Ruth KraussRuth Krauss was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on July 25, 1901, to Julius and Blanche (Rosenfeld) Krauss. She constantly read, wrote, and drew as a child, and was allowed to quit school after the eighth grade to study art and the violin. Krauss eventually earned a B.A. degree from the Parsons School of Fine and Applied Art in New York City and casually studied anthropology at Columbia University. She married David Johnson Leisk, who wrote and illustrated children's books under the pseudonym Crockett Johnson, in 1941.