a biography of the day-wanda hazel gag (author, illustrator, translator)

[niyad]

(I just checked, and "millions of cats" is still in print. will get from library)

Wanda Gág

Born March 11, 1893
New Ulm, Minnesota
Died June 27, 1946 (aged 53)
New York City
Occupation Artist, Writer, Translator
Nationality American
Genres Children's literature
Notable work(s) Millions of Cats
Notable award(s) Newbery Honor Award
Lewis Carroll Shelf Award
Caldecott Honor Award

Wanda Hazel Gág (1893–1946) was an American artist, author, translator and illustrator. She is most noted for writing and illustrating the children's book Millions of Cats which won a Newbery Honor Award and the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award. It is the oldest American picture book still in print.[1] The ABC Bunny also received a Newbery Honor Award. Her books Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Nothing at All each won a Caldecott Honor Award. In 1940 a book of edited excerpts from her diaries covering the years 1908 to 1917 was published as Growing Pains; it received wide acclaim.[2]

She was born March 11, 1893 in New Ulm, Minnesota, named Wanda Hazel Gag.[3] Her parents, Elisabeth Biebl Gag and Anton Gag, were artists and photographers of Bohemian descent. She was the eldest of seven children who all drew and sang; most of them wrote stories and poems as well.[4] While still a young teen Gág's illustrated story Robby Bobby in Mother Goose Land was published in The Minneapolis Journal in their Junior Journal supplement.[5]
. . . . .


In 1917, Gág moved to Greenwich Village. At the Art Students League she took classes in composition, etching and advertising Illustration. By 1919 she was earning a living as a commercial illustrator. Around this time she added an accent mark in her last name to aid in proper pronunciation (her last name rhymes with "log", not "wag".)[12] In 1921 she became a partner in a business venture called "Happiwork Story Boxes", boxes decorated with story panels in the sides. This business, along with several other ventures, failed.[13] Her art exhibition in the New York Public Library in 1923 was Gág's first solo show.[14] She continued exploring artistic projects, publishing a magazine with artist William Gropper titled Folio, it lasted one issue.[15] Her one-woman-show in New York's Weyhe Gallery in 1926 led to her recognition as "one of America's most promising young graphic artists".[16] In 1927 her article "A Hotbed of Feminists" was published in The Nation, drawing the attention of Alfred Stieglitz.[17] Gág illustrated the March 1927 cover of the leftist magazine The New Masses.[18]
Books for children

Gág's work interested Ernestine Evans, director of Coward-McCann's new children's book division. Evans disliked the common children's books of the day, and was looking for new authors and artists to create more realistic, less idealized books. She wanted Gág to illustrate a new edition of an older book, but Gág refused, saying "I am simply not interested in illustration as such... It has to be a story that takes hold of me way down deep".[19] Evans asked her to submit her own story with illustrations. Millions of Cats appeared in 1928. It won the Newbery Honor award, a rare achievement for a picture book.[20] Gág carefully oversaw every aspect of the production of this book. When a second printing was made from inferior copies because the originals had been lost, Gág was unhappy with the results and redrew the missing pieces.[21]

There was a movement among educators at the time against fairy tales. Some educators (Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Sarah Trimmer and Lucy Sprague Miller) disparaged fairy tales, preferring more realistic literature for children.[22] Gág disagreed. "I know I should feel bitterly cheated if, as a child, I had been deprived of all fairy lore..."[23] To encourage the use of these stories, Gág published Tales from Grimm in 1936. Two years later she translated and illustrated Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs as a reaction against the "trivialized, sterilized, and sentimentalized" Disney movie version.[24] Nothing at All became a Caldecott Honor book for 1942. More Tales from Grimm appeared posthumously in 1947, and three of her translated fairy tales were later released individually with new illustrations.
Printmaking and drawing


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Some artists who have been inspired by Wanda Gág are: Eric Rohmann,[32] Ursula Dubosarsky, [33] Susan Marie Swanson,[34] Jan Brett and Maurice Sendak.[35]


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wanda_G%C3%A1g

[murielm99]

1. I loved her books when I was little.

I was fascinated by Snippy and Snappy, two field mice who go into a house and are bewildered by their surroundings.

My kids loved the ABC Bunny. I have a first edition, but it is in terrible shape, and probably not worth any money. It certainly meant a lot to my kids, though.

[niyad]

2. I had never heard of her before, but will happily check and see what other of her books

are available. amazon has the "million cats", at least.

A most remarkable woman, who died way too young.