The Journey That Saved Curious George: The True Wartime Escape of Margret and H.A. Rey Read online

  The Journey that Saved Curious George

  The True Wartime Escape of Margret and H.A. Rey

  Louise Borden

  * * *

  The Journey That Saved Curious George

  The True Wartime Escape of Margret and H. A. Rey

  by Louise Borden Illustrated by Allan Drummond

  HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY • BOSTON

  * * *

  For

  Amy Flynn, Emily Linsay, and Eleni Beja...

  my fine editors who shared the journey with me...

  for

  Lay Lee Ong...

  and always,

  for Pete.

  —L.B.

  For Louise, who made the journey.

  —A.D.

  Acknowledgments

  The names on the list of people who helped me unlock the past and the Reys' wartime experiences are many. Early encouragers were my husband, Pete, Susan Stark, Johanna Hurwitz, and Camilla Warrick. Lay Lee Ong, the executor of the Rey estate, strongly cheered me on. So did Cate, Ayars, and Ted Borden, and colleagues in the children's book world: M. K. Kroeger, Cat Smith, Margaret McElderry Emma Dryden, Ann Bobco, George Ella Lyon, Barb Libby, and Connie Trounstine.

  Additional thanks go to the following friends:

  The de Grummond Collection: Dee Jones, Ann Ashmore, Ginamarie Pugliese, and Danielle Bishop

  Houghton Mifflin: Eden Edwards, Sheila Smallwood, Carol Goldenberg Rosen, Andrea Pinkney Judy O'Malley

  French and German translations: Renée Lowther, Cindy Curchin, Kurt Stark, and David Hunter

  Conversations about the Reys: In the United States : Lay Lee Ong, André Schiffrin, Grace Maccarone, Charlotte

  Zolotow, Lee Bennett Hopkins, Marc Simont, and Leonard Marcus; in London: Pat Schleger

  Terrass Hotel: Jean Max Hurand and Jean Luc Binet, whose family has owned and managed the hotel since 1912

  Château Feuga: Shelagh and Christopher Stedman, of London and St. Mezard, France, who are the current owners of the château, and Christine Reon, of Lectoure, France

  Travels, Train Routes, and Maps: Mary Ann Iemmola

  Montmartre, Étampes, Acquebouille, Orléans, Agen, Lectoure, St. Mézard, Castex-Lectourois, Château Feuga: Patty Hegman

  Avranches: Cindy Curchin and Fr. Tobie, Abbaye du Mont-Saint-Michel

  Hamburg and the Hagenbeck, Zoo: Klaus Gille

  Consulates and Tram Stations in Biarritz, Bayonne, and Hendaye: Pete Borden and Elena Pérez

  I would also like to thank Allan Drummond for his wonderful illustrations, and for understanding the vision for this book. Hans and Margret Rey would be very pleased by Allan's fine artistic talent and creative imagination.

  Finding the Story

  For many years, I was intrigued by the story of Margret and H. A. Rey's flight from Paris on bicycles in June 1940. Others in the children's book field had mentioned this escape from the Nazi invasion, but no one seemed to know the details of those harrowing days. The story felt incomplete. I wanted to know more. I wanted real images. I was curious, just like the Reys' famous little monkey George.

  And so I began my own journey, a journey of research. A rich source for my research was Margret and Hans Rey's personal papers, donated by their estate to the de Grummond Children's Literature Collection at the University of Southern Mississippi. This nationally known library houses the papers and original artwork of more than 1,200 children's book authors and illustrators.

  But after sifting through hundreds of the Reys' letters, notebook pages, and photographs, and even after walking through Paris on various research trips, I still had questions without answers. How many kilometers did the Reys travel on those two bicycles? Which roads did they follow on their journey south? What happened to the belongings that they had to leave behind? What wartime dangers did they face?

  Over several years I had conversations in person or by phone with people who had known the Reys. I wrote letters and e-mailed people in Germany, England, Portugal, and France. And 1 traveled to some of the towns, cities, and addresses gleaned from the letters and work diaries that the Reys wrote during 1936–40, the years that they lived in Paris. Each step of the way, I tried to focus on Margret and Hans before Curious George was published and brought them fame.

  Dates, postmarks, travel papers, and expense records provided invaluable clues in French, English, German, and Portuguese. Newspaper interviews from the 1940s and 1950s gave me needed details. Slowly, piece by piece, I began to stitch together the fabric of their story.

  The Journey That Saved Curious George is my way, as a writer, of becoming a witness to part of Hans and Margret Rey's story. It is my way of honoring their creativity and their courage during a dark time in history for many countries of Europe.

  Louise Borden

  Above: H. A. and Margret Rey at a book signing, ca. 1945

  Opposite, left: H. A. Rey, born September 16, 1898

  Opposite, right: Margret Rey, born May 16, 1906

  Two Artists

  PART I

  Childhoods in Germany

  In 1906,

  Hans Augusto Reyersbach

  was a boy growing up in Hamburg, Germany,

  a port city with canals and a thousand bridges ...

  and the River Elbe that ran to the North Sea.

