Editing H. A. Rey

{{Short description|Children's illustrator and writer (1898–1977)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2019}}
{{more citations needed|date=August 2017}}
{{Infobox writer
| name             =H. A. Rey 
| honorific_prefix = 
| honorific_suffix = 
| image            = H.a. rey.jpg
| alt              = 
| caption          = Rey reading to children in the early 1970s
| native_name      = 
| native_name_lang = 
| pseudonym        = 
| birth_name       = Hans Augusto Reyersbach
| birth_date       = {{Birth date|1898|9|16}}
| birth_place      = [[Hamburg]], [[German Empire]]
| death_date       = {{Death date and age|1977|8|26|1898|9|16}}
| death_place      = [[Cambridge, Massachusetts]], U.S.
| occupation       = Author
| language         = 
| nationality      = American
| citizenship      = 
| period           = 1922–1977
| genre            = Children's literature
| subject          = 
| movement         = 
| notableworks     = ''[[Curious George]]''
| spouse           = {{Marriage|[[Margret Rey]]|1935}}
| children         = 
| awards           = ''Curious George Takes a Job'' was named to the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award list in 1960.
}}

'''H. A. Rey''' (born '''Hans Augusto Reyersbach'''; September 16, 1898 – August 26, 1977) was a German-born American illustrator and author, known best for the series of [[children's literature|children's]] [[picture books]] that he and his wife [[Margret Rey]] created about ''[[Curious George]]''.<ref name="erothsteinnyt">[https://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/26/arts/design/26curious.html?pagewanted=all "Monkey Business in a World of Evil"]. Rothstein, Edward. ''The New York Times''. March 26, 2010.</ref><ref>"H(ans) A(ugusto) Rey". ''Major Authors and Illustrators for Children and Young Adults'', 2nd ed., 8 vols. Gale Group, 2002. Retrieved January 2, 2010.</ref>

==Early life==
Hans Augusto Reyersbach was born in [[Hamburg]], [[German Empire]] on September 16, 1898. He and his wife, Margret, were both German [[Jews]]. They first met in Hamburg at Margret's sister's 16th birthday party. They met again in [[Brazil]], where Rey was working as a salesman of bathtubs and Margret had gone to escape the rise of [[Nazism]] in [[Nazi Germany|Germany]]. They got married in 1935 and moved to [[Paris, France]] in August of that year.<ref name=nwda/> They lived in Montmartre and fled Paris in June 1940 on bicycles, carrying the ''Curious George'' manuscript with them.<ref name=Boston/><ref>{{cite web | url    = http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/features/cgsite/authors.shtml
| title      = About H. A. and Margret Rey
| last       = Stoddard
| first      = Dimitri
| date       = May 2, 1980
| publisher  = Mifflin Harcourt
| access-date= February 23, 2015}}</ref> They received visas in [[Bayonne]] under instructions from the Portuguese consul in [[Bordeaux]], [[Aristides de Sousa Mendes]], which enabled them to leave Europe via Portugal.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Sousa Mendes Foundation: Visa Recipients |url=https://sousamendesfoundation.org/family/rey}}</ref>

== Curious George ==
While in Paris, Rey's animal drawings came to the attention of a French publisher, who commissioned him to write a children's book. The characters in ''[[Cecily G. and the Nine Monkeys]]'' included an impish [[monkey]] named [[Curious George]], and the couple then decided to write a book focused entirely on him. The outbreak of [[World War II]] interrupted their work. Being [[Jews]], the Reys decided to flee Paris before the [[Nazis]] invaded the city. Hans assembled two bicycles, and they left the city just a few hours before it fell. Among the meager possessions they brought with them was the illustrated manuscript of ''Curious George''.<ref name="Boston">{{cite news | url=http://www.boston.com/news/globe/living/articles/2005/09/17/a_curious_tale_of_georges_creators/ | title=A Curious Tale of Georges Creators | first=Mark | last=Feeney | access-date=October 29, 2007 | work=The Boston Globe | date=September 17, 2005}}</ref><ref name="New York Times, How Curious George Escaped The Nazis">{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/13/books/13geor.html?_r=1&oref=slogin/ | title=New York Times, By Dinitia Smith | access-date=October 29, 2007 | work=The New York Times | date=September 13, 2005}}</ref>

