Tibor Gergely ( August 3, 1900 – January 13, 1978) was a
Hungarian-American
Hungarian Americans ( Hungarian: ''amerikai magyarok'') are Americans of Hungarian descent. The U.S. Census Bureau has estimated that there are approximately 1.396 million Americans of Hungarian descent as of 2018. The total number of people wit ...
artist best known for his illustration of popular children's
picture books
A picture book combines visual and verbal narratives in a book format, most often aimed at young children. With the narrative told primarily through text, they are distinct from comics, which do so primarily through sequential images. The images ...
. His work was part of the
painting event in the
art competition at the
1928 Summer Olympics.
Biography
Born in
Budapest
Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...
in 1900, into a middle-class Jewish family, he studied art briefly in
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
before immigrating to the United States in 1939, where he settled in New York City. Largely a self-taught artist, he also contributed several covers of ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'', mostly during the 1940s. Among the most popular children's books Gergely illustrated are ''The Happy Man and His Dump Truck'', ''Busy Day Busy People'', ''The Magic Bus (by Maurice Doblier)'', ''
The Little Red Caboose'', ''The Fire Engine Book'', ''
Tootle
''Tootle'' () is a children's book written by Gertrude Crampton and illustrated by Tibor Gergely in 1945. It is part of Simon & Schuster's Little Golden Books series. As of 2001, it was the all-time third best-selling hardcover children's book ...
'', ''Five Little Firemen'', ''Five Hundred Animals from A to Z'', and ''
Scuffy the Tugboat
''Scuffy the Tugboat'' is a children's book written by Gertrude Crampton and illustrated by Tibor Gergely. The book was first published in 1946 as part of the Little Golden Books
Little Golden Books is a series of children's books, publish ...
''. Many of his better known books were published by
Little Golden Books
Little Golden Books is a series of children's books, published since 1942.
''The Poky Little Puppy'', the eighth release in the series, is the top-selling children's book of all time in the United States.. Many other Little Golden Books have b ...
. His best work is collected in "The Great Big Book of Bedtime Stories". He became a U.S. citizen in 1948. Gergely died in 1978, in New York.
As of 2001, ''Tootle'' was the all-time third best-selling hardcover children's book in English, and ''Scuffy the Tugboat'' was the eighth all-time bestseller.
References
External links
*
Tibor Gergely
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gergely, Tibor
1900 births
1978 deaths
American children's book illustrators
Hungarian illustrators
Hungarian emigrants to the United States
Little Golden Books
Olympic competitors in art competitions
Jewish American artists
20th-century American Jews