Who Am I? November 2018
I was born at the tail end of the 19th century in Hamburg, Germany. As a lad I loved visiting the local Hagenbeck Zoo where I started a lifelong vocation of drawing animals. I went to school at the Humanitarian Gymnasium where I excelled in linguistics. I learned to speak four languages there. During the Great War I was drafted into the German army where I served in the infantry and in the medical corps. I was deployed to both France and Russia. After the war I attended the University of Hamburg and the University of Munich. I found work at a lithographic plant that specialized in circus posters to earn a living.
In the 1920’s I set sail for Rio de Janeiro to work for my brother-in-law who had an import-export firm there. I sold sinks and bathtubs up and down the Amazon River for my livelihood back then. I was eventually joined in Rio by my wife-to-be. Our families had known each other back in Hamburg. She had studied art at the Bauhaus and was a skilled photographer. Together we established a small advertising agency. I handled the advertising art and my wife wrote the copy. We married in Rio and fortunately for us, took Brazilian citizenship. We later sailed for France and honeymooned there.
It wasn’t long before the Nazi menace reached France. For a time we had taken temporary refuge at an old castle owned by friends in southern France. Later on, we took up residence in the 18th arrondissement in Paris. Just two days before the Germans entered Paris we were forced to run for our lives. We escaped on bicycles with just the clothes on our backs, a little food and some manuscripts we were working on that we hoped to get published. One of our manuscripts had a simian as a protagonist. Very similar to the “Victor Laszlo” character, the Czech patriot in the movie “Casablanca,” we hoped to get to Lisbon and from there to the “free world.”
Four months after fleeing Paris we arrived in N.Y.C. in October 1940 by way of Rio. As mentioned previously, our fortunate act of our obtaining Brazilian citizenship helped us immensely in securing the vital visas that saved our lives. In 1946 we became naturalized American citizens. Our luck held out because an American publisher bought our manuscript which centered around a mischievous and inquisitive simian. Our fictional creation was always getting into trouble, lots of trouble.
My wife and I made a great team. I supplied the ideas and illustrations for our series of books and my wife wrote the text. Her funny gestures and poses were often incorporated into our simian’s features. We were amazingly successful with our series of books – eventually selling over 30 million copies in 16 languages! Later on, our central character was made into a Hollywood film and a successful PBS series.
We lived 20 some years in NYC and later moved up to MA. I had a life-long interest in astronomy and later wrote the equivalent title of what today might be called, “Astronomy for Dummies.” I also taught astronomy classes at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education. My wife went on to teach creative writing at Brandeis.
There is a children’s room at the Boston Public Library named after us. My wife also set up a foundation to both fund children’s programs which embraced our protagonist’s best traits and also those that benefited animals. At our home we kept pets and rescued animals. Our legacy includes “Storytime” programs which are held almost everywhere. One was held not too long ago at Barnes & Noble in Hackensack. Throughout the fall of 2016 a learning program was held at the Liberty Science Center in Jersey City where visitors could learn the same way our protagonist does – through first- hand experience and problem solving skills. Not to be outdone, The Bergen P.A.C. in Englewood, N.J. has offered (1996, 2018) theater programs surrounding our famous simian as well. I think you know us by now. There’s a photo below taken of us shortly after our wedding.
(1)” Who Are We?” and what names were we born with and what did we eventually change them to? (2a) What was our protagonist’s original name and what was his eventual moniker? (2b)In order not to offend the Crown, what was our protagonist’s name in the U.K.? (2c) What was the name of that old castle in France where we sought temporary refuge? (3)What was the name of the vessel we sailed on from Rio to NYC? (4a)Who was our American publisher? (4b)We lived at 2 different addresses in downtown Manhattan. Name one of them. (5)What book did I write about astronomy? (6) Who was Lay Lee Ong and what was her relationship to us?
