Rey, Margret, 1906-1996

Margret Elizabeth Rey (born Margarete Elisabeth Waldstein; May 16, 1906 – December 21, 1996) was a German-born American writer and illustrator, known best for the Curious George series of children's picture books that she and her husband H. A. Rey created from 1939 to 1966. born on May 16, 1906 in Hamburg, German Empire, the daughter of Gertrude (Rosenfeld) and Felix Waldstein She studied art at Bauhaus in Dessau, Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, and the University of Munich between 1926 and 1928 and afterward worked in advertising.[4] 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.[1] They married in 1935 and moved to Paris, France, in 1936.[5] 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. As Jews, 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.

Hans Augusto Reyersbach was born in Hamburg, Germany, on September 16, 1898, to Alexander & Marta (Windmüller) Reyersbach. He attended Wilhelm Gymnasium in Hamburg, where he received a traditional humanistic education and drew a clandestine illustrated newsletter for his classmates. He was drafted into the German army in 1916, serving in the infantry and medical corps in France and Russia. Reyersbach sporadically attended the Universities of Munich and Hamburg for four years after his discharge in 1919. He supported himself by working as a lithographer and poster designer for a lithographic plant specializing in circus posters, although he never studied art formally. In 1923, he published a volume of twelve lithographs to accompany grotesque poems by Christian Morgenstern. In 1925, dismayed by the poor economy in Germany, Reyersbach moved to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to work as an accountant in his brother-in-law's import-export firm.

Margarete Elisabeth Waldstein was born in Hamburg, Germany, on May 16, 1906, to David Felix & Gertrude Waldstein. She studied at the Klosterschule in Hamburg where she graduated in 1925. Waldstein studied at Bauhaus and any number of other German art schools between 1926 and 1928, ultimately exhibiting a successful one-woman show of her watercolors in Berlin. In 1929, she began working as a copywriter at Crawford's, an English advertising firm in Berlin. For the next six years, Waldstein learned photography and advertising and worked in a series of advertising firms, newspapers, and photographic studios in England and Germany. In 1935, she traveled to Rio de Janeiro to meet Hans Reyersbach, who had been a family friend. She worked as a photographer, advertising designer, and newspaper writer and started the first advertising firm in Rio de Janeiro with Hans. They married on August 16, 1935.

The Reys traveled to Europe shortly after their marriage and settled in Paris. Hans illustrated and published several children's picture books in England and France, as well as a few books of cut-out-and-fold animals based on a design for which he received a French patent. The Reys created Curious George—then called Fifi—possibly while staying at Chateau Feuga in the Dordogne region of France in early 1940. He was based on a character from their Rafi et les 9 Singes (1939). When the German army approached Paris in June 1940, the Reys fled on bicycles to Orleans where they boarded a train for the Spanish border. They moved on to New York City via Spain, Portugal, and Brazil between June and October.

Settled in New York City, the Reys sealed a contract with Houghton Mifflin of Boston for four children's books in February 1941. They published Curious George later that year, although it would not become popular for another decade. Although Margret always had written the text for their books, only Hans' name appeared on their books until 1944 when Pretzel was published with Margret's name given for the author. The Reys became naturalized American citizens in April 1946. Hans had acquired Brazilian citizenship earlier in his life.

H.A. Rey possessed a longstanding interest in amateur astronomy and had developed a new way to draw the constellations so that they actually looked like the figures they were supposed to represent. He used these designs as the cornerstone for The Stars: A New Way to See Them, an easy-to-understand guide to constellation identification, which he published in 1952. He released Find the Constellations, a similar book for children, two years later. Rey also created several devices to assist amateur stargazers with locating constellations at particular latitudes and times of the year.

In 1958, the Reys constructed a summer cottage in Waterville Valley, New Hampshire. They had lived at 42 Washington Square South in New York City in 1941-1949 and 82 Washington Place in 1949-1963. They permanently left New York City for a winter home at 12 (later 14) Hilliard Street in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1963.

In all, the Reys published seven Curious George books, the last being Curious George Goes to the Hospital in 1966. By the 1970s, they had more-or-less retired and devoted themselves to other interests. Margret, who taken pottery lessons since 1965, attended summer pottery classes at the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Deer Isle, Maine, from 1969 to 1972. She also practiced gardening and needlepoint at home. Hans pursued his longtime interest in astronomy and a new fascination with wind power. His health deteriorated during the mid-1970s and he died on August 26, 1977.

Although the Reys had authorized some merchandising of the Curious George character during Hans' lifetime, it was only after his death that the monkey became a huge commodity. Beginning with a 1978 deal to produce animated films for television with accompanying products, Margret spent her widowhood managing the lucrative new enterprise and keeping a vigilant watch over all new products presented for her approval.

Rey further occupied her time by teaching creative writing at Brandeis University and arranging sizeable charitable contributions. In the late 1970's, Lay Lee Ong, a Malayasian student at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, was hired by Margret as a house- and dog-sitter. During the ensuing years, their friendship grew and Lay Lee became more involved in the business and managerial aspects of the Curious George phenomenon. Margret died on December 21, 1996, leaving Lay Lee Ong as her literary executor.