Eric Carle – American illustrator and author, b. 1929-2021
American illustrator and author, b. 1929. The artist and author of one of America’s most popular contemporary picture books, The Very Hungry Caterpillar (1969), works in a studio filled with large drawers of colored tissue paper on which he has splashed, painted, or dabbed acrylic paints to create special textures and effects.
Eric Carle cuts tissue paper into the desired shapes, then pastes them in layers on cardboard He then takes full-color photographs of tile artwork, to be reproduced in a picture-book format. “Ninety-nine percent of the illustration is made of paper,” says Carle, “but sometimes I use a crayon or a bit of ink to accent small details.”
Born of German parents in Syracuse, New York, in 1935, Eric Carle and his family returned to Germany, where he disliked the rigid school system, except for his art classes, in which he was free to exercise his creativity. At age twenty-two, Eric Carle returned to the United States and worked as a graphic designer for the New York Times. He began freelance work in commercial art in 1963. It never occurred to Carle to write and illustrate children’s books until Bill Martin, an editor at Holt, Rinehart and Winston, asked him to illustrate Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? in 1967.
Shortly after the publication of Brown Bear, Carle met Ann Beneduce, and she became his editor, a relationship that lasted almost twenty years. Carle remembers, “We discussed picture books and agreed they should be fun, bright, bold, and educational without being heavy- handed.” Carle’s first book for Beneduce, 1, 2, 3 to the Zoo (1968), won first place at the Bologna International Children’s Book Fair. Says Carle, “Suddenly, at age forty, I was an illustrator and author! And I knew what I wanted to do for my life’s work.”
Eric Carle in his own words …
One day in kindergarten, in Syracuse, New York, my teacher stamped a cow and a rooster into my workbook. I then drew a barnyard scene around the oddly placed animals. I harnessed the cow to a wagon loaded with hay and added a farmer with a pitchfork. Then I surrounded the rooster with a hen house, which I attached to a barn with a sliding door. It seemed to me that these two forlorn animals needed to be “explained.”
My teacher asked my mother to come to school for a conference. My mother was convinced that I had behaved badly or worse. Walking down the hallway, she noticed many pictures taped to the wall; they were signed “Eric.” The teacher told her that her son had drawn them, that he was good at art, and that she should nurture this talent. My mother promised that she would. A door opened that day. I formed the unshakable conviction that drawing and making pictures would be the core of my life. My teacher opened the door; my mother kept her promise; my father gave the promise shape.
My father had wanted to become an artist, but his strict father would not have a starving artist in the family. My father loved nature and animals, especially small ones. He and I, hand in hand, would walk across meadows and through the nearby forest. On our explorations, he would lift rocks to show me a worm or a salamander; he taught me that it was easier to catch a slow lizard in the cool morning than a quick lizard in the hot afternoon.
My parents went back to Germany in 1935. Because of a grade-school teacher who inflicted corporal punishment, I felt physically and emotionally so devastated that I hated school for the next ten years—until I went to art school. But while I was in Gymnasium—high school—I discovered a love of classical music. My Latin teacher, a short man with a goatee, was a lover and practitioner of classical music. He and his wife and six children each played an instrument, and some Sunday afternoons they performed at his home. From these occasions he would ask his pupils to join his friends and family for a round of Beethoven, Mozart, and Schubert.
In a strange way a door had opened again. Later I learned that picture books, too, need rhythm, that a book must flow like a symphony or quartet or duo; that it must have movements, adagios, and fortissimos. Books, like music, must be held together by a beginning, a middle, and an end.
My art teacher soon discovered my love for drawing and painting. There were few who liked art, and Herr Kraus was grateful to have found someone who took his classes seriously. As a young man he had been a Socialist and follower of the German Expressionist movement. Socialists and Expressionists, however, were out of favor under Hitler. Abstract artists were “degenerate” and forbidden to paint or show their work; often it was confiscated and even destroyed.
