Hans in Luck

Felix Hoffmann (1911–1975) was born in Aarau, Switzerland. He was an illustrator and also painted on glass. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Karlsruhe, Germany, and the School of Fine and Applied Arts in Berlin. He illustrated eighty-six books. In 1957 Hoffmann was awarded the Swiss Children’s Book Prize for his life’s work. He also appeared on the Honors list for the Hans Christian Andersen Award several times, and in 1972 he was short-listed for the same award for his life’s work. He is recognized as one of the most important twentieth-century Swiss illustrators of children’s books. 

Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm were born in Hanau, near Frankfurt, Germany, in 1785 and 1786 respectively. The Brothers Grimm collected fairy tales, which until then had mostly been passed on orally, and captured them in writing for the first time as a collection. One of their most important sources was the storyteller Dorothea Viehmann. The first volume of their Children’s and Household Tales was published just before Christmas 1812. Their fairy tales have appeared in many languages since and in a multitude of editions. In 2005 the Grimms’ fairy tales were made part of UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register for the preservation of cultural documents.