Biographie de Tomi Ungerer
Tomi Ungerer (1931- 2019) was a world-famous author and artist. He published more than 140 books for children and for adults in his prolific life, and is also well known for his posters, sculptures, and films. Tomi was born in 1931 in the city of Strasbourg, in Alsace, France. When he was eight years old, his city was taken over by the German Nazis, and became a part of Germany. Tomi lived through World War II, and as an adult worked tirelessly to build good relations between France and Germany, using his stories and drawings to campaign against social injustice, prejudice, and war.
His books are often used to teach children in France about war and the Holocaust. As a child, Tomi would write and draw every day, recording what happened around him. Tomi donated many of his drawings to the Tomi Ungerer Museum in Strasbourg, where visitors can view the largest collection of his artworks, including those drawings he made as a child. When he was twenty-five years old, Tomi travelled to New York with two trunks full of drawings and stories.
Even though he didn't have a high school diploma or a university degree, he impressed publishers with his unique drawing style and funny stories. He quickly became one of America's top illustrators. Tomi was especially admired for his children's books about bad or unpopular characters like robbers, ogres, snakes, and octopuses, who turned out to be good and loving heroes. Tomi's children's books became bestsellers, and he and his fellow up-and-coming artist friends, Maurice Sendak, Eric Carle, and Shel Silverstein, became some of the most iconic artists of the children's book world.
In 1998, Tomi won the Hans Christian Andersen Award (one of the most important prizes in children's books) for his lifetime contribution to children's literature. Tomi moved to Ireland in the 1970s, and lived on a farm where he and his wife Yvonne raised three children — Aria, Pascal, and Lukas. He had a studio there, full of pictures, books, toys, and sculptures. Until his death in 2019, he continued to create new art every day, and write stories in three languages — English, French, and German !
