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On May 23, 2021, Eric Carle, the creator of The Very Hungry Caterpillar and many other iconic works of children’s literature died of kidney failure at the age of 91.  His books are everywhere.  It would be hard to find a classroom or library with books for kids that doesn’t have his books.  In the time following his passing, I have read several really excellent articles about his life and writings.  I had truly never realized the impact that his personal experiences had on his writing and especially his art.

His Childhood

Eric Carle was born in Syracuse, New York on June 25, 1929.  He was the son of Johanna and Erich W Carle who immigrated to the United States from Stuttgart, Germany.  As a young boy living in America, he was very close to his father, who often took him on walks and shared the beauty of the natural world and its many small living things.

In this video, Carle talks about his relationship to his father and his process for creating the collages that are the illustrations for picture books.

In 1935, when Eric Carle was only six years old, his family returned to Stuttgart.  His mother had become very homesick.  The timing of this was unfortunate because Stuttgart was part of Nazi Germany at that time.  In 1938 at the beginning of World War II, his father was drafted into the German army and later spent eight years in a Russian prisoner of war camp.  When he was 15, the Nazi government conscripted him and about 20,000 other teens to dig ditches on the Siegfried defensive line in west Germany.

In an article on Esquire, Adrienne Westenfield  quotes Eric Carle’s memories of Germany at that time:

During the war, there were no colors.  Everything was gray and brown and the cities were all gray and brown and the cities were all camouflaged with grays and greens and brown greens and gray greens and gray greens or brown greens, and … there was no color.

This must be been really painful for a young man who loved the beauty and color in nature.

Becoming an Artist

In a 2007 interview with NPR, Carle talks about one of his high school art teachers who shared the works of the “degenerate” artists whose works were full of color and life.  This included the German expressionists and artists such as Picasso, Matisse, and Paul Klee.  Carle said, “I’m frustrated that I cannot be more colorful than I am.”

Eric Carle studied graphic art at the Akademie Der bildenden Künste in Stuttgart and graduated in 1950.  In 1952, he moved to New York City to pursue a career as an artist.  He worked for the New York Times as a graphic designer.  While he was working in New York, he was drafted into the US Army during the Korean War and served as a mail clerk stationed in Germany with the 2nd Armoured Division.  After the war, he returned to New York City and his job with the Times.

In 1963, Eric Carle decided to leave his full-time job to work as a freelance artist.

Working with Bill Martin, Jr.

Around this time, Eric Carle got to know Bill Martin, Jr.  Martin noticed an ad featuring a colorful red lobster that Eric Carle had created and approached Carle about doing the illustrations for Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?    In the video below, Eric Carle describes this as a turning point in his career.  This video is a bit fuzzy, but it is a fascinating view of these two authors and the creative process that went into their books.  The book was published in 1967.

Bill Martin, Jr. was a force of nature in the world of children’s books.  He wrote over 300 books during his career.  Until I saw this video, I had never heard that Bill Martin, Jr. did not learn to read until he was 20 years old.  This was likely because of a learning disability.  The teacher who taught him to read used rhythm to help him learn.  This sense of rhythm is a key feature in many of his books, such as Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom.

In all, Eric Carle and Bill Martin, Jr. collaborated on four classic books for kids:  Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?,  Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See? and Baby Bear, Baby Bear, What Do You See?

When Bill Martin, Jr. died on August 11, 2004, he had written the manuscript for Baby Bear, Baby Bear, What Do You See?, but it had not yet been published.  This book has a wonderful emotional quality because it is about a mother bear finding her baby.  Eric Carle completed the illustrations, and Henry Holt published it in 2007.  After this book was complete, Carle stated that he might not write another children’s book.  This book was a way of coming full circle for him.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

According to eric-carle.com, The Very Hungry Caterpillar  has sold more than 50 million copies and is available in 66 languages.  Eric Carle published this book in 1969, just a couple of years after Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?

In this video, Eric Carle talks about the 50th anniversary edition.  It is a beautiful and truly poignant look at the meaning of this wonderful book.

It is difficult to imagine a more enduring classic.  The author and the book.