Thus began an exploration of her recollections about her father and her childhood that has resulted in the book “Robert McCloskey: A Private Life in Words and Pictures.”
McCloskey is well-known for his books “Home Price” and “Lentil,” both inspired by his childhood growing up in Hamilton.
Jane McCloskey said her father wasn’t much for keeping journals, so everything in the book is what she remembered from growing up, and that he didn’t talk much about his childhood, though she wasn’t sure why.
“I know I don’t have good memories from my high school years,” she said, “so maybe it was the same for him, although after a while he did return to Hamilton from time to time to visit with his mother and his old cronies.”
Consquently much of what she wrote about his childhood in the book comes from articles written in the Hamilton JournalNews. She writes about the totem pole that “Bob,” as his kids called him, carved at Camp Campbell Gard, based on information she gathered when she came to Hamilton for the dedication of the statue of Lentil on High Street next to the old Municipal Building, which now houses Heritage Hall and the Robert McCloskey museum.
“It stood in the camp for many years until it became dangerous and pulled down,” she writes. “Bob never mentioned it.”
The book contains more than a hundred illustrations, about half of them from his books, the other half never published that she discovered in his studio, including a stack of paintings that the caretaker had been instructed to throw away, but instead put them high up on a shelf where she re-discovered them while researching the book.
Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2188 or rjones@coxohio.com.
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