Anita Lobel

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Anita Lobel , née Kempler , (born June 2, 1934 in Krakow , Poland ) is an American children's book author , illustrator , Holocaust survivor and textile designer of Polish descent. She was married to the world-famous children's author Arnold Lobel .

Life

Anita Lobel, b. Kempler, was born into an upper-class Jewish patrician family and had a younger brother. The family was very wealthy and had several servants, including a nanny . After the Nazi attack on Poland in 1939, the parents went into hiding and left the two children to the Catholic nanny. She took Anita and her brother under her protection and fled with the two children through Poland for almost two years, until in 1943 she placed the children in the care of a Benedictine monastery . There both were discovered by the Gestapo and deported to Auschwitz . They survived thanks to the intervention of the Swedish Red Cross and came to Stockholm after the end of the war , where they also found their parents. Because they had relatives in the USA , the parents decided to emigrate to the USA, and in 1952 they moved to New York . Although she had attended school irregularly until she was 13, the gifted Anita was able to finish high school and enrolled at the Pratt Institute in New York, where she first attended design and acting courses. During a performance of the student theater in which she was employed as an actress, she met her future husband Arnold Stark Lobel, who also studied there and directed the play. Both married in 1955.

From 1957 to 1964 she worked as a fashion designer. It was not until 1965 that she published her first book of her own with texts and illustrations Sven's Bridge written by her . To date, numerous other books by the highly endowed author have been created. You have to understand the Lobel couple as a team: Both worked daily from 9 a.m. to around. 2 p.m., with short breaks for the children. This also resulted in four books that the couple designed and published together. Her childhood in Poland, the war and concentration camp experiences, but also the influence of Swedish, Russian and French fairy tales were her greatest sources of inspiration for her work. Many of her books have been translated into other languages.

As an illustrator, she designed a. a. Books by Charlotte Zolotow , a children's book based on a free translation of a story by Theodor Storm (Little John, (Der kleine Johann)) and a volume of poetry by the famous poet Carl Sandburg .

Today the artist lives in New York and devotes herself to her diverse interests, such as theater , foreign languages ​​and music.

Works (selection)

  • Sven's Bridge, New York: Harper & Row , 1965
  • Potatoes, Potatoes, Harper & Row, 1967 (German potatoes, potatoes , Aarau; Frankfurt a. M .: Sauerländer, 1969; potatoes here, potatoes there , Sauerländer, 1981)
  • The Little Wooden Farmer, lyrics by Alice Dalgliesh, New York: Macmillan US , 1968 (dt. The little wooden farmer , Stuttgart: Urachhaus, 1987)
  • Under a Mushroom, 1970 (German under a mushroom , Sauerlander, 1973)
  • A Birthday for the Princess, Harper & Row, 1973 (German: The princess has birthday , Sauerlander, 1975)
  • King Rooster, Queen Hen, New York: Greenwillow Books , 1975 (German King Hahn and Queen Henne , Frankfurt a. M .: Insel-Verlag, 1977)
  • How the Rooster Saved the Day, text by Arnold Lobel , Greenwillow, 1977
  • A Treeful of Pigs, Text: Arnold Lobel, Greenwillow, 1979 (German: A tree full of pigs , Ravensburg: Reading and Leisure Publishing, 1982)
  • On Market Street, text: Arnold Lobel, Greenwillow, 1981 (German Strange Purchases , text by Franz Martin, Vienna; Munich: Betz, 1982)
  • A Rose in My Garden, text: Arnold Lobel, Greenwillow, 1984
  • The Dwarf Giant, New York: Holiday House, 1991
  • No Pretty Pictures: A Child of War, New York: Greenwillow, 1998 (Eng. The Hiding Place in the Attic, A Childhood in Poland , Zurich: Atrium-Verlag, 2000) - Memoirs of her childhood in Poland

Awards (selection)

swell

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Lobel, Anita
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kempler, Anita (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American children's author, illustrator, Holocaust survivor, and textile designer
DATE OF BIRTH June 2, 1934
PLACE OF BIRTH Krakow , Poland