Paul galdone biography

Entry updated 13 May 2024. Tagged: Artist.

(1907-1986) American artist, born in Hungary, who moved to the United States at the age of fourteen. At some time he received artistic training at the Art Students' League and the New York School for Industrial Design, but he did not begin working for book publishers until after World War II. While he became best known for his work in children's books, Galdone also worked four years for Doubleday, garnering a few assignments to provide covers for adult books, including C M Kornbluth's The Syndic (1953), unusually illustrated with sketches of futuristic buildings and a row of armed soldiers. In a similar style, his cover for Kenneth F Gantz's Not in Solitude (1959) featured two spacesuited astronauts on a barren Martian landscape (see Mars).

Galdone's work for children's literature included covers and interior art for some fondly remembered works of Children's SF: Ruthven Todd's Space Cat (1952) and its three sequels; Evelyn Sibley Lampman's The Shy Stegosaurus of Indian Springs (1962); and the first four books in Ellen MacGregor's Miss Pickerell series. His first cover for MacGregor, Miss Pickerell Goes to Mars (May 1950 Liberty Magazine as "Swept Her Into Space"; much exp 1951), captured the spirit of the series by showing its titular heroine in an apron, standing next to her beloved cow and staring up at a Spaceship. He also illustrated all of the books in Eve Titus's Basil of Baker Street series, beginning with Basil of Baker Street (1958), which had a cover of a Mouse dressed like Sherlock Holmes examining the ground with a microscope. Since Galdone typically used little colour in his covers, later editions of these books often provide full-colour versions of his original images, but the fact that they were reused testifies to the fact that they remain appealing to younger readers. Galdone received Caldecott Award nominations for illustrating two other Titus books featuring mice, Anatole (1957) and Anatole and the Cat (1958).

While continuing to illustrate others' children's books, Galdone in the 1960s increasingly focused on writing and illustrating his own picture books for young children, all of them adaptations of nursery rhymes, fairy tales, and folk tales involving minimal text and copious illustrations that were celebrated for their playful humour and attention to detail; he is also known to have done some illustrations for greeting cards. Galdone died of a heart attack in 1986, though his art is still available today in recent editions of his innumerable books; the lengthy list below is probably incomplete. [GW]

Paul Galdone

born Budapest, Hungary: 2 June 1907

died Nyack, New York: 7 November 1986

works

This list excluded works with text by others sometimes credited solely to Galdone; the list is probably incomplete; most listed works have been republished on multiple occasions.

