Don Mangus' "It Only Hurts When I Smirk.": October 2015

William D. Berry: Deneki An Alaskan Moose

William D. Berry

Within the 48 pages of this book is a tale that intrigues and delights, while being factual. Deneki follows a bull moose calf through his first year in the Alaskan wilderness. Along the way we meet the creatures Deneki meets, we learn about the plants he browses on, we are introduced to the various types of habitat in this wilderness, and we learn about the strange seasons.

All of it is illustrated with William Berry's talented hand -- sketches of animals, plants and scenery that fit the story perfectly. Detailed close-ups of the various plants are an added feature.

Biography:

William D. Berry was born on May 20, 1926, in San Mateo, California. His family soon moved to Arizona, where they lived for seven years. He spent countless hours outside studying everything that moved, reading animal books, and watching Disney films.

He kept several small critters in his room and begn drawing animals as soon as he could hold a pencil. He completed his first book- on slugs- when he was five. As time went on, he became more known to the public. He wanted to work for Disney and even went to the Art Center in Los Angeles in 1943, but World War II intervened.

He served his last military year as a cartoonist for "Stars and Stripes." When he returned to civilian life, he attended the School of Allied Arts in Glendale, CA. However, most of his knowledge came from hours spent at the Los Angeles County Museum, where he drew skeletons and studied the structure of dozens of birds and mammals. He ended up illustrating a book for them, entitled "Birds of Southern California," by George Wollett.

Over the years, Berry worked as a Curator of Science at the California Junior Museum in Sacramento and did numerous commissions, ranging from paintings to illustrations to murals.

Invited to visit Alaska, Berry and his wife, Elizabeth, eagerly accepted. Alaska soon had a hold on them that appently never let go. Elizabeth Berry recalls in the book about a time in Denali National Park when their jeep got stuck. "....The guest was a different kind of person, to say the least, and while he made angels in the snow and praised the ancient gods for letting us experience this magnificent country, we were busy using the garbage can lids as shovels. We finally extricated the jeep and started back to Camp Denali when Bill yelled at us to stop and took his turn at praising the gods -- actually a whole line of exuberant profanity. Then my eye caught what he had seen -- several black dots that resolved themselves into wolves. It was a family of eight black wolves, the first wolves we had seen in three summers at Camp Denali. The scene is etched permenantly in my memory, and I love looking at the sketch Bill did of the place and the moment. He worked a couple of days on that one sketch, aiming to capture exactly how the scene looked. Our guest was sure that it was his praising the gods and our getting stuck that brought such a good omen."

After the years spent in Alaska, Bill and his wife returned to California for a time, where their first son, Mark, was born in 1959. Bill finally worked at Disneyland. Then it was off to Denver, Colorado where he worked on a diorama for the Denver Museum of Natural History.

The Berry family returned to Alaska in 1961, where a second son, Paul, was born in 1962. They lived at Deneki Lakes until 1965, when they moved to Fairbanks. Bill taught drawing classes at the Tanana Valley Community College and was working on a mural for the children's book room of the Noel Wien Library in Fairbanks at the time of his death in 1979. The children's room was renamed the Berry Room in Bill's honor.

William D. Berry: Fine Alaskan Animal Artist

William D. Berry

William D. Berry

William D. Berry 1954-1956 Alaskan Field Sketches:

This book offers a unique glimpse of Alaska and its creatures, rendered on paper by a man who loved and respected them. William D. Berry was nationally known as a wildlife artist, but to many Alaskans, he was also a kind of state treasure and certainly a natural resource. Berry's clear vision, conveyed with his disciplined skills, captured Alaska's creatures and their habitats in works that are both scientifically accurate and artistically compelling.

From his childhood in the southwestern desert to the closing days of his life in the taiga forest of Alaska, Berry was absorbed by the diversity of living creatures with which he shared the world. Years of observation gave him a singular capability to perceive animals; years of study gave him an equally singular ability to convey them to observers through an array of artists' media. Fox cubs or caribou, his animals are what you might see -- if you had his patience or powers of observation. Each fully rendered creature has its own character, presented with respect for its individuality as well as accuracy for its individuality as well as accuracy for its species characteristics.

It is a privilege for the University of Alaska to bring this sampler of Bill Berry's private efforts from the 1950s before a wider audience. The book is grouped into four sections: Denali Park, color sketches, Point Hope, and around and about Alaska. Within each, the animals are in taxonomic order, the way Berry arranged and filed them.

Berry's friend, zoologist William O. Pruitt, once observed that this artist's field sketches were the equivalent of the scientist's field notes. Perhaps it is that honesty that makes his work a challenge to other artists who wish to capture the essence of animals and captivate viewers. It is surely one of the reasons that his sketches continue to please all who cherish wilderness.

Bibliography:

Birds of Southern California, by George Wollet.
Animal Friends of the Sierra, by Fran Hubbard. 1955. Awani Press.
Animal Friends of the Northwest, by Fran Hubbard. 1957. Awani Press.
How to Understand Animal Talk. 1958, by Vinson Brown.
Mammals of Los Angeles County. 1959, by Charles A. McLaughlin.
Ducks, Geese, and Swans. 1960, by Herbert H. Wong.
Buffalo Land. 1961.
Deneki: An Alaskan Moose. 1965.
Animals of the North. 1966, by William O. Pruitt.
Mammals of the San Francisco Bay Area. (with Elizabeth Berry)
William D. Berry: 1954-1956 Alaskan Field Sketches. 1989. Compiled with commentary by Elizabeth Berry. Published posthumously by the University of Alaska Press.

More Alaskana: George Ahgupuk Placemat Set

George Ahgupuk

Four placemats by Alaskan Eskimo (Inuit) artist George Ahgupuk. The set includes "Arctic Hunters," "Eskimo Blanket Toss,"The Quiet Visitors"," and "Return to the Village." These were originally purchased in the early 1970s in Anchorage, Alaska during the Fur Rendevouz event. They measure 17" x 11.5", and the backs are a tan color.