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Tracy Mack & Brian Selznick
Tracy: Hi Brian. It's so nice to be asked to talk to the CBC community about what I like to talk about most-shoes!
Brian:
Hi, Tracy. Actually, we're here to talk about books…I mean, you've got great shoes, but your books are really wonderful.
Tracy: Oh, right. And they last a lot longer.
Brian: We can start off by talking about how long we've known each other.
Tracy: Well, we first met working on Pam Conrad's Our House: The Stories of Levittown in 1994. I'd fallen in love with your work in The Houdini Box and was dying to work with you. Dollface Has a Party hadn't come out yet, so I when I signed you up, I hadn't even realized that you'd been paired with Pam before.
Brian:
I used to work at Eeyore's Books for Children and Pam Conrad was one of my favorite authors to read and recommend. It was so moving to go on a tour of Levittown with Pam and to see the town
through her eyes.
Tracy:
We really miss her. Remember when we marched in Levittown's 50th Anniversary Parade in her memory? Remember how we dressed up as people from Levittown in the 1940s, and you assured me everyone else would be dressed up, too?
Brian: Well, we were a big hit…everyone at the parade told us we looked like old photos of their grandparents!
Tracy: That was the beginning of a rich friendship and many spirited collaborations.
Brian:
One of the things I like about working with you is that you offer me stories that I would never have thought of, but they feel as if they come from my heart. When you first told me about The
Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins by Barbara Kerley, I agreed to illustrate it without even seeing the manuscript, something I've never done before.
Tracy:
It helps that I know you so well and visit your studio regularly and can witness first-hand the things that inspire you. That allows me to stretch my imagination when thinking of projects for you. I love how you often build models to help you illustrate your books. Because Waterhouse was also a builder, I immediately knew this story was for you. In fact, I thought you two shared many of the same qualities.
Brian: Wild hair and unnerving compulsion?
Tracy: No, I was thinking passion, dramatic flair, and ingenuity.
Brian:
Oh. Thanks. Well, I did take Waterhouse's showmanship as a starting point. That's why there are so many red curtains in the book. Actually, the opening picture, showing Waterhouse pulling aside the curtain, is based on a famous painting by Charles Wilson Peale. Besides being a painter, Peale also ran one of the first natural history museums, and it turns out that Waterhouse's father may have known him.
Tracy: You always turn up such fascinating stories and connections in your research.
Brian:
But it's the visuals that hook me. The first image that came to me for Waterhouse was the last image in the book, where we see a boy drawing in Central Park and beneath him, the buried remains of Waterhouse's dinosaurs. (I talk more about working on Waterhouse in the "Meet the Author/Illustrator" archive on this website.) I don't always see images right away, but I always know when a story feels right. When you first told me about Amelia and Eleanor Go for a Ride by Pam Muñoz Ryan, for example, my two thoughts were, "I didn't know Amelia Earhart and Eleanor Roosevelt were friends" and "I really want to illustrate that book."
Tracy: I knew you'd be perfect for it. I saw this book looking like a big movie musical from the 1930s. Knowing your love of
old films, I thought you would be excited about this direction.
Brian:
I was! I immediately rented "Flying Down to Rio," starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, and that became the visual backbone for the whole book. The opening credits for the movie become the front matter for the book—a plane in the distance…flying toward the viewer…the title spinning out of the propeller…and we begin.
Tracy:
I love how you can take an idea, a motif, and run with it. It begins as the small kernel of something, but you always make it much bigger, much richer. You make it your own. In Amelia and Eleanor,
you did this not only with the movie musical theme, but also with the technique you chose. I am such a fan of your black and white work and had always hoped that one day we could do a full-length
picture book in black and white. You did this, but took it one step further.
Brian:
I looked at a lot of 1930s photographs of movie stars. The black and white tones were so rich that they seemed to have a purple cast to them. That's how I got the idea to use black, white, and purple in the drawings.
Tracy:
David Saylor (the designer on all of Brian's picture books for Scholastic Press) worked closely with us to give the book an art deco feel while, above everything, showcasing the warmth and friendship between Amelia and Eleanor.
Brian: And this book lead right into When Marian Sang: The True Recital of Marian Anderson, also by  Pam Muñoz Ryan. Like many people, after seeing Amelia
and Eleanor, my uncle Richard Selznick shared a story with me about Eleanor Roosevelt. He told me that he'd been a student in Washington, D.C., when Eleanor Roosevelt
resigned from the D.A.R. in protest of the organization's refusal to let Marian Anderson sing at Constitution Hall. He said he'd met both women during this time. I was amazed. I
immediately called Pam Muñoz Ryan to tell her this story.
Tracy:
A few days later Pam called me to share the story. She was so excited and wanted to write a picture book based on your uncle's recollection. She wondered if I thought it was okay to ask you. Of course I said, yes!
Brian: And I was thrilled. If Amelia and Eleanor was a 1930s movie musical, I knew immediately that When Marian Sang had to be an opera.
Tracy:
I love how the book opens with a few people streaming into the old Metropolitan Opera House. It was so much fun going to see "Un Ballo in Maschera" ("The Masked Ball") with you, Pam, and David. What serendipity that the opera in which Marian made her debut was restaged while we were working on the book.
Brian: I also loved our research in the archives at the Met and our backstage tour. It really helped me envision the book.
Tracy: I am always astonished by your ability to work in so many different styles; you surprise me with each new book.
Brian: I had just finished the paintings for The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins when I began this book. I remember sending you my first sketches for Marian,
and you and David wrote me the most wonderful letter. It said the sketches were good, but that I could do better, push myself further, and bring more magic to the pictures. It was so inspiring, and
so I sat right down and tried to do all that, and I kind of freaked out. It's hard to make yourself do those things. It took me a few days to absorb. It was only when I went back to the story that I
was able to let myself go deeper and find the inspiration you and David were talking about, which turned out to come from Marian herself.
Tracy:
Somehow, with paint and paper, light and shadow, you managed to capture the essence of her and her golden voice, as well as her grace and courage. It still mystifies me how you did that. I'm so inspired by your work in this book, and I'm so inspired by Marian. It makes me happy to think that our book will bring her story to a new audience.
Brian:
One of the best things about painting people over and over again is that you feel like you get to know them. Sometimes I feel like a time traveler. I'm so grateful for the people you've introduced me to and the places you've taken me.
Tracy: I guess we've gone on many journeys together.
Brian: Here's to many more.
Tracy: See you soon, Brian.
Brian: Bye.
Tracy Mack is Executive Editor at Scholastic Press, where she has been working for ten and a half years. Prior to becoming an editor, she taught English in Seville, Spain. She is also the author of the novel Drawing Lessons (Scholastic Press, 2000).
Brian Selznick, originally from New Jersey, graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design. He then worked for three years selling books and painting windows at Eeyore's Books for Children on Manhattan's Upper West Side. His first book, The Houdini Box (Simon & Schuster), was published while he was still working there. Brian has received numerous awards for his work, including a Caldecott Honor for The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins (Scholastic Press, 2001). He lives in Brooklyn, New York.
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