Ashley Bryan, book illustrator, storyteller, dies at 98

Islesford, Feb 6 (AP): Ashley Bryan, a children's book illustrator and storyteller who often retold African folktales he had heard as a child, has die.

Ashley Bryan, book illustrator, storyteller, dies at 98

Islesford, Feb 6 (AP): Ashley Bryan, a children's book illustrator and storyteller who often retold African folktales he had heard as a child, has died. He was 98.

Bryan, a resident of coastal Maine since the mid-1980s, died Friday at his niece's home in Texas, according to the Ashley Bryan Center in Islesford on Little Cranberry Island.

Bryan received Coretta Scott King awards for “Beat the Story Drum: Pum-Pum,” a series of Nigerian folktales illustrated with woodcut prints, and “Beautiful Blackbird,” a Zambian folktale illustrated in paper collage, the Bangor Daily News reported.

He also received Coretta Scott King honors and a Newbery Honor for “Freedom Over Me: Eleven Slaves, Their Lives and Dreams Brought to Life" in 2017. Bryan also received the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award and the Virginia Hamilton Lifetime Achievement Award.

“I am deeply saddened to learn of Ashley's passing," Gov. Janet Mills said in a statement Saturday. “He was a wonderful, happy man with a deep, rich history, a great imagination, and a beautiful, childlike soul. I am so thankful I was able to spend time with him last year. Over our lunch, he spontaneously recited Langston Hughes, Shakespeare's love sonnets and other wonderful verses." Mills had proclaimed July 13, 2020, as Ashley Frederick Bryan Day in Maine to mark Bryan's then-97th birthday. A memorial service will be held in Isleford this July 13.

Bryan also taught art, including at Dartmouth College from 1974 to 1988, before moving to Maine.

During War War II, he was drafted into the U.S. Army and fought in Europe, the Daily News reported, hiding drawing materials in his gas mask so he could sketch his fellow soldiers. He was part of the D-Day invasion of Normandy, France, at Omaha Beach in June 1944.

After the war, Bryan continued with his studies in Europe. He credited sketches he made of musicians at a festival in France with “opening his hand” and giving him a lasting style and approach, the Daily News reported.

“I knew if I could find the rhythm of whatever I was experiencing, that I could do all of my work and know who I am, keep trying to get to that core of who I am,” Bryan said in a 2014 interview with the newspaper. “And it didn't matter if I was doing a painting, if I was doing a puppet, a sea glass panel, doing a book — all of it is trying to tap that inner mystery of who I am.” (AP) ANB ANB

(This story is published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. No editing has been done in the headline or the body by ABP Live.)