General & Miscellaneous American Art, Animators, Cartoonists, & Illustrators - Biography
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Overview
There was once a family of seven brothers and sisters. Sadly, their father, an artist frustrated in his ambitions, died when the oldest child, a girl, was only fifteen. His dying wish was that she take up his dream of becoming a successful artist: "What Papa couldn't do," he told her, "Wanda would have to finish." It is hard to say how much her father's request urged Wanda Gag on to become the accomplished graphic artist, illustrator, and author that she did, but it does appropriately cast her life in the mold of the fairy tales she variously created, translated, and illustrated during the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s. In this meticulously researched assessment of Gag's life in relation to her work for children, Karen Nelson Hoyle traces her transformation from eldest daughter in a poor family from New Ulm, Minnesota, to admired and influential artist and author in the nascent industry of modern children's book publishing in New York City. Wanda Gag championed fairy tales. While their popularity ebbed and flowed during the thirty-year span of her working life, Gag devoted much of her career as a children's book author to the imaginative retelling and illustrating of fairy tales. She translated from the German and illustrated three collections of Grimm fairy tales as well as the single volume Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. And her original stories (such as The Funny Thing, about a gentle mountain man trying to appease a strange animal who eats children's dolls, and Snippy and Snappy, about two wayward mice) share with fairy tales the qualities of being fantastic and unbelievable on the one hand and wise and instructive about the nature of human experience on the other. But of all ten books Gag published for children, the most loved and best known remains her first, Millions of Cats, published in 1928. With more than 1 million copies now in print, Millions of Cats employs several innovative techniques - some now staples of picture books - for which Gag became recognEditorials
Booknews
This biography offers information gleaned from Gag's personal and professional papers which debunks the myth of her Cinderella-like rise from poverty to prominence, emphasizing instead the planning and relentless work that brought her well-deserved recognition as a children's book translator, illustrator, and author. Contains 12 pages of her lovely illustrations. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)Book Details
Published
July 27, 1998
Publisher
Twayne Publishers Inc.,U.S.
Pages
139
Format
Hardcover
ISBN
9780805739688