Fatio, Louise

Louise Fatio was born August 18, 1904 in Lausanne, Switzerland. She married Roger Antoine Duvoisin on July 25, 1925. They had two sons. She attended boarding school in Basel and College des Jueunes Filles in Geneva. Louise Fatio gathered ideas for her own books while helping her husband with his writing for children. Her book The Happy Lion, illustrated by her husband, was on the The New York Times best book list and also won a prize from West German Government. Her love of people, nature, and respect for animals are reflected in her books. Many of her books have been translated into other languages. Louise Fatio died in 1993. Biographical Source: Something About the Author, Vol. 6, p. 75-77

Roger Duvoisin (1904-1980) a native of Geneva, Switzerland, was an author and illustrator of children's books. His wife, Louise Fatio, from Lausanne, Switzerland, wrote many of the books Mr. Duvoisin illustrates. After training at the Ecole de Beaux Arts. Mr. Duvoisin in 1924 became a potter in Ferney, Switzerland. In 1927 he entered the textile industry as a designer and was soon hired by an American firm, which brought him to the United States. In 1932, the company was bankrupt and Mr. Duvoisin began his career in children's literature. Louise Fatio, educated in Geneva, wrote her first book The Happy Lion, which Mr. Duvoisin illustrated, was widely translated and won the West German Republic First Prize for Children's Fiction in1956.

Roger Duvoisin has written and illustrated two successful series Petunia and Veronica, and other works, including The Happy Hunter, which was among the New York Times' 10 best Illustrated books of the Year for Children, a list of his works have appeared in 1952, 1954, 1955, 1961, 1965, and 1966. As an illustrator he won the Caldecott Medal in 1948 for White Snow, Bright Snow, written by Alvin E. Treselt. Hide-and-Seek Fog, also in conjunction with Treselt, was chosen as a runner-up for the Caldecott and was honored by the Graphic Arts Awards Competition, the New York Herald Tribune's Spring Festival Book Awards and the above mentioned New York Times annual listing. He received a Rugers Bi-Centennial award in 1966, a Hans Christian Anderson Biennial runner-up in 1968, and an award from the Society of Illustrators in 1961.