Biography
Tomi Ungerer was born in Strasbourg, France, the youngest of four children of Alice (Essler) and Theo Ungerer. The family moved to Logelbach, near Colmar, after the death of Tomi's father, Theodore — an artist, engineer, and astronomical clock manufacturer — in 1936. Ungerer also lived through the German occupation of Alsace and the requisitioning of the family home by the Wehrmacht.
As a young man, Ungerer was inspired by the illustrations appearing in The New Yorker magazine, particularly the work of Saul Steinberg.) Ungerer moved to the United States in 1956. The following year, he published his first children's book for Harper & Row, The Mellops Go Flying. He also did illustration work for such publications as The New York Times, Esquire, Life, Harper's Bazaar, The Village Voice, and for television during this time, and began to create posters denouncing the Vietnam War.
Upon the publication of Ungerer's children's book Moon Man in 1966, Maurice Sendak called it "easily one of the best picture books in recent years."
After Allumette; A Fable, with Due Respect to Hans Christian Andersen, the Grimm Brothers, and the Honorable Ambrose Bierce in 1974, he ceased writing children's books, focusing instead on adult-level books, many of which focused on sexuality. He eventually returned to children's literature with Flix 1998. Ungerer donated many of the manuscripts and artwork for his early children’s books to the Children’s Literature Research Collection at the Free Library of Philadelphia.
In 1998, Ungerer was awarded the Hans Christian Andersen Award for illustration.
One consistent theme in Ungerer's illustrations has been his support for European construction, beginning with Franco-German reconciliation in his home region of Alsace, and in particular European values of tolerance and diversity. In 2003, he was named Ambassador for Childhood and Education by the 47-nation Council of Europe.
In 2007, his home town dedicated a museum to him, the Musée Tomi Ungerer/Centre international de l’illustration.
Ungerer currently divides his time between Ireland (where he and his wife moved in 1976), and Strasbourg. In addition to his work as a graphic artist and 'drawer', he is also a designer, toy collector and "archivist of human absurdity."
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