Wanda Gág
Wanda Hazel Gág (March 11, 1893 – June 27, 1946) 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", a book of excerpts from the diaries of her teen and young adult years, received widespread critical acclaim. Two of her books were awarded Newbery Honors and two received Caldecott Honors. Early years. Wanda Hazel Gag was born March 11, 1893, in the German -speaking community of New Ulm, Minnesota, to Elisabeth Biebl Gag and the artist and photographer Anton Gag. The eldest of the seven Gag children, Wanda was 15 when 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. While still a teenager her illustrated story "Robby Bobby in Mother Goose Land" was published in "The Minneapolis Journal" in their "Junior Journal" supplement. After graduating in June, 1912 she taught country school in Springfield, Minnesota, from November 1912 to June 1913. Art school. In 1913 Gág began a platonic relationship with University of Minnesota medical student Edgar T. Herrmann who exposed her to new ideas in art, politics and philosophy. With a scholarship (and the aid of friends), she attended The Saint Paul School of Art in 1913 and 1914. From 1914 to 1917 she attended The Minneapolis  School of Art under the patronage of Herschel V. Jones. While there, she became friends with Harry Gottlieb and Adolf Dehn. Her first illustrated book commission (as Wanda Gäg) was "A Child’s Book of Folk-Lore— Mechanics of Written English" by Jean Sherwood Rankin (1917). New York. In 1917 Gág won a scholarship to the Art Students League of New York where she took classes in composition, etching and advertising illustration. By 1919 Gág was earning her living as a commercial illustrator. During her time in New York she became a member of the Society of American Graphic Artists . In 1921 she became a partner in a business venture called "Happiwork Story Boxes". The boxes were decorated with story panels on its sides. An illustration of Gág's was published in "" in 1921. Gág's art exhibition in the New York Public Library in 1923 was her first solo show. She began signing her name "Gág" around this time. In 1924 Gág's work was published in a short-lived folio-style magazine with artist William Gropper. In 1925 she created a series of illustrated crossword puzzles for children that was syndicated in several newspapers. Gág's one-woman -show in the Weyhe Gallery in 1926 led to her being acclaimed as "… one of America’s most promising young graphic artists… " and was the start of a lifelong relationship with its manager, Carl Zigrosser. Gág began to sell her lithographs, linoleum block prints, water colors and drawings through the gallery. In 1927 her article "These Modern Women: A Hotbed of Feminists" was published in "The Nation", drawing the attention of Alfred Stieglitz and prompting Egmont Arens to write: "The way you solved that problem (her relationship with men) seems to me to be the most illuminating part of your  career. You have done what all the other ‘modern women’ are still talking about." Gág’s illustrations were published on the covers of the leftist magazines "The New Masses" and "The Liberator". In 1928 Gág hand-colored some of Rockwell Kent's illustrations in a limited edition of "Candide". In a 1929 "New York Times" review, Elisabeth Luther Cary described Gág's print "Stone Crusher": "Pure imagination leaps out from dusky shadows and terrifies with light, an emotional source difficult to analyze." Her work was recognized internationally and was selected for inclusion in the American Institute of Graphic Arts "Fifty  Prints of the Year" in 1928, 1929, 1931, 1932, 1936, 1937 and 1938. In 1939 Gág's work was shown at The Museum of Modern Art exhibition "Art in Our Time" and at the New York World's Fair "American Art Today" show. Works for children. In 1927 Gág's illustrated story "Bunny's Easter Egg" was published in "John Martin's Book", a magazine for children. Gág's work caught the attention of Ernestine Evans, director of Coward-McCann's children's book division. Evans was delighted to learn that Gág had children's stories and illustrations in her  folio and asked her to submit her own story with illustrations. The result, "Millions of Cats", had been developed from a story that Gág had written to entertain the children of friends. It was published in 1928. Anne Carroll Moore wrote: "… It bears all the hallmarks of becoming a perennial favorite among children, and it takes a place of its own, both for the originality and strength of its pictures and the living folk-tale quality of its text. A book of universal interest to children living anywhere in the world." "Millions of Cats" is on the New York Public  Library's list of 100 Great Children's Books. In 1935 Gág published the "proto-feminist" "Gone is Gone; or, the Story of a Man Who Wanted to Do Housework". To encourage the reading of fairy-tales, Gág translated and illustrated "Tales from Grimm" in 1936. English critic Humbert Wolfe, commenting on Gág's translation, wrote: "From the very first page it was clear that Miss Gág was chopping away a perfect brushwood of clumsy phraseology to let in the light." Two years later she translated and illustrated the Grimm story "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" in reaction to  the "trivialized, sterilized, and sentimentalized" Disney movie version. Her essay "I Like Fairy Tales" was published in the March 1939 issue of "The Horn Book Magazine". "More Tales from Grimm" was published posthumously in 1947. Four of her translated fairy tales were later released with illustrations by Margot Tomes. Personal life. Gág liked to live and work in the country. In the early 1920s she spent summers drawing at various locations in rural New York and Connecticut. She rented a three-acre farm ("Tumble Timbers") in Glen Gardner, New Jersey from 1925 to 1930 and later purchased a larger farm  ("All Creation") in Milford, New Jersey in 1931. She continued to support her unmarried adult siblings, some of whom lived with her from time to time. Gág's brother Howard did the hand lettering for most of her picture books and Wanda also encouraged her sister Flavia to create illustrated books for children. In addition to Earle Humphreys (her long-time paramour and business manager) Gág had, sometimes concurrently, other lovers including: Adolph Dehn, Lewis Gannett, Carl Zigrosser, and Dr. Hugh Darby. She married Humphreys on August 27, 1943. Gág died from lung cancer in New York City, June 27 , 1946. Memorials. Gág was honored by "The Horn Book Magazine" in a tribute issue in 1947. Her childhood home in New Ulm, Minnesota has been restored and is now the Wanda Gág House, a museum and interpretive center that offers tours and educational programs. In 1992 "Millions of Cats" was featured on the television series "Shelley Duvall's Bedtime Stories", narrated by James Earl Jones. A bronze sculpture of Gág (with one of her cats) by Jason Jaspersen was erected at the public library of New Ulm, Minnesota in 2016. In 2017 The Sandbox Theatre in Minneapolis produced "In The  Treetops", a new play that focused on Gág's childhood years. Awards. The books "Millions of Cats" and "The ABC Bunny" were recipients of a Newbery Honor. Both "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" and "Nothing at All" received a Caldecott Honor. Wanda was posthumously honored with The Lewis Carroll Shelf Award in 1958 and The Kerlan Award in 1977. The Wanda Gág Read Aloud Book Award is awarded each year by the University of Minnesota, Moorhead. In 2018, Gág was posthumously honored with The Museum of Illustration at the Society of Illustrators Original Art Lifetime Achievement Award. Archives. Gág 's prints, drawings, and watercolors are in the collections of The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, The Whitney Museum and other museums around the world. Gág's papers, manuscripts and matrices are held in the Kerlan Collection at the University of Minnesota, The New York Public Library, The Free Library of Philadelphia and the Minneapolis Institute of Art. Works. Books. Writer and illustrator: Translator and illustrator: Illustrator only: Translator only: