William Papas
William "Bill" Papas (15 July 1927 – 19 June 2000) was a
Biography
Papas was born in Ermelo, Union of South Africa, and was educated at Pretoria Boys High School. His father, Kostas Papas, was a Greek immigrant.
At the age of 15, he ran away from home to join the
His first published cartoon appeared in the Cape Times in 1951, and his first illustrated book, Under the Table Cloth, was published in 1952. He later freelanced in Johannesburg as artist-cum-reporter, notably covering Nelson Mandela's treason trial in 1958.
In 1959 he returned to Britain with his family, his wife Aroon McConnell and daughter Peta, their two sons Warren & Vollmer, settling in Kent and joining the staff of The Guardian. In 1963 he took over from
He was divorced in 1969 and in 1970 married his second wife, Tessa Pares. He spent the next ten years in Greece, then moved to Geneva and in 1984 to Oregon, continuing to paint and illustrate. In Oregon he also ran his own art gallery and drew an evocative series of pen-and-ink and watercolour pictures of American cities, later published as Papas' America and Papas' Portland among others.
Papas died at Hotnarko Lake, British Columbia, on 19 June 2000, following a flying accident.
Recognition
Papas was a commended runner up for the 1964, 1967, and 1968
Some of his cartoons were chosen for the 1970
Alan Coren, former editor of Punch, described Papas as "a highly distinguished original artist, whose work, I firmly believe, is not only of significance of its time, but will make an important contribution to the journalistic history of that time".[4]
Selected works
Written and illustrated
- The Press (1964)
- The Law (1964)
- The Story of Mr. Nero (1965)
- Tasso (1966)
- No Mules (1967)[3][a]
- Life Is One Big Bag of Nails (1968)
- A Letter from India (1968)[3][a]
- A Letter from Israel (1968)[3][a]
- Taresh the Tea Planter (1968)[3][a]
- People of Old Jerusalem (1980)
- Papas' America (1987)
- Papas' The University Club of Portland (1993)
- Papas' Portland (1995)
- Papas' Greece (1997)
- Instant Greek (1999)
Illustrated
Papas illustrated books written by more than a dozen people.
- Aubrey Sussens: Under the Table Cloth (1952)
- Charles Downing: Tales of the Hodja (1964)
- René Guillot: The Children of the Wind (1964)
- Ruth Manning-Sanders: Damian and the Dragon: Modern Greek Folk-Tales (1965)
- Philip Turner: The Grange at High Force (1965)
- Andrew Salkey: Earthquake (1965)
- Hesba Fay Brinsmead: Season of the Briar (1965); Beat of the City (1966)
- Geoffrey Moorhouse, The Church (1967)[3][a]
- H. M. Nahmad: The Peasant and the Donkey: Tales of the Near and Middle East (1968)
- Fynn (pseudonym of Sydney Hopkins): Mister God, This Is Anna (1974)
- Malcolm Muggeridge: In a Valley of This Restless Mind (1977)
- Pope John Paul I: Illustrissimi (1978)
- C. S. Lewis: The Screwtape Letters (1979, orig. 1942)
- Amos Oz: Soumchi (1980)
- Aurelia Smeltz: A Lone Red Apple (1998)
- Nikolay Gogol: Taras Bulba and Other Tales (1968)
See also
Notes
- ^ a b c d e f Today there are usually eight books on the Greenaway shortlist. According to CCSU, some runners-up were Commended (from 1959) or Highly Commended (from 1974). There were 99 commendations of both kinds in 44 years including three for 1964, three 1967, five 1968. At the time (so near as Helen Oxenbury's 1969 Medal), the Greenaway was sometimes awarded for two books and it is not known whether any of the five works now listed in association with 1967–68 commendations of Papas were runners-up as single candidates for the medal.
References
- ^ William Papas at Ask Art.
- ^ Quoted in The Dictionary of 20th Century British Book Illustrators, 1994, p. 341.
- ^ a b c d e f "Kate Greenaway Medal" Archived 16 September 2014 at the Wayback Machine. 2007(?). Curriculum Lab. Elihu Burritt Library. Central Connecticut State University (CCSU). Retrieved 25 June 2012.
- ^ Obituary from The Independent.