D’ Aulaire << doh LAIR >> is the family name of a husband and wife who wrote and illustrated children’s books.
Edgar Parin d’Aulaire (1898-1986) and his wife, Ingri Mortenson d’Aulaire (1904-1980), won the Caldecott Medal in 1940 for their picture-book biography, Abraham Lincoln. The couple also won the Regina Medal in 1970. They drew directly on lithographic stone in making their illustrations. Their career as book collaborators began in 1931 with The Magic Rug. See Caldecott Medal; Regina Medal.
Their books include Ola (1932), Ola and Blakken (1933), The Conquest of the Atlantic (1933), Children of the North Lights (1935), George Washington (1936), Pocahontas (1946), Benjamin Franklin (1950), Book of Greek Myths (1962), and Norse Gods and Giants (1967, reissued in 2005, after their deaths, as D’Aulaires’ Book of Norse Myths). They also illustrated The Lord’s Prayer (1934), East of the Sun and West of the Moon (1938), and Johnny Blossom (1948).
Edgar was born on Sept. 30, 1898, in Campoblenio, Switzerland, and died on May 1, 1986. Ingri was born on Dec. 27, 1904, in Kongsberg, Norway, and died on Oct. 24, 1980. They met in Munich, Germany, and married in 1925. They moved to the United States in 1929.
