Our Books
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The Little FishermanStory by Margaret Wise Brown $16.95 "Once there was a great big fisherman Only the big fisherman sailed a big boat |
The Little Fisherman is a milestone in the illustrious career of the legendary Dahlov Ipcar. The Little Fisherman, originally published in 1945, was the very first children’s book illustrated by the then-twenty-eight-year-old artist. The book, with its authentic coastal scenes, helped establish her distinctive style and ignited a four-decade creative run that saw her write and illustrate more than thirty children’s books, all from a studio overlooking her farm on Georgetown Island, Maine. The fact that Ipcar’s first book was also written by Margaret Wise Brown only adds to its importance in the world of children’s literature.
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About the Illustrator Dahlov Ipcar was born in Vermont, raised in Greenwich Village, and summered in Maine after her parents (the famed sculptor William Zorach and artist Marguerite Zorach) bought a farm on Georgetown Island in 1923. Thirteen years later, eighteen-year-old Dahlov married Adoph Ipcar. The young couple left the city in 1937 to live on the family farm where they first met. By the early 1940s, Ipcar had nearly given up thoughts of writing and illustrating books, but was contacted by a New York publisher to illustrate The Little Fisherman, the latest title by Margaret Wise Brown. The struggling young artist jumped at the chance, and this charming title helped launch a four-decade run that saw her write and illustrate more than thirty children’s books of her own. Today, Ipcar’s intricate, distinctive, and fanciful artwork is known worldwide, with pieces of her work in the permanent collections of numerous renowned museums, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Meanwhile, Ipcar still lives and paints in the 1860s farmhouse that she shared with Adolph for nearly seventy years. She once said she didn’t want celebrity or fame; she just “wanted to be recognized.” In retrospect, a fairly modest statement for a Maine—and American—treasure. |
About the Author
Margaret Wise Brown wrote more than one hundred children’s books, including the beloved classics Goodnight Moon and The Runaway Bunny. She is credited with developing the “here and now” philosophy of writing for children: She believed children would become more engaged in a story when it was about everyday life they could relate to rather than fantasies or fairy tales. Brown often wrote at her island home, “The Only House,” on Vinalhaven, Maine. Her Caldecott Medal–winning book, The Little Island, was based on her Maine retreat. Brown’s prolific career was cut short at the age of forty-two, when she died from complications following surgery. More than fifty years later, her books, some written under pen names, remain favorites of parents and children alike.
