachers included Winold Reiss and Norman Bel Geddes. She married first the industrial designer Egmont Arens and later the critic and journalist Lewis Gannett.

Most of her work was for children. My Mother Is the Most Beautiful Woman in the World (1945) by Becky Reyher was a Caldecott Honor book; Miss Hickory (1946) by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey won the Newbery Medal; and My Father's Dragon (Random House, 1948) was a Newbery Honor book. She also illustrated its sequels Elmer and the Dragon (1950) and The Dragons of Blueland (1951), along with Sweet Land (1934), Paco Goes to the Fair (1940) and Hi-Po the Hippo (1942). Her best-known work for adults is her artwork for John Steinbeck's Tortilla Flat. She died in West Cornwall, Connecticut.

For collectors

Steinbeck's Tortilla Flat was first published by Covici-Friede in 1935, and Gannett is credited as its cover artist. Her children's work most sought in first edition is My Father's Dragon (Random House, 1948), alongside the award books My Mother Is the Most Beautiful Woman in the World (1945) and Miss Hickory (1946).