In fact, Gruelle's daughter and her playthings regularly inspired his storylines and ideas for playthings.
According to Myrtle Gruelle, referring to the family doll Gruelle had retrieved from his mother's attic " He remembered it when he saw her play dolls. You know how little girls are. He wrote the stories around some of the things she did. He used to get ideas from watching her. Under different circumstances, this would have been a time of great rejoicing for Gruelle and his family. He was connecting with juvenile publishers, and was working on several sets of illustrated fairy stories.
In November the same month of Marcella's death Gruelle had been granted final approval by the U. Patent office for his doll called "Raggedy Ann. If one views legendary as a way of giving meaning to life's mysteries and tragedies, then a child's death is potentially one of the most powerful sources of legends. Marcella Gruelle's tragic death certainly gave rise to several legends -- stories about what role she played in Raggedy Ann's genesis, and in her family's life.
The most popular Marcella legend, of course, is the one about her finding the family rag doll in her grandmother's attic. Another had to do with her role in inspiring her father's creation of Raggedy Ann Stories.
Following his daughter's death it was a wonder Johnny Gruelle could work at all. But, to keep bread on the table of his grieving family, he stayed at his drawing board during the months following Marcella's passing. About this, a legend took hold; at first circulated among family and friends; later repeated and embellished by collectors and journalists: Gruelle was working, the story goes, on a very special set of new stories -- ones that he had previously only roughed out, as verses, but was now determined to finish in prose form, and submit to a publisher.
These tales were ones that Gruelle had purportedly recited to his daughter during her final days, and were about a rag doll and her playroom pals.
And, in honor of the memory of his departed daughter, Gruelle had named his star human protagonist Marcella, after his late daughter, who like her literary counterpart used to play "real-for-sure" Mommy to a nursery full of dolls. As Johnny Gruelle worked on polishing this very special set of tales which would eventually be published in as Raggedy Ann Stories , he would supposedly glance up often at something on his shelf; one of the few keepsakes of his daughter he could bear to have near -- Marcella's own tattered moppet, Raggedy Ann.
This account does have basis-in-fact, but its romantic, apocryphal elements are easy, and make the tale far more memorable and "tell-able. In this, as well as in Gruelle's subsequent Raggedy books, the literary Marcella would be a recurring character, along with Raggedy Ann and Andy. Volland Company, Johnny Gruelle rented a loftspace in Norwalk, CT, and set his family to work constructing several dozen handmade Raggedy Ann dolls to be marketed along with the books.
Whether these were prototype dolls for Volland to use, display dolls, or were among the first dolls to be commercially marketed, is not documented. And no one can verify just how many or how few of these dolls were produced by the family. However, one very charming, very long-lived legend grew out of this early era of family-made dolls.
It had to do with Raggedy Ann's candy heart. Anyone who has read Raggedy Ann Stories will tell you that Johnny Gruelle gave his storybook Raggedy Ann a candy heart right from the start. This sweet body part survived many a mishap including dousings and drenchings and even a trip through the ringer and still held together.
The candy heart was, it seemed, the invincible, spiritual source of Raggedy Ann's sweet outlook and kindly ways. Growing up in Illinois would influence his later works, which often included idyllic farms and other natural settings. Gruelle inherited a talent for artistry from his Father, Richard B. Gruelle, and landed his first job as a cartoonist for the Indianapolis Star when he was still in his teens. In Gruelle entered a competition sponsored by the New York Herald, which offered a position to the artist who created the best idea for a Sunday comic feature.
Gruelle had a versatile talent and was able to produce a large amount of works very quickly. What is Illinois known for? What stereotypes are there about Illinois? What are the best things about living in Illinois? Illinois In Your Inbox spinner. Thank you! You'll receive your first newsletter soon! Love Illinois?
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Elizabeth Crozier.
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