  At the age of eight,

  Hans spent many hours in the cold breeze near Hamburg's docks,

  watching foreign ships and barges move along the Elbe.

  For the rest of his life,

  Hans would love boats and rivers and the sea.

  1906

  Often Hans visited the Hagenbeck Zoo

  with his brother and two sisters.

  Monkeys and lions! Polar bears and seals!

  The world of animals from faraway places

  was just a few streets from the Reyersbach home.

  It was at this wonderful zoo

  that Hans learned to imitate the sounds of animals.

  He could roar like a fierce lion.

  He could bark like a seal.

  Another favorite place for young Hans was the circus.

  All those horses and bright colors!

  What a show!

  Hans loved to draw pictures and paint.

  And he was good at it.

  Hans made a painting of horses in the park,

  near one of Hamburg's beautiful lakes.

  Later, in school,

  Hans studied Latin and Greek,

  French and English.

  He knew five languages, including German.

  Left: Scenes of Hamburg at the beginning of the twentieth century

  Top right: Illustration by H.A. Rey in Whiteblack the Penguin, 2000

  Bottom right: Painting by Hans Reyersbach, 1906

  Margarete Waldstein,

  who was born the same year that Hans turned eight,

  also grew up in Hamburg during those early years of a new century.

  Like the Reyersbach family,

  the Waldsteins were Jewish.

  Margarete and her two brothers and two sisters

  had a good life,

  full of comfort

  and culture

  and books.

  Margarete wanted to become an artist.

  Later she studied art and photography

  at a school in Germany:

  the famous Bauhaus.

  Street in Hamburg at the turn of the nineteenth century

  Top left: Margarete Waldstein as a toddler

  To
p right: Margarete Waldstein as a young girl

  Bottom: Margret's certificate of completion for Klosterschule Official documents show different spellings of her first name.

  The next years were full of change and adventure

  for Hans Reyersbach.

  During World War I,

  he was a soldier in Kaiser Wilhelm's German army.

  Hans didn't like war, and he didn't like being a soldier.

  And he was still drawing pictures.

  Hans loved to laugh,

  so sometimes his sketches were quite funny.

  On clear nights,

  he studied the stars and the constellations.

  Hans was a deep thinker as well as an artist.

  Always, he was curious about the world.

  Because of his months on the eastern front,

  Hans could now speak a smattering of Russian.

  Above: Hans Reyersbach as a young German soldier

  Opposite, top: Sketches by Hans Reyersbach

  When Germany lost the war,

  twenty-year-old Hans Reyersbach went home to Hamburg

  and found work making posters for the local circus.

  But times were very hard in his city,

  and there was little money.

  After a few years as a university student,

  Hans packed his sketchbooks,

  his paintbrushes,

  and his pipe

  and headed to Brazil on a ship.

  Teaming Up in Brazil

  In 1924,

  Rio de Janeiro was an exotic city

  with tall, rugged mountains on one side

  and the blue sea on the other.

  It was a great port of world trade, like Hamburg.

  Its plazas and streets were swirls of colored tiles.

  Hans liked to stroll along Copacabana,

  a wide beach with crowds of bathers

  and rows of striped umbrellas and tents.

  It was hot in Brazil—

  so Hans wore a broad hat,

  even in the shade of Rio's palm trees and cafés.

  Top left: Photograph of a Rio beach by Margarete Waldstein

  Illustrations: From Curious George, 1941

  Bottom right: Poster of Brazilian coffee markets by H. A. Rey

  1924

  When he traveled up and down the Amazon River,

  Hans watched the monkeys and made drawings of them.

  Monkeys and more monkeys!

  And they weren't in a zoo.

  They chattered in the branches of trees

  in the small towns where Hans traveled

  as he sold bathtubs and kitchen sinks to earn money.

  Now he was fluent in another language:

  Portuguese.

  Nine years after Hans left Hamburg,

  Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany.

  Life began to change for the German people,

  especially for Germans who were Jewish.

  Margarete Waldstein left Hamburg

  and worked as a photographer in London.

  Then in 1935,

  as Hans had done years earlier,

  Margarete traveled the long ocean miles

  to Rio de Janeiro.

  She was looking for new work and adventure,

  and she knew that Hans Reyersbach,

  an old family friend whom she admired,

  was living in Rio.

  The two artists began to work together in business,

  sharing their talents in writing and drawing.

  Hans was the gentle one.

  Margarete,

  with her red hair and artist's spunk,

  was never afraid to speak her mind.

  Like Hans,

  she enjoyed animals and zoos and the circus.

  Together, they made a great team.

  1935

  That August, Hans and Margarete were married and they lived together in their Rio apartment with two pet marmosets.

  Those little monkeys were always getting into mischief. During this time, Margarete decided to shorten her name to Margret.

  Reyersbach...

  Reyersbach...

