About the author
LUDWIG BEMELMANS (1898-1962) was an Austrian-American painter, illustrator and writer of children’s and adult books, best know for his famous Madeline series. Each of the revered Madeline books, all of which centre around a fearless little girl growing up in a Catholic boarding school in Paris, began with the same, now well-known phrase, "In an old house in Paris that was covered in vines, lived twelve little girls in two straight lines… The smallest of the girls, was Madeline”.
Career
Following the success of Madeline, Bemelmans wrote four more books for the series: Madeline's Rescue (1953), Madeline and the Bad Hat (1956), Madeline and the Gypsies (1959), Madeline in London (1961) and Madeline's Christmas (1985). A seventh book, Madeline in America and Other Holiday Tales, was discovered and subsequently published in 1999, decades after his death.
The Madeline books rank among the most-honoured children’s books series. Madeline was named a Caldecott Honor Book and the first of its five sequels, Madeline’s Rescue, won the Caldecott Medal and was a New York Times Outstanding Book of the Year. Bemelmans died in 1962, after completing Madeline’s Christmas. Today, eighty years after its initial publication, the world of Madeline continues to enchant readers, young and old alike. 📖
Inimitable style
Image from Madeline
Though he'd already had books published, it was the launch of Madeline in 1939 that catapulted Ludwig Bemelmans to success.
Images from Condé Nast Store
Bemelmans not only illustrated a number of The New Yorker covers, they regularily published his fiction as well.
MADELINE
MADELINE IN LONDON
MADELINE'S RESCUE
MADELINE AND THE GYPSIES
SUNSHINE
MADELINE'S CHRISTMAS
TO THE ONE I LOVE ...
HOTEL SPLENDIDE
MADELINE
MADELINE IN LONDON
MADELINE'S RESCUE
MADELINE AND THE GYPSIES
SUNSHINE
MADELINE'S CHRISTMAS
TO THE ONE I LOVE ...
HOTEL SPLENDIDE