The Reys' odyssey took them to [[Bayonne, France]], where they were issued life-saving visas signed by Portuguese Vice-Consul Manuel Vieira Braga (following instructions from [[Aristides de Sousa Mendes]]) on June 20, 1940.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://sousamendesfoundation.org/rey |title=Rey |publisher=Sousa Mendes Foundation |access-date=January 19, 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131102223533/http://sousamendesfoundation.org/rey/ |archive-date=November 2, 2013}}</ref> They crossed the [[Spain|Spanish]] border, where they bought train tickets to [[Lisbon, Portugal|Lisbon]]. From there, they returned to Brazil, where they had met five years earlier, but this time they continued on to New York. The Reys escaped Europe carrying the manuscript to the first Curious George book, which was published in New York by [[Houghton Mifflin]] in 1941. They originally planned to use watercolor illustrations, but since they were responsible for the color separation, Rey changed these to the cartoon-like images that continue to be featured in each of the books. A collector's edition with the original watercolors has since been released.<ref name="watercolors">{{cite book |title=The Original Curious George|author=H. A. Rey |isbn=978-0-395-92272-9|oclc=39972712 |publisher=HMH Books| edition=Collector's |year=1998 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f8E8cKIcVwkC}}</ref>

''Curious George'' was an instant success, and the Reys were commissioned to write more adventures of the mischievous monkey and his friend, the Man with the Yellow Hat. They wrote seven stories in all, with Hans mainly doing the illustrations and Margret working mostly on the stories, though they both admitted to sharing the work and cooperating fully in every stage of development. At first, however, covers omitted Margret's name. In later editions, this was changed, and Margret now receives full credit for her role in developing the stories.<ref name=nwda/> 

''Curious George Takes a Job'' was named to the [[Lewis Carroll Shelf Award]] list in 1960.

In 1963, the Reys relocated to [[Cambridge, Massachusetts]],<ref name=nwda/> in a house near [[Harvard Square]], and lived there until Rey died on August 26, 1977.

In the 1990s, friends of the Reys founded a children's bookstore named Curious George & Friends (formerly Curious George Goes to Wordsworth), which operated in Harvard Square until 2011.<ref name="Boston.com Culture Desk, Curious George Bookstore in Harvard Sq. to Close">{{cite news | url=http://www.boston.com/ae/specials/culturedesk/2011/06/curious_george_bookstore_in_ha.html | title=Boston.com Culture Desk, By Doug Most | access-date=March 29, 2012 | work=The Boston Globe | date=June 6, 2011}}</ref> A new Curious George themed store opened in 2012, The World's Only Curious George Store, which moved to Central Square in 2019.{{cn|date=February 2024}}

==Star charts==
Rey's interest in astronomy began during World War I and led to his desire to redraw constellation diagrams, which Rey found difficult to remember, so that they were more intuitive. This led to the 1952 publication of ''[[The Stars: A New Way to See Them]]'' ({{ISBN|0-395-24830-2}}). His constellation diagrams were adopted widely and now appear in many astronomy guides, such as [[Donald H. Menzel]]'s ''A Field Guide to the Stars and Planets''. As of 2008 ''The Stars: A New Way to See Them'' and a simplified presentation for children called ''Find the Constellations'' are still in print. A new edition of ''Find the Constellations'' was released in 2008, updated with modern fonts, the new status of [[Pluto]], and some more current measurements of planetary sizes and orbital radii.<ref>{{cite journal |last=French |first=Jeffrey A. |date=February 1, 2009 |title=Grades 5 & Up: REY, H. A. Find the Constellations |url=http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6633079.html |journal=School Library Journal |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090711210327/http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6633079.html |archive-date=July 11, 2009 |access-date=January 19, 2014}}</ref><gallery heights="200px" widths="200px">
Image:Gemini_constellation_map.svg|Traditional diagram of the [[Gemini (constellation)|Gemini]] [[constellation]].
Image:Gemini constellation map visualization 1.PNG| Rey's alternative diagram of Gemini: twins are shown holding hands.
File:Leo_constellation_map.svg| Traditional diagram of the [[Leo (constellation)|Leo]] constellation.
File:Leo_constellation_map_visualization.PNG| Rey's alternative diagram of Leo: A lion walking.
File:Virgo_constellation_map.svg|Traditional diagram of the [[Virgo (constellation)|Virgo]] constellation.
File:Virgo_constellation_map_visualization.PNG | Rey's alternative diagram of Virgo: A lying woman.
File:Great_Diamond_map.gif|Rey's [[Virgin's Diamond]]<ref>{{cite web|last=Rao|first=Joe|title=Four-Star Sight: The Celestial Diamond|url=http://www.space.com/2418-star-sight-celestial-diamond.html|work=Space.com|date=May 19, 2006|publisher=TechMedia Network|access-date=January 19, 2014}}</ref> [[Asterism (astronomy)|asterism]]
</gallery>

