Fritz Kredel

Fritz Kredel (February 8, 1900 – June 12, 1973) was a German graphic designer who was born in Michelstadt-im-Odenwald. In his early years, he studied under Rudolf Koch at Offenbach School of Design, and developed skills in woodcuts. Koch and Kredel collaborated on A Book of Signs (1923) and The Book of Flowers (1930). Following Koch's death in 1934, Kredel moved to Frankfurt, but, in 1936, fled Germany (for political reasons relating to his Jewish ancestry) with help from Melbert Cary. After emigrating to the United States in 1938, he taught at Cooper Union in New York. He produced illustrations for over 400 books and received many awards and honors. Many of his originals are now housed at the library at Yale University.

Kredel illustrated Eleanor Roosevelt's children's book, Christmas, and was commissioned to create a woodcut of the Presidential Seal for the inauguration of John F. Kennedy. He illustrated several volumes for George Macy's Limited Edition Club, and World's Best Fairy Tales for Reader's Digest in the late 1960s. Kredel colored the John Tenniel illustrations for Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass for the 1946 Random House editions, and illustrated The Complete Andersen: All of the Stories of Hans Christian Andersen in Six Volumes, a limited edition of 1500 sets. He signed the sixth volume of each numbered set. The illustrations purportedly were hand-colored by stencil.

References

• Zipes, Jack (ed.) (2000), The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-965-36357-0