Notable Deaths in 2021
Eric Carle
“The Very Hungry Caterpillar” (1969) delighted children and parents with its tale of the metamorphosis of a green-and-red caterpillar into a multi-colored butterfly. Originally conceived by author and illustrator Eric Carle (June 25, 1929-May 23, 2021) as a story about a bookworm (“A Week with Willi the Worm”), the hero was changed to a caterpillar on his editor’s advice. It has sold some 40 million copies and been translated into 60 languages.
Born in New York to German immigrant parents but raised in Germany, Carle became attracted to the expressionist and abstract art that was banned by the Nazis. He returned to the States and worked as a graphic designer for The New York Times and at an advertising agency, when his artwork attracted the attention of Bill Martin Jr., who needed an illustrator for his book, “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?”
Over the next five decades Carle would write and/or illustrate more than 75 books, including “Do You Want to Be My Friend?,” “The Grouchy Ladybug,” “Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?” and ‘”From Head to Toe.” One of his last was “The Nonsense Show,” which featured a parade of flying fish, cat-taming mice, and circus animals.
“The unknown often brings fear with it,” he once observed. “In my books I try to counteract this fear, to replace it with a positive message. I believe that children are naturally creative and eager to learn. I want to show them that learning is really both fascinating and fun.”
His signature illustration technique used pictures pieced together from tissue paper painted in various colors and textures. “It sounds corny, but I think I connect with the child in me, and I think others do, too,” he told The Associated Press in 2003. He said he chose to depict animals in unconventional colors to show young readers that, in art, there is no wrong color.
Carle received lifetime achievement awards from the National Endowment for the Arts and the American Library Association. In 2002, Carle and his wife, Barbara Carle, founded The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, Mass.