  It was a hard name for Brazilians to pronounce. Now that Hans was trying to earn money by drawing and painting large posters and maps, he began to sign his work "H. A. Rey."

  It was much easier for clients in his new country. And... it was a name to remember.

  Opposite, photograph; Adolf Hitler marching with Nazi officials in Berlin, ca. 1933

  Opposite, bottom right: Business card drawn by H.A. Rey

  Top: Poster by H. A. Rey

  A Hotel in Paris

  Months later, as Brazilian citizens with Brazilian passports, the Reys began a honeymoon trip to Europe and took their Rio pets with them. It was a cold rainy crossing to England. Margret knitted sweaters to keep the tiny monkeys warm, but, even so, the marmosets didn't survive the journey.

  After visiting several cities, Hans and Margret ended up at the

  Terrass Hotel

  12, rue Joseph de Maistre

  Paris.

  Above; From Curious George, 1941

  Opposite, from top: From Curious George, 1941;

  from Katy No-Pocket, 1944

  The Reys planned to stay at this hotel for two weeks because it was in Montmartre, the neighborhood of Paris that was famous for the many artists who had lived there. Beautiful Paris was elegant and exciting. It seemed to be just the right city for Hans and Margret, so the Terrass Hotel became their home for the next four years.

  The Terrass had two large buildings, one with guest rooms and one with apartments.

  The Reys took an apartment on the fifth floor, number 505.

  Pets were allowed at the hotel, so for a few years

  Hans and Margret had two French turtles to keep them company: Claudia and Claudius.

  In every season,

  Hans and Margret looked across the rooftops and chimney pots.

  What a view!

  They never grew tired of seeing the graceful Eiffel Tower etched against the blue or gray Paris sky.

  Top: Paris photograph of H. A. Rey taken by Margret Rey

  Bottom: The Eiffel Tower, 1930s

  From their windows in 505, the Reys could hear the flutter of pigeons on the balcony ledge and, down below, the quick rumble of taxis on the rue de Maistre. Just across the street in the cemetery was a spooky jumble of vaults, graves, and tombstones, dark with the soot of the city.

  The Reys neighborhood, Montmartre, was really an old village on the highest hill of the city, with vineyards, stray cats, and the windmill of the famed Moulin Rouge cabaret.

  Steep cobblestone streets wound up, and up, and up to Sacre Coeur, a landmark church with gleaming white domes.

  The Reys sketched and photographed the fishermen along the banks of the Seine... the captains and their families who lived on the local barges ... the booksellers on the quays who, each morning, unlocked their wooden boxes and sold secondhand books to those who passed by ... and of course, the animals at the zoo.

  Often, Hans and Margret walked to their favorite cafes for lunch or dinner. They sat at sidewalk tables with their friends, drank cups of strong coffee, and talked about their creative ideas as they watched the world move by.

  Four Paris photographs taken by Margret Rey, 1939–40

  Books for Children

  During these years,

  Hans and Margret began writing and illustrating their books for children.

  Margret was a good critic for Hans's drawings.

  The Reys worked with several publishers in Paris, and another one in London. They exchanged detailed letters with their editors about their new projects.

  Above left and right: Interior art from Cecily G. and the 9 Monkeys

  Right: Letters from the Reys' British and French publishers

  The years were carefully recorded by Hans. Each day, he jotted down the places he and Margret visited, living expenses, and notes about his wo
rk.

  He filled page after page of his pocket calendar with his small, penciled script, writing words in French, English, and German. Then he added up the monthly expenses in French francs.

  In 1939, a wonderful new manuscript was in progress: a story about a monkey named Fifi who had appeared in one of Hans's first books. Now Fifi would be the star of his own book, The Adventures of Fifi. Fifi was a very curious little monkey—he was always getting into trouble and then finding a way to get out of it.

  This is the story about Fifi

  who lived in the jungle somewhere in Africa.

  He was very happy and he was a good little monkey.

  He only had one fault:

  he was very curious

  and always tried to imitate everything.

  Counterclockwise from top left: H. A. Keys 1936 diary; early manuscript page; H. A. Keys diary page from June 1938

  War Begins

  On September 1, 1939, war began in Europe.

  The battles were far away—in Poland.

  Still, many Parisians left the city until times seemed more secure.

  That week, Margret and Hans packed their valises and took a long train ride southwest to a remote village in the French countryside.

  They spent the next four months at Château Feuga, with its walls and towers that were more than five hundred years old.

  German invasion of Poland. September 1939

  Inset: Photograph of Chateau Feuga taken in 1939 by Margret Rey

  Opposite: From Whiteblack the Penguin, 2000

  Up ... up... round and round...

  Hans climbed the creaky, narrow stairs to a square room in the largest of Feuga's three towers. He pushed open the heavy shutters and smelled the fresh September air. Far to the south was a smudge of mountains: the Pyrenées!

  This simple room was the perfect place for a studio where Hans could work on his book illustrations. Or read, or sit at his desk and think and daydream as he often liked to do.