Today's vintage children's book is TICO and the Golden Wings. This sweet tale has lovely illustrations done by Leo Lionni.
TICO and the Golden Wings
Leo Lionni
Copyright 1964 by Leo Lionni
Scholastic Printing 1997
Lionni's life story and career are very interesting. He spoke five languages. He was surrounded by artistic people growing up (so jealous) and people that nourished his artistic bud.
After Leo moved to the U.S. as an adult, he became one of the top art directors in America, working with many big names. He was the art director of Fortune - on his own terms - working three days a week so he could pursue his artistic interests. Lionni designed MOMA's famous catalog, The Family of Man. He was the design director of Olivetti (such an interesting company - I did a paper on Olivetti when I was in school). There he was responsible for one of the most talked about ad campaigns where an Olivetti typewriter was mounted outside their showroom. Onlookers were photographed by Life photographers. He was a co-editor for Print Magazine. AND he started his career in children's books in his 50's! Stories like that give me hope. I've always liked Grandma Moses' life story too, though I hope to not wait that long to get started.
Random House has a good website on Lionni, called 100 Years of Leo Lionni, that I would highly recommend. Also a nice article about Lionni can be found at AIGA. For my previous post on another book by Leo Lionni, click here. To view some of the photos from the Olivetti Typewriter campaign at two different blogs, go to Fishink or ozTypewriter.
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| Leo Lionni via AIGA |
Lovely coverage of Leo's book. He's another on my looong list of people to blog about. Great work Jill
ReplyDeleteSorry just noticed you spell you're name with one 'L' it comes up with two on my blog ! oops :)
ReplyDeleteA little bird gives up his gold wing feathers to those in need
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