Description

pp. 295, “Here, sumptuously illustrated, is a superbly written account of a remarkable life–a life spent divided between Europe and America, between art and commerce–by the famous artist, art director, and children’s book author Leo Lionni.// Born in Holland, half Jewish, raised in Amsterdam, Brussels, Genoa, Philadelphia–Lionni is a man of many languages and cultures but no real home. His story is one of a constant search, a search that takes him from an ideal early childhood to a strict education in Italy that proved largely irrelevant to his future, and then to exile from Fascist Italy in America; from being a highly political aspiring artist to becoming a highly successful advertising director (he invented the famous “Never underestimate the power of a woman” campaign) and a powerful force in the world of graphics as the art director of Fortune magazine; from life in the affluent commuter world of Connecticut to a return to Italy and the life of an artist. After all this–a full life by any account–he finds yet another successful vocation as the author and illustrator of children’s books that have sold millions of copies throughout the world.// Lionni tells his story–it encompasses his early romance and happy marriage, and his countless extraordinary friends and acquaintances–in the most elegant and persuasive prose, the kind of English that only a distinguished European can write. And since his story is also the story of a lifetime of creativity, throughout the book are examples, in color and black-and-white, of his remarkable body of work–painting, sculpture, ceramics, mosaics, photography, graphics, and, of course, illustration. This is an autobiography both of great intellectual and artistic sophistication and of large human appeal.”