I recently chanced across a beloved book of my childhood, Favorite Stories Old and New, selected by Sidonie Matsner Gruenberg and illustrated by Kurt Wiese (Doubleday, revised and enlarged ed.,1955; orig. ed. 1942). The volume is very simply bound and printed; in this visually sophisticated and spoiled era it would not fly off the bookstore shelves. But it is a wonderful selection of stories, beautifully told by such writers as Margaret Wise Brown, Kurt Wiese, Hans Christian Andersen, Carl Sandburg, and many others. Wiese's small, simple line drawings are unprepossessing but full of sly magic. Rediscovering this book was like meeting a dear old friend in the street... and immediately going off to have coffee together and catch up. Now I am happy to learn more about the person behind the (for me, as a child) mysterious and magical name of Sidonie Matsner Gruenberg.
I recently chanced across a beloved book of my childhood, Favorite Stories Old and New, selected by Sidonie Matsner Gruenberg and illustrated by Kurt Wiese (Doubleday, revised and enlarged ed.,1955; orig. ed. 1942). The volume is very simply bound and printed; in this visually sophisticated and spoiled era it would not fly off the bookstore shelves. But it is a wonderful selection of stories, beautifully told by such writers as Margaret Wise Brown, Kurt Wiese, Hans Christian Andersen, Carl Sandburg, and many others. Wiese's small, simple line drawings are unprepossessing but full of sly magic. Rediscovering this book was like meeting a dear old friend in the street... and immediately going off to have coffee together and catch up. Now I am happy to learn more about the person behind the (for me, as a child) mysterious and magical name of Sidonie Matsner Gruenberg.