Abner Graboff (June 28, 1919 – 1986) was an American artist and illustrator of Russian origin.

Biography

Early life and beginnings

Abner Graboff's Russian immigrant parents, Joseph and Sonia, owned and ran a laundry business in

East Orange, New Jersey East Orange is a City (New Jersey), city in Essex County, New Jersey, Essex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, the city's population was 69,612. The city was List of municipalities in ...

. Abner was born on June 28, 1919. He had a brother, Ira, six years younger. His father Joseph died of cancer at the age of 48. After finishing high school Abner Graboff got a scholarship to

Parsons School of Design Parsons School of Design, known colloquially as Parsons, is a private art and design college located in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. Founded in 1896 after a group of progressive artists broke away from established Manhatt ...

in New York City, and then transferred to another college. During the WWII he enlisted the army signal corps and spent some time in Europe in the UK and France. When the war ended, Abner Graboff met and married Vivian Linde, a classical violinist also from East Orange. They raised three children - Michael was born in 1951 and twins Paul and Jonathan (Jon) in 1954.

Jon Graboff Jon is a shortened form of the common given name Jonathan, derived from "YHWH has given", and an alternate spelling of John, derived from "YHWH has pardoned".Ryan Adams and the Cardinals The Cardinals were an American rock band that were formed in 2004 by alternative country singer-songwriter Ryan Adams and fronted by him until 2009. The band was featured on Ryan Adams and the Cardinals albums, ''Cold Roses'', '' Jacksonville ...

Willie Nelson Willie Hugh Nelson (born April 29, 1933) is an American country musician. The critical success of the album ''Shotgun Willie'' (1973), combined with the critical and commercial success of ''Red Headed Stranger'' (1975) and '' Stardust'' (197 ...

Carrie Underwood Carrie Marie Underwood (born March 10, 1983) is an American singer. She rose to prominence after winning the fourth season of ''American Idol'' in 2005. Her single "Inside Your Heaven" made her the only country artist to debut atop the ''Bill ...

, and Joan Osborn, among others.

Career

Abner Graboff started his career as a freelance graphic designer. He was active from the 1950s and was a prolific artist and beginning from 1954 children's book illustrator. In 1949 Graboff took part in the 28th Annual Exhibition of Advertising and Editorial Art of the New York Art Directors Club held at

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

(March 15–April 17, 1949). In the early days of television he did a lot of work on clear celluloid for

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...

. Graboff started designing the artwork for record albums published by firms such as

MGM Records MGM Records was a record label founded by the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film studio in 1946 for the purpose of releasing soundtrack recordings (later LP albums) of their musical films. It transitioned into a pop music label that continued into the ...

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...

, and

RCA Victor RCA Records is an American record label currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside RCA's former long-time rival Columbia Records; also Aris ...

. He illustrated cookbooks and music books. In 1954 Abner Graboff illustrated his first book for children, ''The Sun Looks Down'', which was awarded "The New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Book" by

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

. There were many more children's books to come, into the 1970s. Graboff worked consistently almost until his death in 1986, illustrating in his distinctive style. In 2020 two of Graboff's children's books (''There Was an Old Lady'' and ''What Can Cats Do?'') were translated into Polish by Emilia Kiereś, a

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

writer and the daughter of

Małgorzata Musierowicz Małgorzata Musierowicz (born January 9, 1945) is a popular Polish writer, author of many stories and novels for children and teenagers, but read with pleasure by adults too. She is the sister of poet and translator Stanisław Barańczak. Life ...

, the author of popular books for teenagers.

Works

Books

Source: * ''The Sun Looks Down'' (1954) * ''Rainbow In The Morning'' (1956) * ''A Tale Is A Tale'' (1957) * ''Abelard Folk Song Book'' (1958) * ''I Want To Whistle'' (1958) * ''The Daddy Days'' (1958) * ''Of Course, You’re A Horse!'' (1959) * ''Merry Ditties'' (song book for piano and guitar) (1959) * ''Something For You, Something For Me'' (1960) * ''Noise In The Night'' (1960) * ''Mr Angelo'' (1960) * ''Please Don’t Feed Horace'' (1961) * ''I Know An Old Lady'' (1961) * ''Weeks And Weeks'' (1962) * ''A Fresh Look At Cats'' (1963) * ''The Hungry Goat'' (1964) * ''No Sort Of Animal'' (1964) * ''Heat'' (1965) * ''Mrs. McGarrity’s Peppermint Sweater'' (1966) * ''Do You Want To See Something?'' (1965) * ''Do Cat Birds Have Whiskers?'' (1967) * ''Willie & Winnie & Wilma The Wicked Witch'' (1967) * ''Skippy The Skunk'' (1968) * ''Would You Put Your Money In A Sand Bank?'' (1968) * ''Crystal Magic'' (1968) * ''Limpy The Lion, (See and Say Sounds Series)'' (1969) * ''Old Macdonald Had A Farm'' (1969) * ''It’s A Picnic!'' (1969) * ''Ann’s Ann-imal'' (1969) * ''Do You What I See? No! I See Something Else'' (1975) * ''In A Cat’s Eye'' (1976)

Album covers

Source: * Portia Nelson, Jack Cassidy In Rodgers & Hart's ''On Your Toes'',

Columbia Masterworks Columbia Masterworks was a record label started in 1924 by Columbia Records. In 1980, it was separated from the Columbia label and renamed CBS Masterworks. In 1990, it was revived as Sony Classical after its sale to the Sony Corporation. History ...

(1952) * Martyn Green, Lehman Engel, Columbia Operetta Chorus And Orchestra ''Martyn Green's Gilbert & Sullivan'', Columbia Masterworks ML 4643 (1953) * ''Danny Kaye'', Columbia CL6023 * Somethin' Smith & The Redheads ''Ain't We Got Fun Kinda Songs''

E3941 * The Boston Pops Orchestra ''Classic Marches'',

Red Seal ERA-27 * Alan Mills ''Old MacDonald Had A Farm And Other Funny Songs'', Scholastic Records CC0628 (1969) * Alan Mills ''I Know An Old Lady And Other Funny Songs'', Scholastic Records (1969) * Various Artists ''American Songs To Sing'', Scholastic Records SCC2745 (1976) * Sylvia Grant And Deborah Howe ''Hi! Ho! What's The Weather'', Scholastic Records SCC2797 (1976) * Richard Maltby and His Orchestra ''Musical Highlights "Damn Yankees"'' "X" EXA-136 * Haydn ''Trumpet Concerto - Sinfonia Concertante - Divertimento'',

Concert Hall A concert hall is a cultural building with a stage that serves as a performance venue and an auditorium filled with seats. This list does not include other venues such as sports stadia, dramatic theatres or convention centres that may ...

CM2101 * The Stuttgart Festival Band, Emil Kahn – John Philip Sousa Marches And Others ''Alto Saxophone'', Music Minus One MMO 7069 * Sir John Barbirolli ''Viennese Night With Barbirolli'',

Vanguard The vanguard (also called the advance guard) is the leading part of an advancing military formation. It has a number of functions, including seeking out the enemy and securing ground in advance of the main force. History The vanguard derives fr ...

Everyman Classics SRV237SD * Various Artists ''Zum Tanzen Und Träumen - Unvergängliche Schlager'', Varieton POP-1207

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Graboff, Abner 1919 births 1986 deaths 20th-century American painters American male painters 20th-century American writers American album-cover and concert-poster artists American contemporary painters 20th-century American male artists