Eric Carle

Eric Carle was an American picture writer, illustrator, and designer of books for young children. He wrote and illustrated more than 70 books and was best known for his work The Very Hungry Caterpillar (1969), which has been translated into over 70 languages and sold over 55 million copies worldwide.

Eric Carle was born in Syracuse, New York. He grew up in Germany and studied art in the late 1940s and early 1950s. After finishing high school, he attended the Akademie der bildenden Künste (Academy of Fine Arts) in Stuttgart, where he studied typography and graphic design.

In 1952 Carle moved to New York and worked as a graphic designer for several years before beginning his career in book illustration. First, he worked on books for other authors but then wrote and illustrated his books.

Eric Carle debuted as an author and illustrator with the picture book 1, 2, 3 to the Zoo in 1968. It tells the story of a train ride through a zoo, with a different group of animals riding in each wagon. The book was well received and featured simple, repetitive text and illustrations that used Carle's signature technique, collage.

The tale, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, features a hungry caterpillar that eats various foods before pupating and emerging as a butterfly. It became one of the best-selling children’s books of all time.

His colorful and imaginative illustrations often featured animals and nature. The author's other notable works include Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See (1967), and The Very Busy Spider (1984), among others.

Carle received numerous awards and honors for his contributions to children's literature, including the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award, the Regina Medal, and the Hans Christian Andersen Award.

According to his publisher, Penguin Random House, Eric Carle has sold more than 170 million copies of books in his lifetime.

Eric Carle died at his summer studio in Northampton, Massachusets. He was 91.

Photo credit: FB @Eric Carle