==Collected papers==
The University of Oregon holds H. A. Rey papers dated 1940 to 1961, dominated by correspondence, primarily between Rey and his American and British publishers.<ref name=nwda/>

The [[de Grummond Children's Literature Collection]] in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, holds more than 300 boxes of Rey papers dated 1973 to 2002.<ref name=degrummond/>

Dr. Lena Y. de Grummond, a professor in the field of library science at the [[University of Southern Mississippi]], contacted the Reys in 1966 about USM's new children's literature collection. H. A. and Margret donated a pair of sketches at the time. When Margret Rey died in 1996, her will designated that the entire literary estate of the Reys be donated to the de Grummond Collection.

==Books written by H. A. Rey==
* ''[[Cecily G. and the Nine Monkeys]]''
* ''[[Curious George (book)|Curious George]]''
* ''[[Curious George Takes a Job]]''
* ''[[Curious George Rides a Bike]]''
* ''[[Curious George Gets a Medal]]''
* ''[[Curious George Learns the Alphabet]]''
* ''[[Curious George Goes to the Hospital]]''
* ''Feed the Animals''
* ''Find the Constellations''
* ''Elizabite - Adventures of a Carnivorous Plant''
* ''How Do You Get There?''
* ''[[Pretzel (book)|Pretzel]]''
* ''[[The Stars: A New Way to See Them]]''
* ''Where's My Baby?''
* ''See the Circus''
* ''Tit for Tat''
* ''Billy's Picture''
* ''Whiteblack the Penguin Sees the World''
* ''Au Clair de la Lune and other French Nursery Songs'' (1941)
* ''Spotty'' (1945)
* ''Mary had a Little Lamb and other Nursery Songs'' (1951)
* ''Humpty Dumpty and other Mother Goose Songs'' (©1943 Harper & Brothers)

==Books illustrated by H. A. Rey==
* ''Dem Andenken Christian Morgensterns 12 Lithographien zu seinem Werk, von Hans Reyersbach (= H. A. Rey), signiert und mit Text in Bleistift HR 22'' (1922)
* ''Die Sommerfrische: 10 Idyllen in Linol-Schnitt, von Hans Reyersbach (= H. A. Rey), Berlin'' (1923)
* ''Grotesken - 12 Lithographien zu Christian Morgensterns Grotesken von Hans Reyersbach (= H. A. Rey). Neue Folge. 400 Exemplare, Hamburg Kurt Enoch Verlag'' (1923)
* ''[[Curious George (book)|Curious George]]'', written by [[Margret Rey]] (1941)
* ''Elizabite - The Adventures of a Carnivorous Plant'' (1942)
* ''Don't Frighten the Lion'' (1942)
* ''Katy No-Pocket'' (1944)
* ''[[Pretzel (picture book)|Pretzel]]'', written by Margret Rey (1944)
* ''We Three Kings and other Christmas Carols'' (1944)
* ''[[Curious George Takes a Job]]'', written by Margret Rey (1947)
* ''[[Curious George Rides a Bike]]'', written by Margret Rey (1952)
* ''[[Curious George Gets a Medal]]''. written by Margret Rey (1957)
* ''[[Curious George Flies a Kite]]'', written by Margret Rey (1958)
* ''[[Curious George Learns the Alphabet]]'', written by Margret Rey (1963)
* ''[[Curious George Goes to the Hospital]]'', written by Margret Rey (1966)

