Out in the World
Unable to attend art school despite having received three scholarships, Ezra worked to help support his family and took art classes when he could. Among the jobs he held were mural painter with the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and comic book illustrator, most notably at Fawcett Publications, illustrating backgrounds for the Captain Marvel comic strip.
Ezra at 16
Ezra went into the Army in 1943, and spent the remainder of World War II designing camouflage patterns. After the war, in 1947, he legally changed his name to Ezra Jack Keats, in reaction to the anti-Semitism of the time. It was his own experience of discrimination that deepened his sympathy and understanding for those who suffered similar hardships.
Art school
Ezra was determined to study painting in Europe, and in 1949 he spent one very productive season in Paris. Many of his French paintings were later exhibited in this country, and he continued to paint and exhibit throughout his life. After returning to New York, he focused on earning a living as a commercial artist. His illustrations began to appear in publications such as Reader’s Digest, the New York Times Book Review, Collier’s and Playboy, and on the jackets of popular books. The Associated American Artists Gallery, in New York City, gave him two exhibitions, in 1950 and 1954.
Early book illustrations
One of his cover illustrations for a novel was on display in a Fifth Avenue bookstore, where it was spotted by the editorial director of Crowell Publishing, Elizabeth Riley. She asked him to work on children’s books for her company, and published his first picture book in 1954. Jubilant for Sure, written by Elizabeth Hubbard Lansing, was set in the mountains of Kentucky, a long way from the Brooklyn streets or Paris ateliers. In an unpublished autobiography, Ezra marveled: “I didn’t even ask to get into children’s books.” In the years that followed, Keats was hired to illustrate many children’s books written by other authors, among them the Danny Dunn adventure series.