Little Toot
Little Toot
Illustrated by Hardie Gramatky
New York, G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1939
Kerlan Collection, Children's Literature Research Collections,
Universtiy of Minnesota Libraries
A watercolorist and illustrator for Fortune, Hardie Gramatky maintained a studio on Pearl Street, in lower Manhattan, with a panoramic view of the East River. To rest his eyes, he would habitually pause from his work to gaze at the water. On one such occasion, a tugboat turning circles in the distance caught his attention and prompted this lighthearted tale, of which The New York Times observed in 1939, "The illustrations are mobile, exciting affairs in nautical blues and greens and stormy blacks, painted in a dashing off-hand manner which exactly matches the bravado of Little Toot."
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