Janina Domanska
Janina Domańska (28 July 1913 – 2 February 1995) was a Polish-born American artist, author and illustrator. She is best known for her self-illustrated children's books. She won a Caldecott Honor for her book If All the Seas Were One Sea in 1972.
Janina Domanska
- Born
- 1913 · Warsaw.
- Died
- 1995
- Nationality
- United States
- Occupation
- writer · illustrator
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
VALÉORINE documentary reading
Documentary summary
Janina Domańska (28 July 1913 – 2 February 1995) was a Polish-born American artist, author and illustrator. She is best known for her self-illustrated children's books. She won a Caldecott Honor for her book If All the Seas Were One Sea in 1972.
Admitted source layer · organised and presented by VALÉORINE
Note VALÉORINE
Janina Domanska (1913–1995) was an illustrator and writer, of American nationality. The illustrator was born in Warsaw.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 26 September 2026
VALÉORINE
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for Janina Domanska. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
World of VALÉORINE
Documentary connections
Only confirmed graph relationships appear here. Images are shown only when their identity and reuse rights both pass the documentary gate.
Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q6154497
In this article
Personal life
Personal life
Domańska was born in Warsaw. She graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, Poland in 1939. She was held briefly in a concentration camp in Germany, before being released to stay with a doctor and his family in Germany. In 1946 Domanska studied painting in Italy, and then emigrated to the United States in 1952. She worked designing textiles before she began creating book illustrations. She was married to writer Jerzy Laskowski. And later to Ernest Nossen. She lived in New Fairfield, Connecticut.
Career
Career
Domańska wrote, adapted and translated 22 books with her own illustrations. She also illustrated 23 books by other authors. Her own titles include The Tortoise and the Tree, Din Dan Don It's Christmas, Spring is, and The Best of the Bargain. Her book King Krakus and the Dragon received a starred Kirkus review highlighting the "rich color, sumptuous design, and a splendid peacock of a dragon [that] adorn this old Polish tale of King Krakus who founded Krakow." The books she illustrated that were written by others include an edition of Trumpeter of Kraków, the Newbery award winning children’s novel by Eric P. Kelly. Astrid Lindgren's Mischievous Meg; the 1992 version of The Bremen Town Musicians by the brothers Grimm; and Ten and a Kid by Sadie Rose Weilerstein, which won the 1962 National Jewish Book Award for children's literature. She also created a poster supporting poetry in 1975 for the Children's Book Council
Legacy
The Ezra Jack Keats/Janina Domanska Research Fellowship was established at the University of Southern Mississippi through the Ezra Jack Keats Foundation, the Janina Domanska Literary Estate, and the de Grummond Children's Literature Collection. The aim of the program was to support “scholars engaged in projects based substantially on the holdings of the de Grummond Children's Literature Collection.” A selection of Domanska's papers relating to 14 books that she published between 1962-78 are held in the Children's Literature Resource Collection at the University of Minnesota Library. Damanska’s correspondence from 1966-1990 as well as books and cards she created are part of the Grummond Collection at the McCain Library at the University of Southern Mississippi.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Bethel University, Caldecott Winners and Honors: 1972 Winner & Honorees https://bethelindiana.libguides.com/c.php?g=972173&p=7026522
- 2.Kirkus Review. Aug. 1, 1979. King Krakus and the Dragon. https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/a/janina-domanska-2/king-krakus-and-the-dragon/
- 3.National Jewish Book Award. https://web.mnstate.edu/schwartz/natonaljewishbookaward.htm
- 4.Free Library of Philadelphia. Children's Literature Research Collection. Digit Item. http://libwww.library.phila.gov/digital/item/63848
- 5.Ezra Jack Keats/Janina Domanska Research Fellowship Program. https://www.degrummond.org/fellowships
- 6.Margaret Ann Macloud. Ezra Jack Keats Foundation Celebrates 35th Anniversary of Annual Book Award. 03/09/2021. https://www.usm.edu/news/2021/release/ezra-jack-keats-award-winners.php
- 7.Janina Domanska Papers. https://archives.lib.umn.edu/repositories/4/resources/3495
- 8.Janina Domanska Papers. https://www.lib.usm.edu/legacy/degrum/public_html/html/research/findaids/domanska.htm
- 9.Anne Pellowski. “Books on Poland for Children.” Polish American Studies, Vol. 28, No. 2 (Autumn, 1971), pp. 66.
- 10.Alexander Taylor, Eight Current Children's Books: A Mixed Bag, Children's Literature, Volume 3. pp. 198-202.
- 11."Janina Domanska; Children's-Book Author, 82" (obituary). The New York Times. February 15, 1995. Retrieved 2014-09-26.
- 12.Frances F. Povsic. “Poland: Children's Fiction in English,” The Reading Teacher, April 1980, Vol. 33, No. 7 (Apr., 1980), pp. 806-815
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 17 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Illustration
5,224 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Janet Harvey KelmanIllustrator
- Janet PerlmanIllustrator
- Janez VidicIllustrator
- Janice NadeauIllustrator
- Jānis JaunsudrabiņšIllustrator
- Janny WurtsIllustrator
- Jano KöhlerIllustrator
- János HajnalIllustrator
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own a work by Janina Domanska?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.