We remember Eric Carle (1929 – 2021)

Eric Carle, author of classic children’s books such as The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, has died aged 91. The news was broken by Eric’s family, who shared that the author passed away last Sunday, 23 May, in his Northampton home in Massachusetts.

Eric Carle was born on 25 June, 1929, in Syracuse, New York, to Johanna and Erich Carle, two working class German immigrants. He spent part of his childhood in Stuttgart, Germany, where his experiences living under oppressive Nazi rule came to influence his love of bright colour.

Eric studied typography and graphic art at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart, graduating in 1950, and moved to New York City to work as a graphic designer for the New York Times. After a stint in the US Army, he left the paper in 1963 for a career in freelance artistry. His first picture book was Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, published in 1967.

Eric Carle went on to write and illustrate over 70 books for children in his lifetime — books that were whimsical and funny, defined by their beautiful painted paper collage artwork.

Not only was Eric beloved by his young readers (and the adults who read them aloud), he also enjoyed immense success, selling over 170 million copies of his books worldwide. 55 million of those were of The Very Hungry Caterpillar (1969), a story about a caterpillar who eats his way through one apple, two pears, three plums, four strawberries, five oranges, one piece of chocolate cake, one ice cream cone, one pickle, one slice of Swiss cheese, one slice of salami, one lollipop, one piece of cherry pie, one sausage, one cupcake, and one slice of watermelon.

Eric is survived by his children, Rolf and Cirsten Carle.

Find more books by Eric Carle here.

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Olivia Fricot

Olivia Fricot (she/her) is Booktopia's Senior Content Producer and editor of the Booktopian blog. She has too many plants and not enough bookshelves, and you can usually find her reading, baking, or talking to said plants. She is pro-Oxford comma.

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