===Wordless Novel===
* ''Zebrology''. Chatto and Windus; London, England; (1937)<ref>[http://wordlessnovels.com/index/rey-h-a/ Zebrology] a bibliographic listing for Zebrology</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist |25em |refs=

<ref name=degrummond>
[http://www.lib.usm.edu/legacy/degrum/public_html/html/research/findaids/DG0812f.html "H. A. Rey & Margret Rey Papers"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130705051948/http://www.lib.usm.edu/legacy/degrum/public_html/html/research/findaids/DG0812f.html |date=July 5, 2013 }}. [[de Grummond Children's Literature Collection]]. University of Southern Mississippi. June 2001. Retrieved June 24, 2013. With Biographical Sketch.</ref>
<ref name=nwda>
[http://nwda.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/xv65672 "Guide to the H. A. Rey Papers 1940–1961"]. Northwest Digital Archives. Retrieved June 24, 2013. With Historical Note.</ref>

}}
;Citations
* [https://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/13/books/13geor.html New York Times: "How Curious George Escaped the Nazis"]
* [http://www.boston.com/news/globe/living/articles/2005/09/17/a_curious_tale_of_georges_creators A curious tale of George's creators]
* Jaeger, Roland: "H. A. und Margret Rey", in: Spalek, John M. / Feilchenfeldt, Konrad / Hawrylchak, Sandra H. (ed.): ''Deutschsprachige Exilliteratur seit 1933'', vol. 3, USA, part 2; Bern/München 2000, p.&nbsp;351−360
* Jaeger, Roland: "Collecting Curious George. Children's Books Illustrated by H. A. Rey", in: ''Firsts. The Book Collector's Magazine'', vol. 8, 1998, no. 12 (Dec.), p.&nbsp;50–57
* Jaeger, Roland: "Der Schöpfer von 'Curious George': Kinderbuch-Illustrator H. A. Rey". in: ''Aus dem Antiquariat'', 1997, No. 10, A543−A551

==External links==
* {{IMDb name|id=1640030|name=H. A. Rey}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110417134611/http://www.thejewishmuseum.org/curiousgeorgetimeline/ Margret and H. A. Rey Interactive Timeline: Life in Paris and a Narrow Escape]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20091015031439/http://www.thejewishmuseum.org/exhibitions/curiousgeorge Curious George Saves the Day: The Art of Margret and H. A. Rey], The [[Jewish Museum (New York)]], March 14, 2010 – August 1, 2010.
* {{LCAuth|n50045235|H. A. Rey|202|}}
* [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5958312/ See IMDB: Monkey Business: The Adventures of Curious George's Creators (2017)]
* [https://specialcollections.usm.edu/repositories/4/resources/391 H.A. & Margret Rey Papers at the University of Southern Mississippi Libraries]
*[https://usm.access.preservica.com/?s=H.A.-and-Margret-Rey H.A. & Margret Rey Digital Collections at the University of Southern Mississippi Libraries]
*[https://scua.uoregon.edu/repositories/2/resources/1064 H.A. Rey papers] at the University of Oregon

{{Curious George}}
{{Portal bar|Biography|Children's literature |Visual arts |Books|Astronomy|Stars}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Rey, H. A.}}
[[Category:1898 births]]
[[Category:1977 deaths]]
[[Category:Artists from Cambridge, Massachusetts]]
[[Category:American academics of English literature]]
[[Category:American children's book illustrators]]
[[Category:German children's book illustrators]]
[[Category:American children's writers]]
[[Category:German children's writers]]
[[Category:German illustrators]]
[[Category:German male writers]]
[[Category:Curious George]]
[[Category:Jewish American artists]]
[[Category:Jewish American children's writers]]
[[Category:Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United States]]
[[Category:People associated with astronomy]]
[[Category:Writers from Cambridge, Massachusetts]]
[[Category:Writers from Hamburg]]
[[Category:Writers who illustrated their own writing]]
[[Category:Wordless novels]]