Lucy Herndon Crockett
Lucy Herndon Crockett (April 4, 1914 – July 30, 2002) was an American novelist and artist who illustrated her own books.
Biography
She was born in Honolulu, Hawaii,[1] the daughter of Nell Botts (Johnson) Crockett and Col. Cary Ingram Crockett.[2] William Lewis Herndon, a commander in the U.S. Navy, was her great-uncle.[2] She grew up on military posts and was educated at a number of different schools.[2] She lived in the Philippines while her father was serving as an advisor to Governor-General Theodore Roosevelt Jr., an experience that fed into two of her earliest two books, Lucio and His Nuong (1939) and That Mario (1941).[2]
She served in World War II with the Red Cross, spending five years in New Caledonia, Guadalcanal, the Philippines, Japan, and Korea.[2] Of the nine books she wrote and illustrated, several reflect her life during and after the war.[1][3] The Magnificent Bastards (1953), her best-known book, was about her experiences with the U.S. Marine Corps, while Popcorn on the Ginza (1949) was about her time in occupied Japan.[1] The Magnificent Bastards was made into a 1956 film starring William Holden and Deborah Kerr under the title The Proud and Profane.[1] Interviewers of Crockett stated that she was "mild-looking" and seemed, "too gentle for the ugliness she described" in her books.[2]
After the war, she lived in Smyth County, Virginia, where she ran a gift shop.[2] As she got older, she became somewhat paranoid and was placed under house arrest for "threatening behavior" toward John F. Kennedy.[4]
Her papers are held by Virginia Tech.[3]
In 2015, the William King Museum of Art mounted an exhibition about her life, The Proud and the Profane: The Colorful Life, Literature, and Illustrations of Lucy Herndon Crockett.[4][5]
Books
- Lucio and His Nuong: A Tale of the Philippine Islands (1939)
- Capitan: The Story of an Army Mule (1940)
- The Mario (1941)
- Uncle Bouqui of Haiti (1942)
- Popcorn on the Ginza: An Informal Portrait of Postwar Japan (1949)
- Teru: A Tale of Yokohama (1950)
- The Magnificent Bastards (1953)
- The Year Something Almost Happened in Pinoso (1960)
- Pong Choolie You Rascal! (1963)
References
- ^ a b c d "Lucy Herndon Crockett Papers, 1940-2015". Virginia Heritage website.
- ^ a b c d e f g Linford, Margaret. "String of Pearls: Coming to Know the Dynamic Woman That was Lucy Herndon Crockett". SWVA Today, April 14, 2015.
- ^ a b "Women's History Manuscript Guides". Special Collections, Virginia Tech.
- ^ a b csykes. "The Proud and the Profane: The Colorful Life, Literature, and Illustrations of Lucy Herndon Crockett". William King Museum of Art website, June 1, 2015.
- ^ "Seeking art of Lucy Herndon Crockett". Bristol Herald Courier, Nov. 6, 1914.
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