Editing Margret Rey

{{short description|1=Children's illustrator and writer (1906–1996)}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Margret Rey
| image = The Reys.jpg
| caption = Margret Rey with her husband, [[H. A. Rey]]
| birth_name = Margarete Elisabeth Waldstein
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1906|5|16}}
| birth_place = [[Hamburg]], [[German Empire]]
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1996|12|21|1906|5|16}}
| death_place = [[Cambridge, Massachusetts]], U.S.
| spouse = {{Marriage|[[H. A. Rey]]|1935|1977|end=his death}}
| years_active = 1939-1966
| occupation = Writer, illustrator
| notableworks = ''[[Curious George]]''
| genre = Children's literature
| education = [[Bauhaus]]
}}
'''Margret Elizabeth Rey''' (born '''Margarete Elisabeth Waldstein'''; May 16, 1906 – December 21, 1996) was a German-born American writer and illustrator, best known for the ''[[Curious George]]'' series of [[children's literature|children's]] [[picture books]] that she and her husband [[H. A. Rey]] created from 1939 to 1966.

==Life==
Margarete Elisabeth Waldstein was born on May 16, 1906, in [[Hamburg]], [[German Empire]], the daughter of Gertrude (Rosenfeld) and [[Felix Waldstein]].<ref name=degrummond/><ref name=rothstein/><ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/rey-margret-1906-1996| title = Rey, Margret (1906–1996) {{!}} Encyclopedia.com}}</ref> Her father was a member of the [[Reichstag (German Empire)|Reichstag]]. She studied art at [[Bauhaus]] in [[Dessau]], [[Kunstakademie Düsseldorf]], and the [[University of Munich]] between 1926 and 1928 and afterward worked in advertising.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.lib.usm.edu/legacy/degrum/public_html/html/research/findaids/DG0812b.html|title=H.A. & Margret Rey Papers|date=2019-05-15|website=The University of Southern Mississippi, University Library}}</ref> In 1935 she left Germany for [[Rio de Janeiro]], in [[Brazil]] to escape [[Nazism]] ([[Nazi Germany]]) – and to meet Hans Reyersbach, a salesman and another German Jew from Hamburg, who had been a family friend.<ref name=degrummond/> They married in 1935 and moved to [[Paris, France]], in 1936.<ref>{{cite book |author=Meister, Carol|title= H. A. Rey |year=2001 |isbn=1-57765-481-1 |oclc=45413500 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FbpgELqGhb4C&pg=PA12 |page=12}}</ref>

While in Paris, Hans's animal drawings came to the attention of a French publisher, who commissioned him to write a children's book. The result, ''[[Cecily G. and the Nine Monkeys]]'', is little remembered today, but one of its characters, an adorably impish [[monkey]] named [[Curious George]], was such a success that the couple considered writing a book just about him. Their work was interrupted with the outbreak of [[World War II]]. The Nazis [[Battle of France|later invaded France]]. As [[Jew]]s, the Reys decided to flee from Paris before the Nazis seized the city. Hans built two bicycles, and they fled Paris just a few hours before it fell. Among the meager possessions they brought with them was the illustrated manuscript of ''Curious George''.

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 |title=Rey |url=http://sousamendesfoundation.org/rey |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131102223533/http://sousamendesfoundation.org/rey/ |archive-date=November 2, 2013 |access-date=January 19, 2014 |publisher=Sousa Mendes Foundation}}</ref> They crossed into [[Spain]], where they bought train tickets to [[Lisbon]], [[Portugal]]. From there they returned to Brazil, where they had met five years earlier, but this time they continued to [[New York City]] in the [[United States]]. The books were published by Houghton Mifflin in 1941, though certain changes had to be introduced because of the technology of the time. Hans and Margret originally planned to use watercolors to illustrate the books, but since they were responsible for the color separation, he changed these to the cartoon-like images that continue to feature in each of the books. A collector's edition with the original watercolors was released in 1998.<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, Margret's name was left off the cover, ostensibly because there was a glut of women already writing children's fiction.{{Citation needed|date=February 2023}} In later editions, this was corrected, and Margret now receives full credit for her role in developing the stories.

Margret and her husband moved to [[Cambridge, Massachusetts]], in 1963, in a house close to [[Harvard Square]]. Following her husband's death in 1977, Margret continued writing, and in 1979 she became a professor of Creative Writing at [[Brandeis University]] in [[Waltham, Massachusetts]]. From 1980 she collaborated with [[Alan Shalleck]] on a series of short films featuring Curious George and on more than two dozen additional books.

In 1989 Margret Rey established the Curious George Foundation to help creative children and prevent cruelty to animals. In 1996, she made major donations to the [[Boston Public Library]] and [[Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center]]. She was also a long-time supporter of the [[Longy School of Music]].

Rey died of a [[Myocardial infarction|heart attack]] on December 21, 1996, in Cambridge, Massachusetts at the age of 90.<ref>https://www.southcoasttoday.com/story/entertainment/local/1996/12/23/curious-george-creator-margret-e/50626830007/</ref>

==Collected papers==
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 would be donated to the de Grummond Collection.

==See also==
{{Portal bar |Children's literature |Visual arts}} <!-- delete the word "bar" if there are enough ordinary See also -->

==References==
{{Reflist |25em |refs=
<ref name=rothstein>
[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 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=2013-07-05 }}. [[de Grummond Children's Literature Collection]]. University of Southern Mississippi. June 2001. Retrieved 2013-06-24. With Biographical Sketch.</ref>

}}

==External links==
* {{IMDb name|id=1597712|name=Margret Rey}}
* Dinitia Smith, [https://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/13/books/13geor.html "How Curious George Escaped the Nazis"], ''The New York Times'', September 13, 2005
* [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]
* [http://nwda.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/xv65672 Guide to the H. A. Rey Papers 1940–1961] (University of Oregon) at Northwest Digital Archives — with historical note
* [https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20100326170144/http://www.thejewishmuseum.org/exhibitions/curiousgeorge Curious George Saves the Day: The Art of Margret and H. A. Rey], [[The Jewish Museum of New York]], March 14, 2010 – August 1, 2010
* {{LCAuth|n50045237|Margret Rey|152|}}
* [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5958312/ See IMDB: Monkey Business: The Adventures of Curious George's Creators (2017)]

{{Curious George}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rey, Margaret}}
[[Category:1906 births]]
[[Category:1996 deaths]]
[[Category:Artists from Cambridge, Massachusetts]]
[[Category:American academics of English literature]]
[[Category:American children's book illustrators]]
[[Category:American children's writers]]
[[Category:Brandeis University faculty]]
[[Category:German children's writers]]
[[Category:German women children's writers]]
[[Category:German illustrators]]
[[Category:German women illustrators]]
[[Category:20th-century German women writers]]
[[Category:Curious George]]
[[Category:Jewish American illustrators]]
[[Category:20th-century American illustrators]]
[[Category:Jewish women artists]]
[[Category:Jewish American children's writers]]
[[Category:Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United States]]
[[Category:Bauhaus alumni]]
[[Category:Kunstakademie Düsseldorf alumni]]
[[Category:Writers from Cambridge, Massachusetts]]
[[Category:Writers from Hamburg]]
[[Category:Writers who illustrated their own writing]]