H. A. Rey
Encyclopedia
Margret Rey
Margret Elizabeth Rey , born Margarete Elisabeth Waldstein, was , the co-author and illustrator of children's books, the most famous of which are the Curious George series....
as authors and illustrators of children's books
Children's literature
Children's literature is for readers and listeners up to about age twelve; it is often defined in four different ways: books written by children, books written for children, books chosen by children, or books chosen for children. It is often illustrated. The term is used in senses which sometimes...
. They were best known for their Curious George
Curious George
Curious George is the protagonist of a series of popular children's books by the same name, written by Hans Augusto Rey and Margret Rey. The books feature a curious brown monkey named George, who is brought from his home in Africa by "The Man with The Yellow Hat" to live with him in a big city.When...
series.
Curious George Book Series
Hans and Margret were both Jewish and of German birth. They met in BrazilBrazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, where Hans was working as a salesman and Margret had gone to escape the rise of Nazism
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
. They married in 1935 and moved to Paris that same year.
While in Paris, Hans's animal drawings came to the attention of a French publisher, who commissioned him to write a children's book. The result, Cecily G. and the Nine Monkeys
Cecily G. and the Nine Monkeys
Cecily G. and the Nine Monkeys is a 1939 children's short story written and illustrated by German-Brazilian author H.A. Rey. It is the first story to include Rey's now-famous character, Curious George. When it was first published in France, Cecily's original name was Rafi; Raffy when it was first...
, is little remembered today, but one of its characters, an adorably impish monkey
Monkey
A monkey is a primate, either an Old World monkey or a New World monkey. There are about 260 known living species of monkey. Many are arboreal, although there are species that live primarily on the ground, such as baboons. Monkeys are generally considered to be intelligent. Unlike apes, monkeys...
named Curious George
Curious George
Curious George is the protagonist of a series of popular children's books by the same name, written by Hans Augusto Rey and Margret Rey. The books feature a curious brown monkey named George, who is brought from his home in Africa by "The Man with The Yellow Hat" to live with him in a big city.When...
, was such a success that the couple considered writing a book just about him. Their work was interrupted with the outbreak of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. As Jews, the Reys decided to flee Paris before the Nazis seized the city. Hans assembled two bicycles, and they fled Paris just a few hours before it fell. Among the meager possessions they brought with them was the illustrated manuscript of Curious George.
The Reys' odyssey brought them to the Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
border, where they bought train tickets to Lisbon. From there they returned to Brazil, where they had met five years earlier, but this time they continued to New York. The books were published by Houghton Mifflin
Houghton Mifflin
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is an educational and trade publisher in the United States. Headquartered in Boston's Back Bay, it publishes textbooks, instructional technology materials, assessments, reference works, and fiction and non-fiction for both young readers and adults.-History:The company was...
in 1941. Hans and Margret originally planned to use watercolor illustrations, but since they were responsible for the color separation, he changed these to the cartoon-like images that continue to be featured in each of the books. (A collector's edition with the original watercolors has since been released.)
Curious George was an instant success, and the Reys were commissioned to write more adventures of the mischievous monkey and his friend, the Man in the Yellow Hat. They wrote seven stories in all, with Hans mainly doing the illustrations and Margret working mostly on the stories, though they both admitted to sharing the work and cooperating fully in every stage of development. At first, however, Margret's name was left off the cover, ostensibly because there was already a glut of children's fiction written by women. In later editions this was changed, and Margret now receives full credit for her role in developing the stories.
Curious George Takes a Job won the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award
Lewis Carroll Shelf Award
The Lewis Carroll Shelf Award was started in 1958 by Dr. David C. Davis with the assistance of Prof. Lola Pierstorff, Director Instructional Materials Center, Univ. of Wisconsin and Madeline Allen Davis, WHA Wisconsin Public Radio. Awards were presented annually at the Wisconsin Book Conference...
in 1960.
The Reys relocated to Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
during 1963, in a house near Harvard Square
Harvard Square
Harvard Square is a large triangular area in the center of Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue, Brattle Street, and John F. Kennedy Street. It is the historic center of Cambridge...
, and lived there until Hans's death in 1977.
A children's bookstore named Curious George & Friends (formerly Curious George Goes to Wordsworth) operates in the Square.