One day Herr Kraus asked me to his home. There he pulled from the rear of his linen closet a large box. “I like your drawings,” said my art teacher. “I like their loose and sketchy quality. Unfortunately, I have instructions to teach naturalistic and realistic art. But I want to show you something else.” He reached into the box and pulled out a reproduction of one of the forbidden paintings. At first I was shocked and repulsed. Never had I seen anything like this. But Herr Kraus stood there, unruffled and unafraid; he was proud of his kind of art, and his love for it shone in his eyes. He opened one more door at a most appropriate moment.
My childhood during World War II was gray. The buildings in the cities and towns of Germany were camouflaged in dull greens, dull grays, and dull browns. Clothing, now utilitarian, was cheerless and without color. Even the weather in central Europe is often gray. In art school after the war I learned about the joys of color. Ever since, I have striven for bold colors in order to counteract the grays and dark shadows of my youth. I want to celebrate color and push the range of colors to ever new heights.
Not too long ago, a child wrote to me: “We are alike in the same way; you like colors and I like colors.” Another one wrote, “Dear Mr. Carle, you are a good picture writer.” I would like to be remembered as a picture writer and as someone who has opened a door for children to the world of pictures and words.
The Very Hungry Caterpillar is the story of a winsome caterpillar who eats his way through holes in the book while introducing themes of counting, days of the week, and the life cycle of the butterfly. Carle was one of the first illustrators intrigued with the idea of introducing natural science concepts to young children. The Very Hungry Caterpillar has remained in print for twenty- five years, attesting to its popularity with preschool and elementary age children. Since that book, Carle has illustrated more than forty books for preschool and primary school children.
The underlying purpose behind the brightly colored pictures and hidden surprises in Eric Carle’s books is, he says, “to combine learning with fun and to bridge the gap for youngsters making the transition between home and school.” His approach to making picture books is exemplified in The Grouchy Ladybug (1977), a cumulative tale about an impolite ladybug who be-comes happier when she is better behaved. Here Carle works the themes of appropriate social behavior and telling time into the entertaining plot.
Also representative is The Very Busy Spider (1984), a story about persistence that features a raised spider web, enabling visually impaired children t© feel the story’s progression. In Animals Animals (1989) and Dragons Dragons (1991), the artist’s vivid collages illustrate poems describing a variety of real and imagined creatures. Today Is Monday (1993) bears all the earmarks of its popular predecessors. The energy of its pictures combined with its spirited traditional verses offers a rollicking, good-humored romp for young listeners and readers.
A young child once called Eric Carle “Mr. Picture Writer,” a title he enjoys and one that seems highly appropriate for an illustrator whose picture books continue to entertain, teach, and spark a child’s imagination.
S.L.
Source: Children’s Books and their Creators, Anita Silvey.
Eric Carle Bibliography
- 1965, Aesop’s Fables for Modern Readers (Peter Pauper Press) (illustrator)
- 1965, Nature Thoughts: A Selection (Peter Pauper Press) (illustrator)
- 1966, On Friendship: A Selection (Peter Pauper Press) (illustrator)
- 1967, Flower Thoughts: A Selection (Peter Pauper Press) (illustrator)
- 1967, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? (illustrator)
- 1968, 1, 2, 3 to the Zoo
- 1969, The Very Hungry Caterpillar
- 1970, Pancakes, Pancakes!
- 1970, The Tiny Seed
- 1970, Tales of the Nincompoop (illustrator)
- 1970, The Boastful Fisherman (illustrator)
- 1971, Feathered Ones and Furry (illustrator)
- 1971, The Scarecrow Clock (illustrator)
- 1971, Do You Want to Be My Friend?
- 1972, Rooster’s Off to See the World
- 1972, The Very Long Tail
- 1972, The Secret Birthday Message
- 1972, Walter the Baker
- 1973, Do Bears Have Mothers Too? (illustrator)
- 1973, Have You Seen My Cat?
- 1973, I See a Song
- 1974, Split-page book collection:
- My Very First Book of Numbers
- My Very First Book of Colors
- My Very First Book of Shapes
- My Very First Book of Words
- 1974, Why Noah Chose the Dove (illustrator)
- 1974, All About Arthur
- 1975, The Hole in the Dike (illustrator)
- 1975, The Mixed-Up Chameleon
- 1976, Eric Carle’s Storybook, Seven Tales by the Brothers Grimm
- 1977, The Grouchy Ladybug
- 1978, Watch Out! A Giant!
