Maud & Miska Petersham's Miki Title Page

Hand drawn and colored titlepage illustration for Miki. The illustration features a boy on the left and a European fairytale character on the right. Between them is a steamship. The title, Miki, is above the illustration. Below the illustration reads The Book of Maud and Miska Peterdham. Paisley details are drawn above the publisher Doubleday, Doran & Company Inc. Garden City, New York, 1929.
Maud & Miska Petersham standing in front of a stone entryway.
Passport page featuring a black and white photo of Maud and Miska Petersham in their youth. The photograph has “Michael Petersham” handwritten across the top (an anglicized version of his name). The description information reads the passport bearer is 6 feet, 2 inches with brown hair and eyes. He was born on Sept 20, 1888 in Hungary. His occupation is listed as Artist
Maud & Miska Petersham in their Woodstock home studio sitting across a work table from one another in front of a large picture window. A handwritten caption below the image reads: Maud and Miska Petersham.

"For the boys and girls for whom we make our books: Does it seem strange that it takes two people to write the same book? Well, it does with us. Miska is right-handed and I am left. Perhaps that is the reason."  Maud Petersham

The characteristic artwork of Maud and Miska Petersham is featured in more than 120 children's books dating back to 1920. The pair initially illustrated 65 books authored by others. Then in 1929, they began illustrating books with their own text. They went on to write and illustrate 50 books of their own, each in their distinctive international folk style.

Maud Fuller was born in Kingston, New York in 1890. Frequently sketching, she studied art as a child. "After graduating from Vassar, I studied for one easy-going year at the New York School of Fine and Applied Art, living in the Three Arts Club. My first job was in the art department at the International Art Service, an advertising firm. Here I met Miska."

Miska Petersham was born in 1888 in Torokszentmiklos, near Budapest, Hungary. He immigrated to the United States in 1912. He had studied art in Budapest and London.

The two married and began collaborating on free-lance art. They built a house with a studio in Woodstock, New York, where they would spend the next 40 years illustrating and writing books for children. Their endearing illustrations are still beloved today.

Titled after their only son, Miki was published in 1929. It was the first book Maud and Miska wrote and illustrated. The pair would go on to win a Caldecott Award for their artwork in The Rooster Crows: A Book of American Rhymes and Jingles in 1946. The two continued publishing books for children until Miska's death in 1960. Maud's death followed in 1971. According to Maud, "For a children's book, both pictures and text must tell the story with enough drama to hold a child's attention on every page. It should not be a book to be read once and then cast aside; it should be something a child will cherish."

Featured here is the original illustration for the titlepage to Miki. The illustration is accompanied by photographs of Maud and Miska Petersham over their storied careers as beloved children's authors and illustrators.


Sources:

"Maud (Fuller) Petersham (1890-1971)." Something About the Author, edited by Anne Commire, vol. 17, Gale, 1979, pp. 146-149. Gale Literature: Something About the Author, link.gale.com/apps/doc/DGDLSJ126673130/SATA?u=mag_u_usm&sid=bookmark-SATA&xid=444baccb. Accessed 16 Feb. 2022.

"Miska Petersham (1888-1960)." Something About the Author, edited by Anne Commire, vol. 17, Gale, 1979, pp. 149-153. Gale Literature: Something About the Author, link.gale.com/apps/doc/DGDZOX939315500/SATA?u=mag_u_usm&sid=bookmark-SATA&xid=97735e1e. Accessed 16 Feb. 2022.

Maud and Miska Petersham Papers, DG0775, de Grummond Children's Literature Collection, Special Collections, The University of Southern Mississippi Libraries.

 

To view these items, please visit the de Grummond Children's Literature Collection in the McCain Library & Archives Reading Room on the 3rd floor. If you have any questions, please contact Brooke Cruthirds at .

Text by Brooke Cruthirds, Assistant Curator of The de Grummond Children's Literature Collection.