Learn About Margret Rey on good-read.club

Margret Rey

4.2/5 ( ratings)

Born: May 15 1906

Died: 2020 12 19961996

Margret Elizabeth Rey , born Margarete Elisabeth Waldstein, was , the co-author and illustrator of children's books, best known for their Curious George

Although she was born in Germany, she fled to Brazil early in her life to escape Nazism. While there, she met her future husband Hans . They married in 1935 and moved to Paris, France that same year.

While in Paris, Hans's animal drawings came to the attention of French publisher, who commissioned him to write a children's book. The result, Rafi and the Nine Monkeys, is little remembered today, but one of its characters, an adorably impish monkey named Curious George, 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. As Jews, the Reys decided to flee Paris before the Nazis seized the city. Hans built 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 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, New York. The books were published by Houghton Mifflin in 1941, though certain changes had to be introduced because of the technology of the time. Hans and Margret originally planned to use watercolors to illustrate the books, but since they were responsible for the color separation, he changed these to the cartoon-like images that continue to feature in each of the books.

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 a glut of women already writing children's fiction. In later editions, this was corrected, and Margret now receives full credit for her role in developing the stories.

Margret and her husband moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1963, in a house close to Harvard Square. Following her husband's death in 1977, Margret continued writing, and in 1979, became a Professor of Creative Writing at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. Starting in 1980, she also began to collaborate with Alan Shalleck on a series of short films featuring Curious George and more than two dozen additional books.

In 1989 Margret Rey established the Curious George Foundation to help creative children and prevent cruelty to animals. In 1996, she made major donations to the Boston Public Library and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. She was also a long-time supporter of the Longy School of Music. The Reys spent twenty summers in Waterville Valley, New Hampshire, to enable H.A. Rey to better observe the stars for his astronomy writing. They became an integral part of the Waterville community and their legacy is honored by The Margret and H.A. Rey Center and the Curious George Cottage located there.

Dr. Lena Y. de Grummond, a professor in the field of library science at The University of Southern Mississippi 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 Miss.

Subscribe to Read | $0.00

Popular Genres

Subscribe to Read | $0.00

Margret Rey

Margret Rey

Books from Margret Rey

Curious George Visits the Zoo

Curious George Flies a Kite

Curious George Goes to the Beach

Curious George Goes to the Aquarium

Curious George and the Rocket

Curious George at the Fire Station

Curious George in the Big City

Curious George and the Pizza

Curious George's Dream

Curious George in the Snow

Curious George and the Dinosaur

Curious George Plants a Tree

Happy Easter, Curious George

Curious George at the Baseball Game

Curious George and the Pizza Party

Curious George and the Ice Cream Surprise

The Complete Adventures of Curious George

Curious George the Dog Show (CGTV Reader)

Curious George Goes Camping

Curious George Builds a Home