Star Charts
Before the 1952 publication of Rey's The Stars: A New Way to See Them, (ISBN 0-395-24830-2) star charts used a conventional set of diagrams that were difficult to remember and relied on dim stars that are difficult to see in modern populated areas. Rey invented a new set of constellation diagrams that could be seen as cartoonish depictions of the creature or character the constellations was supposed to represent—- or, at least, were memorable. His constellation diagrams were adopted widely and now appear in many astronomy guides, such as Menzel's A Field Guide to the Stars and Planets. As of 2003 The Stars: A New Way to See Them, and a simplified presentation for children called Find the Constellations, are still in print. A new edition of Find the Constellations was released in 2008, updated with modern fonts, the new status of PlutoPluto
Pluto, formal designation 134340 Pluto, is the second-most-massive known dwarf planet in the Solar System and the tenth-most-massive body observed directly orbiting the Sun...
, and some more current measurements of planetary sizes and orbital radii.
Dr. Lena Y. de Grummond, a professor in the field of library science (specializing in children's literature) at The University of Southern Mississippi
The University of Southern Mississippi
The University of Southern Mississippi, informally known as Southern Miss, is a large public research university located in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, United States. It is situated north of Gulfport, Mississippi and northeast of New Orleans, Louisiana...
in Hattiesburg, Miss. contacted the Reys in 1966 about the university's new children's literature collection. H.A. and Margret made a donation of a pair of sketches at the time. In 1996, after Margret's death, it was revealed in her will that the entire literary estate of the Reys were to be donated to the de Grummond Children's Literature Collection at Southern Mississippi.
Books written by H.A. Rey
- Cecily G. and the Nine MonkeysCecily G. and the Nine MonkeysCecily G. and the Nine Monkeys is a 1939 children's short story written and illustrated by German-Brazilian author H.A. Rey. It is the first story to include Rey's now-famous character, Curious George. When it was first published in France, Cecily's original name was Rafi; Raffy when it was first...
- Curious GeorgeCurious George (book)Curious George is a children's book written and illustrated by Margret Rey and H. A. Rey, and published by Houghton Mifflin in 1941. It is the first book in the Curious George series and tells the story of a monkey called George and his adventures with the man with the yellow hat.- Background :The...
- Curious George Takes a JobCurious George Takes a JobCurious George Takes a Job is a children's book written and illustrated by Margaret Rey and H. A. Rey and published by Houghton Mifflin in 1947. It is the second of the Curious George books and tells the story of George taking a job as a window washer....
- Curious George Rides a BikeCurious George Rides a BikeCurious George Rides a Bike is a children's book written and illustrated by Margret Rey and H. A. Rey and published by Houghton Mifflin in 1952. It is the third book of the original Curious George series and tells the story of George's new bicycle and his experiences performing with an animal...
- Curious George Gets a MedalCurious George Gets a MedalCurious George Gets a Medal is a children's book written and illustrated by Margret Rey and H. A. Rey and published by Houghton Mifflin in 1957. It is the fourth book in the original Curious George series, and tells the story of George's flight into space...
- Curious George Flies a KiteCurious George Flies a KiteCurious George Flies a Kite is a children's book written and illustrated by Margret Rey and H. A. Rey and published by Houghton Mifflin in 1958. It is the fifth book in the original Curious George series.- Plot :...
- Curious George Learns the AlphabetCurious George Learns the AlphabetCurious George Learns the Alphabet is a children's book written and illustrated by Margret Rey and H. A. Rey and published by Houghton Mifflin in 1963. It is the sixth book in the original Curious George series.- Plot :...
- Curious George Goes to the HospitalCurious George Goes to the HospitalCurious George Goes to the Hospital is a children's book written and illustrated by Margret Rey and H. A. Rey and published by Houghton Mifflin in 1966. It is the seventh and final book in the original Curious George series, and tells the story of George's experiences in a hospital after...
- Feed the Animals
- Find the Constellations
- Elizabite - Adventures of a Carnivorous Plant
- How Do You Get There?
- Pretzel
- The Stars: A New Way to See Them
- Where's My Baby?
- See the Circus
- Whiteblack the Penguin Sees the World
- Au Clair de la Lune and other French Nursery Songs (1941)
- Spotty (1945)