Gustaf Tenggren and the Genesis of the Golden Book Style


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Just about all of us grew up with Little Golden Books. Some of the world's greatest illustrators worked for Western Publishing on the series- Feodor Rojankovsky, Mary Blair, Mel Crawford, Eloise Wilkin, Tibor Gergely, Richard Scarry and Alice & Martin Provensen, among others. But none were more responsible for the way the books looked than Gustaf Tenggren. Today at the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive, I've posted a massive illustrated article on a seminal book in Tenggren's career- "The Tenggren Tell It Again Book". In this book, Tenggren took elements from contemporary illustrators and merged them with his own Swedish folk heritage to create what went on to become the Golden Book style. Fantastic stuff!

Gustaf Tenggren and the Genesis of the Golden Book Style