Family photo
Paul Brett Johnson
As a University of Kentucky student studying art and special education, Paul Brett Johnson enrolled in a class about writing for children. But it would take another two decades, during which he became a commercially successful artist, before he would launch his second career as an acclaimed author and illustrator of children’s books.
Johnson wrote and illustrated more than 20 books of his own, and he illustrated many more by other noted authors, including Kentucky Hall of Fame writers James Still and George Ella Lyon.
Lyon said she always thought of Johnson as “an Appalachian/cosmopolitan, an artist and storyteller, with a laugh in his voice, always in conversation with the beauty and absurdity of the world.”
Johnson was born May 19, 1947, to Paul and Harriet Johnson in the small Knott County community of Mousie. His mother was a school librarian, and he loved looking at the many picture books in his home. He also enjoyed spending time with a grandfather who liked to tell tall tales.
When Johnson was a teenager and showed a talent for drawing and painting, his parents took him to Alice Lloyd College for art lessons. His first moneymaking endeavor was painting campaign signs for a Knott County clerk.
Johnson moved to Lexington in 1965. After graduating from UK, he worked briefly as a school art teacher before his paintings and limited-edition prints started becoming big sellers. He painted mostly landscapes and nostalgic Appalachian scenes based on early 20th century photos in the Alice Lloyd archives. A series of paintings about the region’s coal-mining history was especially popular.
Johnson tried for nearly a decade to break into the children’s book market but had little success until the 1993 release of The Cow Who Wouldn’t Come Down. It was the story of Gertrude, a cow who flies, even though her owner, Miss Rosemary, tells her she can’t. It made “best books” lists of the American Booksellers Association, the New York Public Library and School Library Journal, which raved that it was “a virtuoso debut.”
Johnson later wrote two companion books of similarly outrageous tales: The Pig Who Ran a Red Light (1999) and The Goose Who Went Off in a Huff (2001). Other popular books included Farmer’s Market (1997), Old Dry Frye (1999), Fearless Jack (2001) and On Top of Spaghetti (2006), an adaptation of the old elementary school playground song.
Those and many other books were filled with colorful, whimsical illustrations. His characters, both animals and human, were smart, funny and often magical. He said he tried to create stories accessible to a child’s experience without “dumbing them down.”
Johnson told Lexington Herald-Leader reporter Kevin Nance that he enjoyed creating children’s books because it gave him “the freedom to be totally and outlandishly imaginative.”
He described his writing process in a 2003 interview with Reneé Critcher, published in Appalachian Journal: “As I’m writing, the pictures that I see in my head very often inform the words that get put down on paper. The words and the mind-pictures sort of play off each other, back and forth. However, I rarely start drawing or painting until I’ve got the story nailed. I always write the story before I start any actual artwork.”
The Lexington Children’s Theatre created two productions based on Johnson’s books: Old Dry Frye and Cows Don’t Fly and Other Known Facts. He was a popular speaker at elementary schools across Kentucky.
Johnson’s books earned the California Young Reader Medal, the North Carolina Junior Book Award and honors from Smithsonian magazine and the Kentucky Association of School Librarians.
Johnson died June 1, 2011, after a brief illness.
“Paul knew what he was here for, and he did it with great energy, generosity, and joy,” Lyon said at his memorial service. “When he fell in love with picture books, he threw himself into the process, as a writer as well as an illustrator. In the interplay between words and pictures, he revealed his playfulness and wit which, along with his ability to access his inner 5-year-old, helped him create … books that countless kids love and laugh through.”