H. A. Rey facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
H.A Rey
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H. A. Rey reading to children in the early 1970s
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| Born | Hans Augusto Reyersbach September 16, 1898 Hamburg, German Empire |
| Died | August 26, 1977 (aged 78) Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Occupation | children's book author |
| Nationality | American |
| Genre | Children's literature |
| Notable works | Curious George |
| Notable awards | Curious George Takes a Job was named to the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award list in 1960. |
| Spouse | |
Hans Augusto (H.A.) Rey (born Hans Augusto Reyersbach; September 16, 1898 – August 26, 1977) was an American author and illustrator. He was born in Germany. He is best known for the popular Curious George series of children's picture books. He created these books with his wife, Margret Rey.
Contents
Life Story of H.A. Rey
Hans Augusto Reyersbach was born in Hamburg, German Empire, on September 16, 1898. Both Hans and Margret were German Jews. They first met in Hamburg at Margret's sister's birthday party.
They met again later in Brazil. Hans was working there as a salesman. Margret had moved there to escape the rise of Nazism in Germany. Nazism was a political idea that led to World War II and the persecution of Jewish people.
Hans and Margret married in 1935. They moved to Paris, France, in August of that year. They lived in an area called Montmartre. In June 1940, they had to flee Paris because of World War II. They left on bicycles, carrying the manuscript for their Curious George book with them.
Hans A. Rey passed away on August 26, 1977, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States.
The Adventures of Curious George
While living in Paris, Hans's drawings of animals caught the eye of a French publisher. The publisher asked him to create a children's book. One of the characters in his book, Cecily G. and the Nine Monkeys, was a playful monkey named Curious George.
Hans and Margret then decided to write a whole book just about Curious George. But World War II started, interrupting their work. As Jewish people, the Reys knew they had to leave Paris before the Nazis took over the city.
Hans quickly put together two bicycles. They left Paris just a few hours before the city fell to the Nazis. Among the few things they took with them was the illustrated story of Curious George.
The Reys traveled a long way to escape. They went to Bayonne, France, where they received special visas that saved their lives. These visas were signed by a Portuguese Vice-Consul, Manuel Vieira Braga, following instructions from Aristides de Sousa Mendes.
From Bayonne, they crossed into Spain and took a train to Lisbon, Portugal. From Lisbon, they sailed back to Brazil, where they had met years earlier. Finally, they continued their journey to New York.
The first Curious George book was published in New York by Houghton Mifflin in 1941. Hans and Margret had first planned to use watercolor pictures. But because they had to do the color separation themselves, Hans changed the drawings to the cartoon-like style we know today. This style is still used in the books. A special collector's edition with the original watercolors has been released since then.
Curious George quickly became very popular. The Reys were asked to write more stories about the playful monkey and his friend, the Man in the Yellow Hat. They wrote seven books in total. Hans mostly did the drawings, and Margret mainly worked on the stories. However, they both shared ideas and worked together on every part of the books.
At first, Margret's name was not on the book covers. But in later editions, this was changed. Now, Margret gets full credit for her important role in creating the stories. In 1960, Curious George Takes a Job won a special honor called the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award.
In 1963, the Reys moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts. They lived in a house near Harvard Square until Hans passed away in 1977. In the 1990s, friends of the Reys opened a children's bookstore named Curious George & Friends in Harvard Square. A new Curious George store, called The World's Only Curious George Store, opened in 2012 and moved to Central Square in 2019.
H.A. Rey's Star Charts
H.A. Rey became interested in astronomy during World War I. He found the usual constellation diagrams hard to remember. So, he wanted to redraw them to make them easier to understand.
This led to his book, The Stars: A New Way to See Them, published in 1952. His new constellation diagrams became very popular. They are now used in many astronomy guides, like Donald H. Menzel's A Field Guide to the Stars and Planets.
Even today, The Stars: A New Way to See Them and a simpler book for kids called Find the Constellations are still in print. A new version of Find the Constellations came out in 2008. It was updated with new fonts, information about Pluto's new status, and current measurements of planets.
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This is how the Gemini constellation is usually drawn.
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This is H.A. Rey's way of drawing Gemini. It shows twins holding hands.
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This is the usual drawing of the Leo constellation.
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This is H.A. Rey's way of drawing Leo. It looks like a lion walking.
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This is the usual drawing of the Virgo constellation.
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This is H.A. Rey's way of drawing Virgo. It looks like a woman lying down.
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This is Rey's drawing of the Virgin's Diamond asterism.
H.A. Rey's Collected Works
The University of Oregon keeps many of H. A. Rey's papers from 1940 to 1961. These mostly include letters between Rey and his publishers in America and Britain.
The de Grummond Children's Literature Collection in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, also has over 300 boxes of Rey's papers from 1973 to 2002. Margret Rey's will stated that all of the Reys' literary works should be given to this collection.
Books Written by H. A. Rey
- Cecily G. and the Nine Monkeys
- Curious George
- Curious George Takes a Job
- Curious George Rides a Bike
- Curious George Gets a Medal
- Curious George Learns the Alphabet
- Curious George Goes to the Hospital
- Feed the Animals
- Find the Constellations
- Elizabite - Adventures of a Carnivorous Plant
- How Do You Get There?
- Pretzel
- The Stars: A New Way to See Them
- Where's My Baby?
- See the Circus
- Tit for Tat
- Billy's Picture
- Whiteblack the Penguin Sees the World
- Au Clair de la Lune and other French Nursery Songs (1941)
- Spotty (1945)
- Mary had a Little Lamb and other Nursery Songs (1951)
- Humpty Dumpty and other Mother Goose Songs (©1943 Harper & Brothers)
Books Illustrated by H. A. Rey
- Dem Andenken Christian Morgensterns 12 Lithographien zu seinem Werk, von Hans Reyersbach (= H. A. Rey), signiert und mit Text in Bleistift HR 22 (1922)
- Die Sommerfrische: 10 Idyllen in Linol-Schnitt, von Hans Reyersbach (= H. A. Rey), Berlin (1923)
- Grotesken - 12 Lithographien zu Christian Morgensterns Grotesken von Hans Reyersbach (= H. A. Rey). Neue Folge. 400 Exemplare, Hamburg Kurt Enoch Verlag (1923)
- Zebrology (1937)
- Elizabite - The Adventures of a Carnivorous Plant (1942)
- Don't Frighten the Lion (1942)
- Katy No-Pocket (1944)
- We Three Kings and other Christmas Carols (1944)
- Curious George Flies a Kite, written by Margret Rey (1958)
See also
In Spanish: H. A. Rey para niños
