Autobiography of Armstrong Sperry
I was born in New Haven, Connecticut. As far back as I can remember, I scribbled and drew
pictures. But my real interest in story telling comes from my great-grandfather, who had
followed the sea all his life, and used to tell me hair-raising yarns about his adventures in the
remotest parts of the world.
In particular, he told about being wrecked on the island of Bora Bora, most outlying of the
Society group, where he spent some months among the savages who lived there. He used to
say: "That was the purtiest little island I ever did see. I hope you'll see it for yourself
someday, young 'un!"
My first academic training was at the Yale Art School. This was interrupted by World War
I, when I enlisted in the navy. After the war I went to New York and put in three years at the
Art Student League, in the days of George Bellows and Luis Mora, following up with a year
in Paris.
A couple of years in an advertising agency seemed to be the logical progression; but always
in the back of my mind was that island my great-grandfather had talked about when I was a
kid. That's how, one day, I found myself in Tahiti looking for a schooner to take me there. I
found the schooner, and I found the island. And that fact explains why I have used the South
Pacific and the Polynesians in so many of my books for young people.
At present I divide my time between New Hampshire and Vermont. In the latter I have a
small farm where I put in a good many hours, between writing and illustrating, in trying to
grow good crops out of rocky soil. But every once in a while the ghost of my greatgrandfather jogs my elbow and says: "A farm's all right for a landsman, but the sea's the
place for you!"
It doesn't take too much persuasion! And whenever I feel that jog of the elbow, I pack my
belongings and take to the sea and usually come back with a new book -- or the material for
one. It's an honest way of earning a hard living, but I wouldn't exchange it for any other.
Biography of Armstrong Sperry
Excerpts from “To Bora Bora and Back Again: The Story of Armstrong W. Sperry”
By Robert R. Barrett
Armstrong Sperry was born on November 7, 1897 in New Haven, Connecticut. On one side
of the family the men followed the call of the sea, while those on the other tilled the soil.
Throughout most of his life, Sperry was conscious of these two dichotomous impulses
within himself. He maintained a working farm in the green hills of Vermont, but on
occasion could not resist the call of the sea, the sound of breaking surf, or the sight of tall
ships.
As a young boy, Sperry often sat wide-eyed at the feet of his great-grandfather, Captain
Sereno Armstrong while he related stories of hair-raising adventures among pirates in the
China Sea or among the cannibals who lived on lagoon islands rich with pearls. In
particular, he was delighted with stories about a wonderful South Sea island named BoraBora, and he promised himself that, one day, he would sail there.
But reality soon intruded on his daydreams. His heart may have been in the South Seas but
his parents insisted that he get a proper education. Sperry attended the Stamford Preparatory
School where he spent most of his time drawing pictures and scribbling stories. His
frustrated teachers merely shook their heads in gloomy doubt, certain that no good would
come to any boy who preferred drawing cannibals to solving the knotty problems of algebra.
On his return [from Paris] to America, Sperry's practical career in illustration began when he
answered an ad for "Help Wanted ... Artist." He was hired and spent a year working for $25
a week drawing pictures of vacuum cleaners, canned soup and beautiful blonde women
wearing Venida hair nets. Not remarkably, he found himself thinking of Captain Armstrong,
the South Seas, and especially Bora-Bora. Sperry also waxed nostalgic about a book that
had enchanted him in 1919, Frederick O'Brien's WHITE SHADOWS OF THE SOUTH
SEAS which contained 63 alluring black and white photographs. This memory was what
gave him the additional impetus for deciding to quit his job and sail off to the South Seas.…
Taking pen in hand, Sperry wrote a letter to O'Brien requesting information concerning
ways and means of sailing to the South Seas. "And that," remarked Sperry, "was how I came
to be standing on the deck of a copra schooner on a bright sunny June day in 1925, sailing
from Tahiti to Bora-Bora." He had signed on as assistant ethnologist with the Kaimiloa
expedition to the South Pacific.
Sperry illustrated TARZAN AND THE LOST EMPIRE for
Metropolitan Books. This was the first book to depict Tarzan wearing
an over-the-shoulder leopard skin, no doubt inspired by Frank
Hoban's illustrations for BLUE BOOK magazine. It was also the first
book, after TARZAN OF THE APES, to be illustrated by an artist
other than J. Allen St. John.
Three years later, Sperry began his career as a writer and illustrator of
children's books. He had long desired to write of the South Seas,
using his own experiences to lend realism to these stories. Children
seemed the logical audience for the wealth of material he had
acquired in the South Seas, and his background as an illustrator was
perfect for the pairing of words and pictures. His first book, ONE DAY WITH MANU, is a
tale of everyday life on Bora-Bora, and was published in 1933 by Winston, Philadelphia. An
immediate success, it was followed by ONE DAY WITH JAMBI in Sumatra in 1934, same
publisher. His next book, ONE DAY WITH TUKTU, AN ESKIMO BOY (1935) was based
solely on research rather than first hand experience, and Sperry found such a book more
difficult to do. Next followed a sea story, ALL SAIL SET (1936), the story of the clipper
ship FIying Cloud. A story of the west, WAGONS WESTWARD (1936), was based on his
automobile trip over the old Santa Fe Trail. Traveling the southwest opened up a whole new
area for him to write about, and out of that experience came LITTLE EAGLE, A NAVAJO
BOY (1938). Then came another South Sea book, LOST LAGOON (1939).
