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Tomie dePaola, ‘Strega Nona’ Author and Illustrator, Dies at 85 Tomie dePaola, ‘Strega Nona’ Author and Illustrator, Dies at 85
(about 5 hours later)
Tomie dePaola, the celebrated author and illustrator of scores of beloved children’s books including the “Strega Nona” series, whose heartwarming stories nurtured and delighted many young generations, has died. He was 85. Tomie dePaola, the celebrated author and illustrator whose scores of beloved children’s books nurtured and delighted several generations of readers, died on Monday in Lebanon, N.H. He was 85.
He died on Monday at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H., because of complications from a surgery he had after a fall, Doug Whiteman, his literary agent, told The Associated Press. His literary agent, Doug Whiteman, said the cause was complications of an operation that Mr. dePaola had after a fall.
Mr. dePaola stirred imaginations by writing or illustrating more than 270 books. The ones that resonated most with children, he told The Times in 1999, were inspired by his own life. Mr. dePaola, whose best-known books were probably the “Strega Nona” series, wrote or illustrated more than 270 books. The ones that resonated most with children, he told The Times in 1999, were the ones inspired by his own life.
His grandmother and great-grandmother formed the basis for the characters in “Nana Upstairs and Nana Downstairs,” one of his most famous books, which dealt with the death of each woman. And “Oliver Button Is a Sissy,” a book about a young boy who is bullied by his peers for preferring dancing and reading to doing sports, was inspired by his own experiences as a child. His grandmother and great-grandmother formed the basis for the characters in “Nana Upstairs and Nana Downstairs” (1973), one of his most famous books, which dealt with the death of each woman. The homecoming of his baby sister Maureen inspired “On My Way” (2001). His grandparents were from Calabria, the region in southern Italy where Mr. dePaola chose to set his “Strega Nona” books.
Like Oliver Button, Mr. dePaola was a tap dancer when he was young, and he insisted on dangling his tap shoes from his shoulder to the chagrin of his father, he said in the 1999 interview. But after he started performing, he added, his father took pride in his abilities. “Strega Nona” (1975) and its sequels tell the story of a kindly “grandma witch” who helps her fellow Calabrian townspeople with magic and an eternally full pasta pot, and her loyal helper, Big Anthony.
Like Mr. dePaola, Oliver Button was rescued by an unknown helper who crossed out the word “sissy,” scribbled on a wall, and replaced it with another S-word: “star.” “De Paola’s illustrations aptly capture the whimsy of this ancient tale,” Norma Mauna Feld wrote in her review of the first book in The New York Times. “And while his simple line drawings clearly reveal the agony and ecstasy of pasta power, the muted colors create just the right ambience for a quaint Mediterranean village.”
“I was called sissy in my young life,” he said in the 1999 profile, “but instead of internalizing these painful experiences, I externalize them in my work.” That book went on to win the Caldecott Medal, which recognizes the most distinguished American picture book for children.
Mr. dePaola was born in Meriden, Conn., in 1934. He studied at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn — which named him “one of the top 125 Pratt icons of all time” in 2012, according to his website — and at the California College of Arts in Oakland, Calif.; and Lone Mountain College in San Francisco. He later taught in the art and theater departments of colleges in California, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Thomas Anthony dePaola was born on Sept. 15, 1934, in Meriden, Conn. His father, Joseph, was a barber, and his mother, Florence (Downey) dePaola, was a homemaker.
A renowned artist, Mr. dePaola received multiple awards, including the Smithson Medal from the Smithsonian Institution and the Kerlan Award from the University of Minnesota, and he was the U.S. nominee for the international Hans Christian Andersen Award in illustration in 1990. He won the 2011 Children’s Literature Legacy Award for his “substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children,” according to his website. He studied at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn — which named him “one of the top 125 Pratt icons of all time” in 2012, according to his website — and at the California College of Arts in Oakland and Lone Mountain College in San Francisco. He later taught in the art and theater departments of colleges in California, Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
Despite almost universal admiration for Mr. dePaola’s books, some were briefly banned in the past, including “Oliver Button Is a Sissy,” which was prohibited by a school in Minneapolis for being “anti-sport”; and “Strega Nona,” about a kindly, older witch in southern Italy, which was banned by American libraries for painting magic in a positive light. Mr. dePaola was married briefly in the 1960s, but later in life he spoke openly about being gay.
Gov. Chris Sununu of New Hampshire, where Mr. dePaola lived and worked in a renovated 200-year-old barn, wrote on Twitter on Monday about the writer’s death, describing him as “a man who brought a smile to thousands of Granite State children who read his books, cherishing them for their brilliant illustrations.” “If it became known you were gay, you’d have a big red ‘G’ on your chest,” he said in a 2019 interview for T: The New York Times Style Magazine, “and schools wouldn’t buy your books anymore.”
Mr. dePaola had known he would be an artist since he was 4, he recalled in an interview in 2002. Mr. dePaola’s “Oliver Button Is a Sissy” (1979), inspired by his own life, was the first picture book to come close to using the word “gay.” The book, about a young boy who is bullied by his peers for preferring dancing and reading to doing sports, was briefly banned by a suburban Minneapolis school, Mr. dePaola recalled in the 1999 interview, “because they felt it was anti-sport.”
“‘Oh, I know what I’m going to be when I grow up,’” he recounted telling his family. “‘Yes, I’m going to be an artist, and I’m going to write stories and draw pictures for books, and I’m going to sing and tap dance on the stage’,” he said. Like Oliver Button, Mr. dePaola was a tap dancer when he was young. To the chagrin of his father, he insisted on dangling his tap shoes from his shoulder. But after he started performing, he added, his father took pride in his abilities.
“And I’ve managed to do all those things.” Echoing Mr. dePaola’s experience, Oliver Button was rescued by an unknown helper who crossed out the word “sissy,” scribbled on a wall, and replaced it with another S-word: “star.”
“I was called sissy in my young life,” Mr. dePaola said in 1999, “but instead of internalizing these painful experiences, I externalize them in my work.”
Mr. dePaola received multiple awards, including the Smithson Medal from the Smithsonian Institution and the Kerlan Award from the University of Minnesota, and he was the United States nominee for the international Hans Christian Andersen Award in illustration in 1990. In 2011 he won the Children’s Literature Legacy Award, given by the Association for Library Service to Children, for his “substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children.”
Despite almost universal admiration for Mr. dePaola’s books, some were briefly banned. Before “Oliver Button Is a Sissy” briefly met that fate, “Strega Nona” had been banned by a number of American libraries for painting magic in a positive light.
Later in life, Mr. dePaola lived and worked in a renovated 200-year-old barn with his beloved Welsh terriers, Madison, Markus, Morgan and Moffat. After his terriers died in around 2010, he got an Airedale named Bronte, who died several years ago.
According to his agent, Mr. Whiteman, the book Mr. dePaola was working on when he passed was called “Where Are You, Bronte?”
In a Twitter post on Monday, Gov. Chris Sununu of New Hampshire described Mr. dePaola as “a man who brought a smile to thousands of Granite State children who read his books, cherishing them for their brilliant illustrations.”
Mr. dePaola is survived by two sisters, Maureen Rogers and Judie Bobbi. His older brother, Joseph, died in 1973.
In a 2002 interview with the website Reading Rockets, Mr. dePaola said he had known he would be an artist since he was 4.
“‘Oh, I know what I’m going to be when I grow up,’” he recounted telling his family. “‘Yes, I’m going to be an artist, and I’m going to write stories and draw pictures for books, and I’m going to sing and tap dance on the stage’.”
“And,” he added, “I’ve managed to do all those things.”