When Julie Danielson and I were researching the for-grown-ups version of the James Marshall, she coordinated a call for us with Sheldon Fogelman, Jim’s agent. We hopped on a conference line and had a casual chat about his memories of working with Jim. If we had any secret hopes for good dirt (I did have those hopes), they were quickly dashed because “Shelly” (as he asked us to call him) spoke with nothing but the highest respect for his old client. At one point Shelly said “Jim was one of the two nicest people I ever worked with in publishing.” I asked him who the other was and he said “Jerry Pinkney”.
I’m on the road right now and passing some time at a public library. I was hoping to read Pinkney’ autobiography JUST JERRY but it’s checked out. In place of that, I’m reacquainting myself with his various takes on Aesop’s fables and am (as always) amazed at how much the warmth and humor in these just jump off the page. My feeling is that Shelly must have been playing it cool, there’s no way the person who drew and painted this wasn’t one of the kindest humans on the planet.
I was thinking of doing a post about the fable collections of done by Arnold Lobel and James Marshall in sort of a head-to-head “who did it better” type thing. (For some reason I always think of Aesop in the spring). Not to spoil things, but I see now I’m going to have to widen the bracket. ‘Til March, my friends.