page_title: Wanda Gág
section_title: Early years
hierarchical_section_title: Wanda Gág / Early years
caption_attribution_description: English: Self portrait on grocery bag c.1915 Wanda Gág
context_page_description: Wanda Hazel Gág was an American artist, author, translator, and illustrator. She is best known for writing and illustrating the children's book Millions of Cats, the oldest American picture book still in print. Gág was also a noted print-maker, receiving international recognition and awards. Growing Pains, excerpts from the diaries of her teen and young adult years, received widespread critical acclaim. Some of her books have been awarded Newbery Honors and Caldecott Honors.
context_section_description: Born March 11, 1893, in the German-speaking community of New Ulm, Minnesota, to Elisabeth Biebl Gag and the artist and photographer Anton Gag, Gág was the eldest of seven children. When still a teen, her illustrated story Robby Bobby in Mother Goose Land was  published in The Minneapolis Journal in their Junior Journal supplement.
  When she was 15, her father died of tuberculosis; his final words to her were: "Was der Papa nicht thun konnt', muss die Wanda halt fertig machen." (What Papa couldn't do, Wanda will have to finish.) Following Anton's death the Gag family was on welfare and some townspeople thought that Wanda should quit high school and get a steady job to help support her family. Despite this pressure, Wanda continued with her high school education. After graduating in June, 1912 she taught country school in Springfield, Minnesota, from November 1912 to June 1913.
caption: Gág self-portrait (1915)
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