Action Jackson (Single Titles) - Tapa dura

One late spring morning the American artist Jackson Pollock began work on the canvas that would ultimately come to be known as Number 1, 1950 (Lavender Mist).

Award-winning authors Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan use this moment as the departure point for a unique picture book about a great painter and the way in which he worked. Their lyrical text, drawn from Pollock's own comments and those made by members of his immediate circle, is perfectly complemented by vibrant watercolors by Robert Andrew Parker that honor his spirit of the artist without imitating his paintings.

A photographic reproduction of the finished painting, a short biography, a bibliography, and a detailed list of notes and sources that are fascinating reading in their own right make this an authoritative as well as beautiful book for readers of all ages.

Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan are the authors of several distinctive books about art including Chuck Close: Up Close (A Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor book for Non-Fiction and winner of the Norman O. Sugarman award for Biography); and Frank O. Gehry: Outside In. All are either ALA Notable Books for Young Adults or Best Books for Young Adults. Their most recent collaboration, Vincent Van Gogh: Portrait of an Artist, was named a 2002 Sibert Award Honor Book. Ms. Greenberg, whose poetry anthology Heart to Heart was named a 2002 Printz Award Honor Book, lives in St. Louis. Ms. Jordan, whose photographic picture book Frog Hunt was published by Roaring Book Press, lives in New York City.

Robert Andrew Parker who knew Jackson Pollock as a young man, is a fine artist and printmaker whose work often appears in publications such as The New Yorker. The illustrator of the Modern Library's edition of Stendhal's The Charterhouse of Parma, his numerous children's books include Grandfather Tang's Story, Sleds on Boston Common, and Cold Feet, winner of the 2002 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award.