10.28.2011

The Monster and the Tailor, Paul Galdone


Today's vintage children's book, The Monster and the Tailor, is a ghost story just in time for Halloween and was illustrated by Paul Galdone.  Galdone illustrated his first children's book, Miss Pickerell Goes to Mars, when he was in his mid-forties. That jump started a career in which Galdone illustrated and/or wrote more than 300 children's books. Working mostly in pen and ink washes, Galdone's style has been called unfussy, accessible, colorful, witty and detailed. Two books Galdone illustrated won Caldecott Honors;  Anatole and Anatole the Cat, both written by Eve Titus.


A tailor is called to a Grand Duke's castle. The Duke wants to tailor to sew him a pair of trousers with one caveat: they are to be sewn in a graveyard. Spooky!






The Monster and the Tailor
Retold and Illustrated by Paul Galdone
Clarion Books, 1982

Paul Galdone was born in Budapest, Hungary in 1907 and immigrated to the United States in 1928. He studied at the Art Student's League and the New York School of Industrial Design. He was influenced by illustrators such as Arthur Rackham and Walter Crane. Nature was a constant inspiration. Galdone died on November 7, 1986. In 1996 he was posthumously awarded the 1996 Kerlan Award for his contribution to children's literature.

Paul Galdone

No comments:

Post a Comment