• Old Mother Hubbard and Her Dog (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1960) [chap: children's fiction: hb/Paul Galdone]
• The Old Woman and Her Pig (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1960) [chap: children's fiction: hb/Paul Galdone]
• The House That Jack Built (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1961) [chap: children's fiction: hb/Paul Galdone]
• The First Seven Days: The Story of the Creation from Genesis (New York: Crowell, 1962) [chap: children's fiction: hb/Paul Galdone]
• The Hare and the Tortoise (London: Bodley Head, 1962) [chap: children's fiction: hb/Paul Galdone]
• Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1964) [chap: children's fiction: hb/Paul Galdone]
• Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego: From the Book of Daniel (New York: Whittlesey House, 1965) [chap: children's fiction: hb/Paul Galdone]
• The History of Simple Simon (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1966) [chap: children's fiction: hb/Paul Galdone]
• Little Tuppen: An Old Tale (New York: Clarion Books, 1967) [chap: children's fiction: hb/Paul Galdone]
• Henny Penny (New York: Clarion Books, 1968) [chap: children's fiction: hb/Paul Galdone]
• The Horse, the Fox, and the Lion: Adapted from the Fox and the Horse (New York: Clarion Books, 1968) [chap: children's fiction: adaptation of story by the Brothers Grimm: hb/Paul Galdone]
• The Wise Fool (New York: Random House, 1968) [chap: children's fiction: adaptation of story from François Rabelais's Third Book of Pantagruel: hb/Paul Galdone]
• The Life of Jack Sprat, His Wife and His Cat (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1969) [chap: children's fiction: hb/Paul Galdone]
• The Monkey and the Crocodile: A Jakata Tale from India (New York: Clarion Books, 1969) [chap: children's fiction: hb/Paul Galdone]
• Androcles and the Lion (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1970) [chap: children's fiction: hb/Paul Galdone]
• Little Tom Tucker (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1970) [chap: children's fiction: hb/Paul Galdone]
• The Three Little Pigs (New York: Clarion Books, 1970) [chap: children's fiction: hb/Paul Galdone]
• Obedient Jack: An Old Tale (New York: F Watts, 1971) [chap: children's fiction: hb/Paul Galdone]
• Three Aesop Fox Tales (New York: Clarion Books, 1971) [coll: chap: children's fiction: hb/Paul Galdone]
  • Three Fox Fables (London: World's Work, 1972) [coll: chap: vt of the above: children's fiction: hb/]
• The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1971) [chap: children's fiction: hb/Paul Galdone]
• The Three Bears (New York: Clarion Books, 1972) [chap: children's fiction: hb/Paul Galdone]
• The Little Red Hen (New York: Clarion Books, 1973) [chap: children's fiction: hb/Paul Galdone]
• The Moving Adventures of Old Dame Trot and Her Comical Cat (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1973) [chap: children's fiction: hb/Paul Galdone]
• Jack and the Beanstalk (New York: Clarion Books, 1974) [chap: children's fiction: hb/Paul Galdone]
• Little Red Riding Hood (New York: Clarion Books, 1974) [chap: children's fiction: adaptation of story by the Brothers Grimm: hb/Paul Galdone]
• The Three Billy Goats Gruff (Heinemann, 1974) [chap: children's fiction: hb/Paul Galdone]
• The Frog Prince (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1975) [chap: children's fiction: adaptation of story by the Brothers Grimm: hb/Paul Galdone]
• The Gingerbread Boy (New York: Clarion Books, 1975) [chap: children's fiction: hb/Paul Galdone]
• The Table, the Donkey, and the Stick (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1976) [chap: children's fiction: adaptation of story by the Brothers Grimm: hb/Paul Galdone]
• The Magic Porridge Pot (New York: Clarion Books, 1976) [chap: children's fiction: hb/Paul Galdone]
• Puss in Boots (New York: Clarion Books, 1976) [chap: children's fiction: hb/Paul Galdone]
• A Strange Servant: A Russian Folk Tale (New York: Alfred A Knopf, 1977) [chap: children's fiction: hb/Paul Galdone]
• Cinderella (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1978) [chap: children's fiction: hb/Paul Galdone]
• Hans in Luck: Retold from the Brothers Grimm (New York: Parents Magazine Press, 1979) [chap: children's fiction: hb/Paul Galdone]
• King of the Cats: A Ghost Story (New York: Clarion Books, 1980) [chap: children's fiction: story by Joseph Jacobs "retold and illustrated" by Galdone: illus/hb/Paul Galdone]
• The Amazing Pig: An Old Hungarian Tale (New York: Clarion Books, 1981) [chap: children's fiction: hb/Paul Galdone]
• The Three Sillies (New York: Clarion Books, 1981) [chap: children's fiction: story by Joseph Jacobs "retold and illustrated" by Galdone: illus/hb/Paul Galdone]
• The Monster and the Tailor: A Ghost Story (New York: Clarion Books, 1982) [chap: children's fiction: hb/Paul Galdone]
• What's in Fox's Sack?: An Old English Tale (New York: Clarion Books, 1982) [chap: children's fiction: hb/Paul Galdone]
• The Greedy Old Fat Man: An American Folk Tale (New York: Clarion Books, 1983) [chap: children's fiction: hb/Paul Galdone]
• The Turtle and the Monkey: A Philippine Tale (New York: Clarion Books, 1983) [chap: children's fiction: hb/Paul Galdone]
• The Elves and the Shoemaker (New York: Clarion Books, 1984) [chap: children's fiction: hb/Paul Galdone]
• The Teeny-Tiny Woman: A Ghost Story (New York: Clarion Books, 1984) [chap: children's fiction: hb/Paul Galdone]
• Cat Goes Fiddle-I-Fee (New York: Clarion Books, 1985) [chap: children's fiction: hb/Paul Galdone]
  • A Galdone Treasury (New York: Clarion Books, 2001) [omni of The Three Little Pigs, The Three Bears, The Little Red Hen, and Cat Goes Fiddle-I-Fee: introduction by Leonard S Marcus: hb/Paul Galdone]
• Rumpelstiltskin (New York: Clarion Books, 1985) [chap: children's fiction: hb/Paul Galdone]
• Little Bo-Peep (New York: Clarion Books, 1986) [chap: children's fiction: hb/Paul Galdone]
• Over in the Meadow: An Old Nursery Counting Rhyme (New York: Prentice-Hall, 1986) [chap: children's fiction: hb/Paul Galdone]
• Three Little Kittens (New York: Clarion Books, 1986) [chap: children's fiction: hb/Paul Galdone]

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