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The Two Cars
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About the Author

Ingri Mortenson and Edgar d'Aulaire met at art school in Munich in 1921. Edgar's father was a noted Italian portrait painter, his mother a Parisian. Ingri, the youngest of five children, traced her lineage back to the Viking kings. The couple married in Norway, then moved to Paris. As Bohemian artists, they often talked about emigrating to America. "The enormous continent with all its possibilities and grandeur caught our imagination," Edgar later recalled. A small payment from a bus accident provided the means. Edgar sailed alone to New York where he earned enough by illustrating books to buy passage for his wife. Once there, Ingri painted portraits and hosted modest dinner parties. The head librarian of the New York Public Library's juvenile department attended one of those. Why, she asked, didn't they create picture books for children? The d'Aulaires published their first children's book in 1931. Next came three books steeped in the Scandinavian folklore of Ingri's childhood. Then the couple turned their talents to the history of their new country. The result was a series of beautifully illustrated books about American heroes, one of which, Abraham Lincoln, won the d'Aulaires the American Library Association's Caldecott Medal. Finally they turned to the realm of myths. The d'Aulaires worked as a team on both art and text throughout their joint career. Originally, they used stone lithography for their illustrations. A single four-color illustration required four slabs of Bavarian limestone that weighed up to two hundred pounds apiece. The technique gave their illustrations an uncanny hand-drawn vibrancy. When, in the early 1960s, this process became too expensive, the d'Aulaires switched to acetate sheets which closely approximated the texture of lithographic stone. In their nearly five-decade career, the d'Aulaires received high critical acclaim for their distinguished contributions to children's literature. They were working on a new book when Ingri died in 1980 at the age of seventy-five. Edgar continued working until he died in 1985 at the age of eighty-six.

Reviews

"Several classic children's tales return to delight new generations of readers. The Two Cars by the distinguished author/illustrator team of Ingri and Edgar Parin d'Aulaire is a modern adaptation of The Tortoise and the Hare, in which safe and courteous driving wins the day. Delicate pencil illustrations and a plot delivered at a pace fit for a turnpike should prove as enchanting to today's automotively inclined children as when the book was first published in 1955." --Publishers Weekly

“Whatever subject the well-known d’Aulaires offer in picture and story to the nursery set will be welcomed eagerly, for they have understanding hearts…” —The Christian Science Monitor

“The d’Aulaires now add to their list of distinguished picture books a fable about two little cars…It’s a jolly little tale with a surprise ending which is a good lesson for all of us.” —The Chicago Daily Tribune

“The Two Cars is a modern story on the hare and tortoise motif for preschool children…by one of children’s favorite illustrators.” —The Washington Post

“[T]his is a just right picture story for all small boys who consider automobiles the most fascinating things in all the world…The pictures are amusing and the personification of the automobiles is done with a masterly use of mechanical detail.” —The New York Times

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