In 1941 Macmillan published CALL IT COURAGE…. This was Sperry's eighth book for
children and, in June, 1941, at a meeting of the American Library Association in Boston, he
was presented with the John Newbery Medal. In his acceptance speech, Sperry said:
"CALL IT COURAGE meant a great deal to me in the writing but I had no idea that the
response to the book would be so wide among children. I had feared that the concept of
spiritual courage might be too adult for the age group such a book would reach, and that
young people would find it less thrilling than the physical courage which battles pirates
unconcerned or outstares the crouching lion. But it seems I was wrong ... which only serves
to prove that children have imagination enough to grasp any idea which you present to them
with honesty and without patronage."
Two special qualifications made Armstrong Sperry outstanding among the notable writers
of children's books of that time. One was his unusual and authentic South Sea subject
matter, and the other was that he was both a writer and artist. Helen Follett, whose STARS
TO STEER BY (1934) and HOUSE AFIRE! (1941) were illustrated by Sperry, once said to
him: "The astonishing thing about you is not that you're a fine artist, or a fine writer, but that
you are both!" Sperry replied that being both was a "lot of hard work" but also "lots of fun."
Sperry stated: "I was an illustrator for ten years before becoming a professional writer.
Combining the two media led me into the field of children's books. From the beginning of
my career it has been my conviction that no writer should ever write down to children. He
should tell his story clearly, in a supple prose that leaves his reader, young or old,
wondering, 'What happens next?"'
Armstrong W. Sperry died on April 28, 1976 in Hanover, New Hampshire, at the age of 78.
He wrote and illustrated over twenty-five books and illustrated numerous others for a
variety of authors. At the time of his death, he was survived by his wife, Margaret
Roberts[on] Sperry, whom he had married in 1930; a son, John; a daughter, Susan Bums;
and six grandchildren and a brother.
Helen Follett (mentioned above), wrote the following about Armstrong Sperry:
At last the opportunity has come my way -- and I seize it gladly -- of putting
down in words what some of us have said to Armstrong Sperry on those
happy occasions when a new book of his greeted an eager public. "The
astonishing thing about you, Arm, is not that you're a fine artist, or a fine
writer, but that you are both!" And what do you think his answer has always
been to such an accusation? A smile, accompanied by the inimitable Sperry
chuckle that means he's having a good time inside himself, and the dry
comment: "It’s just a lot of hard work, if you ask me." Then he would run
his hand over the new book, ruffle the page, give it an approving thump, and say: "They did
a good job, don't you think?" And if any of us insisted tenaciously that he really must have
had fun building up that exciting story and drawing the pictures to go with it, he would
answer: "Oh sure, sure, lots of fun." At that point he would praise his wife, his small
daughter (when the next book comes out he'll include his smaller son), his friends, and the
publishers for what they had done for him. As if he had done nothing at all for us! In another
moment he would beat a hasty retreat to the pantry where, soon after, would come the sound
of tinkling ice and a shout: "Must celebrate the publishers -- God bless 'em!" . . . That is
Armstrong Sperry, the first person in the world to give praise to the other fellow, the last
one to accept it for himself.
From http://www.ogram.org/sperry/
Name ______________________________
Date __________
Class __________
Armstrong Sperry
Answer the following questions. You do not have to use compete sentences.
1. In what year was Armstrong Sperry born?_________________________
2. Who sparked Sperry’s interest in the sea? _________________________
3. While some of Sperry’s family members were seafarers, others were
____________________.
4. What is a “hair-raising yarn”? (See the 1st paragraph) Write this phrase in your own
words: _____________________________________________
5. In which war did Sperry serve? _________________________
6. What was the name of the island Sperry’s great-grandfather visited and told stories
about to his grandson? _________________________
7. Did Sperry ever make it to this island? __________
8. How did Sperry feel about being an illustrator and writer?
_________________________ What is your evidence in his autobiography (1st page)
that he felt this way?
____________________________________________________________
9. Why were Sperry’s teachers frustrated with him?
____________________________________________________________
10. What did Sperry’s teachers think would become of him?
____________________________________________________________
11. How much did Sperry earn in his first job as an illustrator?
_________________________
12. Why did Sperry write to Frederick O’Brien?
____________________________________________________________
13. What was different about Sperry’s illustrations of Tarzan than the pictures in books
before Tarzan and the Lost Empire?
____________________________________________________________
14. What was the first book Sperry wrote and when was it published?
____________________________________________________________
15. Why did Sperry have so much difficulty writing One Day With Tuktu, An Eskimo
Boy? ____________________________________________________________
16. In what year was Call It Courage published and who published this novel?
____________________________________________________________
17. What award did Sperry receive for Call It Courage?
___________________________________
18. Why did Sperry worry that Call It Courage was not a good book for children?
____________________________________________________
19. What did Sperry mean when he wrote “that no writer should ever write down to
children”?
____________________________________________________________
20. From the last line of the biography, what can we say about what kind of man Sperry
was? ___________________________________________________________