Berta and Elmer Hader - Career

Career

The two used their talents and Berta's connections to prepare children's sections for Good Housekeeping, McCall's, Pictorial Review, Asia, Century, and The Christian Science Monitor. They did pictures and cut-outs, often featuring children dressed in national costumes. In Berta and Elmer Hader's Picture Book of Mother Goose, the couple collated pen-and-ink and color drawings they had done for Monitor and Good Housekeeping to great acclaim. When the US Postal Service dis-allowed the sending of magazines with cut-out segments in 1926, the Haders switched gears, gaining a contract with MacMillan for a series of children's books. They began writing the stories for some of the books in this period. Demand for their product soared, and they worked incessantly from 1927–1931, illustrating, in some cases writing, producing, and helping to sell thirty-four titles. They stayed busy for the rest of their lives, producing another seventy or so books before they retired in 1964. One book in particular, Billy Butter (1936), so impressed writer John Steinbeck that he requested Elmer Hader do the cover to The Grapes of Wrath (1939). Hader eventually did covers for two other Steinbeck works, East of Eden (1952) and The Winter of Our Discontent (1961).

The Haders were early champions of conservation, animal protection, and pacifism. This made its way into their work, particularly with titles such as The Runaways (1956) and Two Is Company, Three's a Crowd (1965?). In the early 1950s, Berta became a community activist, ignited by the seemingly lost cause of having the location of the proposed Tappan Zee Bridge moved to a less sensitive area than its planned path through her village. Though The New York Times accused her of "blocking progress," the New York State Thruway Authority eventually relented., and the massive 4,88 km-long bridge was built several kilometers to the north at Nyack, where the bridge still stands today.

Berta and Elmer travelled extensively in Mexico, Jamaica, and the far northeast of the United States, some of which made its way into their work. 'The Story of Pancho and the Bull with the Crooked Tail" (1942), Jamaica Johnny (1943), and Tommy Thatcher Goes to Sea (1950) are all informed by their travels. Elmer died on his 84th birthday at his home in Grand-View-on-Hudson. Berta remained at the home until shortly before she died 1976 February 6 at the age of 85.