Frank Dobias (born May 11, 1900) was an illustrator of children's books. Among many other works, his illustrations for the Japanese version of ''
Little Black Sambo'' made the book a bestseller in
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
, selling well over a million copies between 1953 and 1988.
Early life and career
He was born in
Gloggnitz, Austria and moved to the United States 1923, where he started his professional career as illustrator mostly for
Macmillan Publishers
Macmillan Publishers (occasionally known as the Macmillan Group; formally Macmillan Publishers Ltd and Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC) is a British publishing company traditionally considered to be one of the 'Big Five' English language publi ...
books. The illustrations used in the Japanese best-seller were originally drawn for ''
Little Black Sambo'' published from Macmillan in 1927.
The Macmillan 1927 version was revived from Komichi Shobo Publishing, a Japanese publisher in Tokyo, in 2008.
Selected works
*
Bannerman, Helen. ''
Little Black Sambo.'' The Happy Hour Books.
Macmillan Publishers
Macmillan Publishers (occasionally known as the Macmillan Group; formally Macmillan Publishers Ltd and Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC) is a British publishing company traditionally considered to be one of the 'Big Five' English language publi ...
, 1927.
*
Siebe, Josephine. ''
Kasperle’s Adventures.'' Translated by
Florence Geiser.
Macmillan Publishers
Macmillan Publishers (occasionally known as the Macmillan Group; formally Macmillan Publishers Ltd and Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC) is a British publishing company traditionally considered to be one of the 'Big Five' English language publi ...
, 1929.
*
Morris, William. ''
Sons of the Volsungs.'' Adapted by
Dorothy Hosford from ''
Sigurd the Volsung'' by
William Morris
William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was a British textile designer, poet, artist, novelist, architectural conservationist, printer, translator and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts Movement. He ...
.
Macmillan Publishers
Macmillan Publishers (occasionally known as the Macmillan Group; formally Macmillan Publishers Ltd and Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC) is a British publishing company traditionally considered to be one of the 'Big Five' English language publi ...
, 1932.
*Junior Bible.
Macmillan Publishers
Macmillan Publishers (occasionally known as the Macmillan Group; formally Macmillan Publishers Ltd and Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC) is a British publishing company traditionally considered to be one of the 'Big Five' English language publi ...
, 1936.
*Cook, Canfield. ''Sky Attack''. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1942.
*
Kelsey, Alice (Geer). ''
Once the Hodja.''
Longman
Longman, also known as Pearson Longman, is a publishing company founded in London, England, in 1724 and is owned by Pearson PLC.
Since 1968, Longman has been used primarily as an imprint by Pearson's Schools business. The Longman brand is also ...
’s 1943.ã
Jeremy Schiff's Hodja homepagecontains some illustrations by Frank Dobias for ''
Once the Hodja.''
*
Bannerman, Helen. ''Chibikuro Sambo.'' Komichi Shobo Publishing, 2008. (A Japanese translation of Macmillan's 1927 version.)
References
1900 births
Year of death missing
American illustrators
Austrian emigrants to the United States
{{US-illustrator-stub