Something about the author

Sasek, Miroslav 1916 –

PERSONAL: Born November 18, 1916, in Prague, Czechoslovakia; children: Dusan Pedro.
Education: Educated in Prague, and at l’Ecole des Beaux Arts, in Paris.
Residence: Munich, Germany.

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

WRITINGS: "This Is" series, all illustrated by the author and published by Macmillan: This Is Paris (ALA Notable Book), 1959; … London, 1959, revised edition, 1970; … New York, 1960; … Rome, 1960; … Venice, 1961;…Edinburgh, 1961;…Munich, 1961;…San Francisco, 1962; Israel, 1962;…Cape Kennedy, 1964;…Ireland, 1964;…Hong Kong, 1965;…Greece, 1966;…Texas, 1967;…the United Nations, 1968;…Washington, D.C., 1969;…Australia, 1970;…Historic Britain, 1974.

Other: Stone Is Not Cold, Citadel, press, 1961.

ADAPTATION -- Filmstrip: "This Is New York" produced by Weston Woods.

SIDELIGHTS: "Children need 'Baedekers,' too!" This conclusion led Miroslav Sasek to begin illustrating and writing travel books for children about the world's greatest cities.

Sasek was born and educated in Czechoslovakia. In 1946 when the Communists gained power in his homeland, Sasek went to Paris where he studied at l'Ecole des Beaux Arts. Eventually, he settled in Munich, Germany.

A three-week vacation in Paris gave Sasek the idea for writing travel books from children, and This Is Paris appeared in 1959. The London Times Literary Supplement review included, "A beautifully produced picture book destined to delight young and old alike… Use of colour is enchantingly fresh and vivid. The text consists of brief and very simple comments on the sketches with factual explanations which add to our knowledge of Paris and gently remind us of much we had forgotten. Each picture is a pleasing design with imaginative use of detail." The New York Times added, "With a minimum of words and a maximum of illustrations, This Is Paris captures the magic of mankind's capital city."

"There are not many words in Miroslav Sasek's This Is London," observed a reviewer in the London Times Literary Supplement, "but those few are most memorable… The colour is magnificent and uninhibited, the draughtsmanship brilliant but unobtrusive (one gradually realizes that these bold, stylized drawings are minutely accurate as well as true in general impression). The humour is characteristic and pervasive but always subordinate. The jokes are all pointed." The San Francisco Chronicle added, "The second largest city in the world, seen through an artist's eye, emerges in a brilliant galaxy of pictures accompanied by clear, concise information about each."

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. 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, D.C. 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, D.C. reflects this, according to some critics. Comments in the Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books included, "Like other Sasek books, this is distinguished by the impressive exactness of the architectural details in pictures of sites and buildings, and by the rakish drawing of people; it includes general information about the city and minor details of exhibits, as well as the text about and painting of points of major interest that constitute the bulk of the book. The whole is an attractive and fairly comprehensive guide to the city; it lacks only the flavor and the feeling of a metropolitan personality that gave the earlier Sasek books about great cities such verve."

This Historic Britain is Miroslav Sasek's latest book. "Another in the series of oversize books filled with beautifully detailed pictures of sights and sites of a city or a country," wrote a critic in the Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books. "Sasek's text is, as always, packed with facts that would be interesting to a sightseer, and the book can serve as an adjunct to a historical unit of the curriculum, but the primary appeal is visual: carefully detailed and accurate paintings in restrained color of the period architecture found in castles, cathedrals, and historic buildings throughout England, Scotland, and Wales."

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