Tomi Ungerer
| Tomi Ungerer | |
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Tomi Ungerer by Claude Truong-Ngoc (2014).
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| Born | Jean-Thomas Ungerer 28 November 1931 Strasbourg, France |
| Occupation | Artist, illustrator, writer |
| Nationality | French |
| Alma mater | Municipal School for Decorative Arts (Strasbourg) |
| Period | 1957–present |
| Genre | Children's picture books, erotic literature |
| Notable works |
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| Notable awards | Legion d'Honneur France Hans Christian Andersen Award for Illustration 1998 |
| Relatives | Theodore Ungerer (father) Alice Ungerer (mother) Bernard (brother) Edith (sister) Vivette (sister) |
Jean-Thomas "Tomi" Ungerer (born 28 November 1931) is a French illustrator and a writer in three languages. He has published over 140 books ranging from much loved children's books to controversial adult work and from the fantastic to the autobiographical. He is known for sharp social satire and witty aphorisms.
Ungerer received the international Hans Christian Andersen Medal in 1998 for his "lasting contribution" as a children's illustrator.
Ungerer was born in Strasbourg, France, the youngest of four children to Alice (Essler) and Theo Ungerer. The family moved to Logelbach, near Colmar, after the death of Tomi's father, Theodore — an artist, engineer, and astronomical clock manufacturer — in 1936. Ungerer also lived through the German occupation of Alsace when the family home was requisitioned by the Wehrmacht.
As a young man, Ungerer was inspired by the illustrations appearing in The New Yorker magazine, particularly the work of Saul Steinberg. In 1957, the year after he moved to the U.S., Harper & Row published his first children's book, The Mellops Go Flying, and his second, The Mellops Go Diving for Treasure; by the early 1960s he had created at least ten children's picture books with Harper, plus a few others, and had illustrated some books by other writers. He also did illustration work for such publications as The New York Times, Esquire, Life, Harper's Bazaar, The Village Voice, and for television during the 1960s, and began to create posters denouncing the Vietnam War.
Maurice Sendak called Moon Man (1966) "easily one of the best picture books in recent years."
After Allumette; A Fable, with Due Respect to Hans Christian Andersen, the Grimm Brothers, and the Honorable Ambrose Bierce in 1974, he ceased writing children's books, focusing instead on adult-level books, many of which focused on sexuality. He eventually returned to children's literature with Flix 1998. Ungerer donated many of the manuscripts and artwork for his early children’s books to the Children’s Literature Research Collection at the Free Library of Philadelphia.
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