Contemporary authors

Nationality: Czech
Place of Birth: Prague, Czechoslovakia

Award(s): New York Times Choice of Best Illustrated Children's Books of the Year, 1959, for This Is London, and 1960, for This Is New York; Boys' Clubs of America Junior Book Award, 1961, for This Is New York.

Personal Information: Family: Born November 18, 1916, in Prague, Czechoslovakia; died May, 1980; children: Dusa Pedro. Education: Educated in Prague, and at l'Ecole des Beaux Arts, Paris.

Career: Worked for Radio Free Europe, Munich, Germany, 1951-57; author and illustrator.

WRITINGS BY THE AUTHOR:

"This Is" series, all illustrated by the author and published by Macmillan:

This Is Paris, 1959.
This Is London, 1959, revised edition, 1970. This Is New York, 1960.
This Is Rome, 1960.
This Is Venice, 1961.
This Is Edinburgh, 1961.
This Is Munich, 1961.
This Is San Francisco, 1962.
This Is Israel, 1962.
This Is Cape Kennedy, 1964.
This Is Ireland, 1964.
This Is Hong Kong, 1965.
This Is Greece, 1966.
This Is Texas, 1967.
This Is The United Nations, 1968.
This Is Washington, D.C., 1969.
This Is Australia, 1970.
This Is Historic Britain, 1974.

Other:

Stone Is Not Cold, Citadel, 1961.

"Sidelights"

Author Miroslav Sasek wrote and illustrated a series of children's books on travel in cities and countries throughout the world, including Paris, London, San Francisco, Israel, and Australia. Born and educated in Czechoslovakia, Sasek left the country when the Communists came to power in 1946. He lived and studied in Paris for a while, and then settled in Munich, Germany.

A three-week vacation in Paris gave Sasek the idea for writing travel books for children, and This Is Paris appeared in 1959. Sasek had originally intended to write only three books of this nature--about Paris, London, and Rome. However, the success of the first three encouraged him to do more, and in the 1960's, there appeared several Sasek books on European and American cities. This Is London, 1959, and This Is New York, 1960, were chosen best illustrated children's books of the year by the New York Times. He also expanded his scope to include entire countries, as well as points of interest, such as Cape Kennedy and the United Nations.

In 1968, Sasek came to Washington, DC to complete the research for a book on that city. He was in the city at the time of the riots which followed the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. He was still there when Robert Kennedy was assassinated, and was sketching the gravesite of John F. Kennedy when guards asked him to leave so that they could dig the grave of Robert Kennedy. Sasek described these experiences as a "continuing nightmare," and This Is Washington, DC, according to critics, reflects this.

Contemporary authors

WRITINGS BY THE AUTHOR:

"This Is" series, all illustrated by the author and published by Macmillan:

Other:

"Sidelights"

FURTHER READINGS ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

PERIODICALS

PERIODICALS

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