- 1978, Seven Stories by Hans Christian Andersen (sequel to Seven Tales by the Brothers Grimm)
- 1980, Twelve Tales from Aesop
- 1981, The Honeybee and the Robber
- 1982, Otter Nonsense (illustrator)
- 1982, Catch the Ball!
- 1982, What’s for Lunch
- 1983, Chip Has Many Brothers (illustrator)
- 1984, The Very Busy Spider
- 1985, The Foolish Tortoise (illustrator)
- 1985, The Greedy Python (illustrator, companion to The Foolish Tortoise)
- 1985, The Mountain that Loved a Bird (illustrator)
- 1986, All Around Us
- 1986, Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me
- 1986, Group of small-format books:
- My Very First Book of Sounds
- My Very First Book of Food
- My Very First Book of Tools
- My Very First Book of Touch
- My Very First Book of Motion
- My Very First Book of Growth
- My Very First Book of Homes
- My Very First Book of Heads
- 1986, All in a Day (Mitsumasa Anno editor)
- 1987, A House for Hermit Crab
- 1988, The Lamb and the Butterfly (illustrator)
- 1988, Eric Carle’s Treasury of Classic Stories for Children
- 1989, Animals Animals (illustrator)
- 1990, The Very Quiet Cricket
- 1991, Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? (illustrator)
- 1991, Dragons Dragons (illustrator)
- 1992, Draw Me a Star
- 1993, Today Is Monday (illustrator)
- 1994, My Apron
- 1995, The Very Lonely Firefly
- 1996, Little Cloud
- 1997, From Head to Toe
- 1997, Flora and Tiger: 19 very short stories from my life
- 1998, Hello, Red Fox
- 1998, You Can Make a Collage: A Very Simple How-to Book
- 1999, The Very Clumsy Click Beetle
- 2000, Does A Kangaroo Have A Mother, Too?
- 2000, Dream Snow
- 2002, “Slowly, Slowly, Slowly,” said the Sloth
- 2003, Where Are You Going? To See My Friend! (with Kazuo Iwamura)
- 2003, Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See? (illustrator)
- 2004, Mister Seahorse
- 2005, 10 Little Rubber Ducks
- 2006, My Very First Book of Numbers
- 2007, Baby Bear, Baby Bear, What Do You See? (illustrator)
- 2007, Eric Carle’s ABC
- 2008, The Rabbit and the Turtle
- 2009, Google logo design (illustrator)
- 2009, The Very Hungry Caterpillar’s Buggy Book
- 2009, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Pop-Up Edition (40th Anniversary Tribute Book)
- 2010, Up in the Sky
- 2011, The Artist Who Painted A Blue Horse
- 2011, Tom Thumb
- 2011, A Very Colorful Day
- 2012, Shapes to See, Shapes to Draw!
- 2013, Friends
- 2013, Animal Babies
- 2013, All Around Us
- 2014, What’s Your Favorite Animal?
- 2015, The Nonsense Show
- 2015, How Things Grow
- 2015, Love from The Very Hungry Caterpillar
- 2015, The Very Hungry Caterpillar’s Christmas 1 2 3
- 2016, The Very Hungry Caterpillar’s ABC
- 2016, I Love Mum with the Very Hungry Caterpillar
- 2017, My First PEEK-A-BOO Animals
- 2017, Merry Christmas from the Very Hungry Caterpillar
- 2017, What’s Your Favorite Color?
- 2018, What’s Your Favorite Bug?
- 2019, What’s Your Favorite Food?
- 2020, Baby Bear, Baby Bear, What Do You See? / Oso bebé, oso bebé, ¿qué ves ahí? (Bilingual board book – English / Spanish)
- 2020, Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? / Oso polar, oso polar, ¿qué es ese ruido? (Bilingual board book – English / Spanish)
