Wanda Gag. 1928. Robert Jansen. Minnesota Historical Society
|
Wanda Gág was born in New Ulm, Minnesota, in 1893, into an artistic family who encouraged her love of illustration. Gág received a scholarship to the St. Paul School of Art, and eventually transferred to the Minneapolis School of Art, where she focused on illustration. She had several works successfully published, but in 1928 Coward McCann published her illustrated children’s book, Millions of Cats. It has never been out of print. Millions of Cats is viewed as the prototype of the modern children’s book: Its poetic wordplay and horizontal imagery engages readers of all ages. In the story, an old man can't choose just one cat for his wife, so the landscape swarms with felines. Gág also published works outside the world of children’s literature, including prints of everyday objects and paintings painted on sandpaper. Gág died of lung cancer in 1946.
|
Sources to Get Started |
|