Tibor Gergely ( August 3, 1900 – January 13, 1978) was a Hungarian-American 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 The 1928 Summer Olympics ( nl, Olympische Zomerspelen 1928), officially known as the Games of the IX Olympiad ( nl, Spelen van de IXe Olympiade) and commonly known as Amsterdam 1928, was an international multi-sport event that was celebrated from ...

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 o ...

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 Little Red Caboose'' is a children's book by Marian Potter and illustrated by Tibor Gergely, first published by Little Golden Book in 1953. Hardcover book contains 24 pages. Plot It tells the story of a caboose who longs to be as popular as ...

'', ''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 i ...

'', ''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 ...

. 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

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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