Ingri d'Aulaire

Writer

• Born: December 27, 1904
• Birthplace: Kongsberg, Norway
• Died: October 24, 1980
• Place of death: Wilton, Connecticut

Biography

Ingrid Mortenson d’Aulaire, who published as Ingri d’Aulaire, was born on December 27, 1904, at Kongsberg, Norway, to Per Mortenson, who directed the Royal Norwegian Silver Mines, and Oline Sandsmark Mortenson. D’Aulaire and her four siblings moved throughout Norway with their parents because of her father’s work requirements. She summered at her grandfather’s home. Her family encouraged her interest in art and books. D’Aulaire approached Harriet Backer, Norway’s best female artist at that time, who evaluated her work and recommended she develop her talent at art school.

After completing preparatory school, D’Aulaire studied at Kongsberg Junior College and perfected her craft at Norwegian, Swedish, French, and German schools. In Munich, she met German- born illustrator Edgar Parin d’Aulaire, who had been a student of Henri Matisse. They escaped to Paris during a 1923 siege. The couple married on July 24, 1925, and established a Parisian studio. They had two sons, Per Ola and Nils Maarten. D’Aulaire painted children’s portraits during travels to the U.S., North Africa, and Europe. By 1929, she had moved to New York with her husband, and she was naturalized as an U.S. citizen in 1939. D’Aulaire later settled in Connecticut with her husband. She was diagnosed with cancer and died on October 24, 1980, in Wilton, Connecticut.

In 1930, d’Aulaire began blending her awareness of children and her writing skills with her husband’s artistry to create picture books. She studied lithographic methods with her husband and applied colors to his drawings on stone blocks used for lithographs. Their book, The Magic Rug, incorporated art originally designed for letters to relatives. D’Aulaire’s memories of Norway influenced other books, including Ola and Ola and Blakken and Line, Sine, Trine. Her images of children focused on their perspectives and expressions, idealizing childhood. D’Aulaire’s sense of humor complemented her husband’s serious artistic tones.

D’Aulaire traveled frequently to Scandinavia, and that region and its mythology and history influenced the narratives and artwork in the couple’s early books. She focused on biographies of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, researching both men by visiting significant sites, hiking and camping along routes, and immersing herself in those environments to learn sensory details those men probably experienced. D’Aulaire’s biographies omitted aspects of figures’ lives, such as Lincoln’s assassination, to protect readers. When German troops invaded Norway during World War II, d’Aulaire responded with patriotic books and stories depicting the war’s affect on Europeans.

Critics tended to like d’Aulaire’s Norwegian- focused books better than her U.S. stories, which they considered slight in comparison. Scholars credit her with setting artistic standards for picture books. In 1940, the American Library Association presented d’Aulaire and her husband the Caldecott Medal for their biography, Abraham Lincoln. Their Buffalo Bill won the 1953 Boys’ Club award. The Catholic Library Association presented the d’Aulaires with the Regina Medal in 1970 to honor the couple’s literary and artistic efforts to enrich children’s literature. The New York Times Book Review designated D’Aulaire’s Trolls as a Notable Book in 1972. That book received a National Book Award nomination the next year and a 1974 Hans Christian Andersen Award nomination.