Communications between and beyond the pages

  • Author By Rebecca Fitzsimmons
  • November 13, 2025
A book spread with a watercolor painting showing a raccoon, an opossum, and a skunk carrying sticks with cloth sacks tied to the ends walking down a hill. The animals seem to be glancing at the reader and raising a hand in a wave.
Detail of a watercolor by Berta and Elmer Hader.
A man attired in a suit and tie sits crossed legged on a chair in front of a library bookshelf filled with children’s books. The man wears glasses as he looks down at an open book on his lap while in the process of turning a page. A cane rests against his leg.
Bookseller and collector Will Johnson is the namesake behind a sizable portion of the Milner Library Special Collections Children’s Literature holdings.

The Will Johnson Collection of children’s literature showcases an important aspect of a collector’s relationship to books and their creators—thoughtful, intentional communication. Johnson was a bookseller who amassed a personal collection of children’s books over the course of several decades. He purchased foreign language translations of many classic tales, including Beatrix Potter’s Peter Rabbit, along with Newbery medal winners and runners-up, books from around the world, rare volumes, and more. His books make up a sizable portion of Milner’s Children’s Literature and Historical Textbooks Collection, but what makes many of them truly special is the signatures and inscriptions that reveal a level of collegiality and appreciation between authors and readers.

Johnson wrote letters to various authors asking them to sign his books, resulting in a collection filled with prized autographs. In addition to these signatures, highly personalized inscriptions from authors and illustrators appear in many books. This note from Eric Kelly written in The Trumpeter of Krakow perfectly captures the general spirit of these communications:

“To Will Johnson, with an author’s sincere appreciation of a lover of books—one who loves not only texts, but pictures, typography, and bonding—and like me wants the author’s little scrawl, however ungainly, to make the book a personal thing between himself and me—which I am glad to say it is.”

In some instances, the authors or illustrators added unique drawings to their inscriptions. Holling Clancy Holling, a 1942 Caldecott Honor Book and 1949 Newbery Honor awardee, added a whale and sunken ship to his inscription in Johnson’s copy of Seabird.

The Ragman of Paris and his Ragamuffins author Elizabeth Orton Jones included a birthday message with a drawing showing letters addressed to Johnson from the book’s characters.

  • A book spread with a watercolor painting showing a hillside in front of a village with a body of water in the background. The rooflines of three cottages are visible beyond the hill and a raccoon, an opossum, and a skunk carrying sticks with cloth sacks tied to the ends walk down the hill. The animals seem to be glancing at the reader and raising a hand in a wave. The inscription below the scene reads, “A special page for Will Johnson with all good wishes from Berta and Elmer Hader.”
    Berta and Elmer Hader wrote and illustrated many children’s books, including the 1956 book The Runaways, a Tale of the Woodland.
  • Collage of images from the title and facing pages of the Ragman of Paris and His Ragamuffins. A simple drawing of the head of a horse wearing tiny red caps on its ears and holding a red rose in its mouth appears on the title page. The facing page shows two children, identically dressed in blue checkered tops, black shorts, and red socks smiling and holding hands. A colored pencil drawing that appears on the dedication page—to Muff gratefully—shows an illustration by the author of a cascade of letters. The text above the letters reads “Happy Birthday From” next to an open envelope addressed to “Mr. Will Johnson”. The cascade of letters from the envelope include little drawings and are signed by the characters that appear in the book.
    Elizabeth Orton Jones drew a personalized illustration as her inscription to Will Johnson in the book The Ragman of Paris and His Ragamuffins.
  • A pencil drawing of a whale swimming above a sunken ship covered in coral and extending octopus tentacles on the title page of the book Seabird. The whale spout is used as a thought bubble, with the inscription “Best wishes to a staunch friend of the Holling books, William Harris Johnson, from one who likes to make such books for such friends, Holling Clancy Holling, Jan 27, 1948” appearing inside.
    Seabird was published in 1948 and won a Newbery Award in 1949. This pencil drawing by Holling accompanies the inscription addressed to William Johnson.
  • Illustration of a man and woman running down a snow-covered hill carrying fir trees with stars on top and forest animals. The woman wears a red fur-trimmed hat and pink fur-trimmed pants and coat. The man wearing green pants and a white sweater with scarf billowing behind him glances over at her. Both are smiling and have brightly flushed noses and cheeks. The woman carries a skunk under arm and the man carries a raccoon while squirrels, chipmunks, rabbits, and mice run beside them and a bluebird flies overhead. The sky behind them is dark and filled with yellow and white stars.
    Berta and Elmer Hader wrote and illustrated many children’s books, including the 1956 book The Runaways, a Tale of the Woodland.

The collection also includes some of the letters Johnson exchanged with authors, but unfortunately, the bulk of that correspondence was lost in a house fire several years before Johnson donated his books to the library. However, a few surviving letters addressed to Johnson indicate the personal nature of his correspondence. 

Letter written on a piece of letterhead that includes an illustration of an Asian boy flying a butterfly-shaped kite in the upper corner with the text San Francisco Boy underneath. This is the title of one of Lois Lenski’s books. The letter, dated June 30, 1956, reads: Dear Will Johnson: Although Corn Farm Boy lived in Iowa instead of McLean Co., Ill., would you care to have once or two of the original illustrations from that books—to add to your collection of L.L. books? It so happens Im going to distribute a of the original drawing during the coming month. I’m looking for permanent homes for them. I could even send you an assorted collection (from various books, including picture books) if you would have any use for them—give them a permanent home, display them, lend them, take care of them, etc. How about it? Let me know. Sincerely, Lois Lenski.
Letter to Will Johnson from author and illustrator Lois Lenski where she offers to give him some original drawings that were published in her many children’s and young adult books.

A 1956 letter from Lois Lenski offering Johnson original artwork from her book Corn Farm Boy and a 1946 letter from Dorothy Erskine are highlights. Erskine’s correspondence provides a particularly fascinating glimpse at the politics of the time mingled with casual conversation. Her letter acknowledges his deep appreciation of her recently published book, Russia’s Story, and then goes on to express her uneasiness with increasing tensions between the U.S. and Russia. It’s a wonderful, intimate record of a personal experience of world politics.

And finally, Caldecott Medal-winning authors and illustrators Berta and Elmer Hader sent a delightful holiday card that features characters from their 1956 book The Runaways, a Tale of the Woodland. Their hand drawn illustration is accompanied by the note, “We ran as fast as we could, but we could not keep ahead of Christmas—however we are still ahead of New Year so—Happy New Year! —from Berta and Elmer Hader and ‘The Runaways’

Books in the Will Johnson Collection can be located by searching the Milner Library catalog and can be viewed on request in the Special Collections Reading Room on the sixth floor of Milner Library.

Units

Milner Library, Special Collections