Artist and Writer

Renowned for the extraordinary range and depth of his talent, Ashley Bryan (1923-2022) was an artist, a writer, a poet, an anthologist, a storyteller, and a noted scholar of African and African American folklore.

His children’s books are full of love - all-embracing, inspiring, warm, colorful, joyous, and bursting with song. He worked largely with Black African-American poetry and spirituals.

Ashley expressed hope that his work with African tales would be like “a tender bridge” connecting past to present, reaching across distances of time and space. Ashley’s numerous awards and honors include the Coretta Scott King Award for Illustration; six Coretta Scott King Honors; the Arbuthnot Prize, one of the highest honors in children’s literature; and a Fulbright Scholarship.

His poetry and paintings have and continue to influence a whole generation of children.

Born in 1923 in Harlem to West Indies immigrants, Bryan’s childhood was filled with books, music, and art, even though resources tended to be scarce during the Great Depression. Second of six children, Bryan cannot remember a time when he was not drawing or painting.

His first memories were of his parents sending him to Government-run WPA classes which were free, and where he learned to draw, paint, and play musical instruments. Ashley's mother sang and his father played the piano.

After graduating from high school, he applied for a scholarship at a prominent art institution but was essentially told that a scholarship would not be wasted on a colored person. Under the guidance of his high school teachers, Bryan then applied and was accepted into New York's prestigious Cooper Union Art School. After two years at Cooper Union, Ashley was drafted into the army to serve in World War II. At the age of nineteen, as a part of the fleet that sailed to Normandy for the surprise invasion, Bryan drew whenever he could, keeping a sketch pad and art supplies in his gas mask. Breaking a more than 70-year silence, in 2019 he wrote the book “Infinite Hope.” The book incorporates his sketches.

After the war, Bryan went on to study philosophy at Columbia University to, as he says, “understand war.” He received a Fulbright scholarship to study art in Europe, and became the head of the art department at Dartmouth College.