The Little Fisherman

Margaret Wise Brown, born in 1910, wrote more than a hundred children's books, including the beloved classics Goodnight Moon and The Runaway Bunny. She is credited with developing the \"here and now\" philosophy of writing for children: She believed children would become more engaged in a story when it was about everyday life they could relate to rather than fantasies or fairy tales. Brown often wrote at her island home, \"The Only House\" on Vinalhaven, Maine. Her Caldecott Medal-winning book, The Little Island, was based on her Maine retreat. Brown's prolific career was cut short at the age of forty-two, when she died from complications following surgery. More than fifty years later, her books, some written under various pen names, remain favorites of parents and children alike.Dahlov Ipcar came to love Maine while growing up in the 1920s, spending many summers along the coast with her parents, the famous artists William and Marguerite Zorach. She moved to Maine permanently in 1937 with her husband, Adolph, living on a small farm in Georgetown.The Little Fisherman, the very first children's book illustrated by Ipcar, was published in 1945. This wonderful book serves as a milestone in her now illustrious career; not only did it help establish her distinctive style, but it also ignited a four-decade creative run during which she wrote and illustrated more than thirty children's books. Her better-known titles from this period include Lobsterman, One Horse Farm, and My Wonderful Christmas Tree. She has also written novels for older readers. Her books also include The Cat At Night, Lobsterman, One Horse Farm, My Wonderful Christmas Tree, Hardscrabble Harvest, Stripes and Spots, and Animal Hide and Seek. She has also written and illustrated a series of board books, Dahlov Ipcar's Wild Animal Alphabet, Dahlov Ipcar's Farmyard Alphabet, Dahlov Ipcar's Farmyard Numbers, and Dahlov Ipcar's Maine Alphabet. Ipcar has also enjoyed a parallel career as a fine art painter and her work is part of the permanent collections of a number of prestigious art institutions. In addition to painting, including a number of large-scale murals for public buildings in Maine and elsewhere, Ipcar has created hooked rugs, cloth sculptures, lithographs, and needlepoint tapestries.
In a career spanning more than eighty years, Maine artist Dahlov Ipcar (1917-2017) wrote and illustrated more than thirty children's and young adult books, starting with The Little Fisherman (by Margaret Wise Brown) in 1945 and including The Cat at Night and My Wonderful Christmas Tree. Dahlov Ipcar was born in Vermont and raised in Greenwich Village. She summered in Maine after her parents (the famed sculptor William Zorach and artist Marguerite Zorach) bought a farm on Georgetown Island in 1923. Thirteen years later, eighteen-year-old Dahlov, an aspiring artist, married Adolph Ipcar. The young couple left New York City in 1937 to live on the Maine farm where they first met. By the early 1940s, Ipcar had nearly given up thoughts of writing and illustrating books, when she was contacted by a New York publisher to illustrate The Little Fisherman. The struggling young artist jumped at the chance, and this charming title helped launch a prolific career that saw her write and illustrate more than thirty children's books of her own. In 2001, she received The Katahdin Award, a lifetime achievement award from the Maine Library Association, and in 2010, she was awarded the New England Independent Booksellers Association's prestigious President's Award for her outstanding contribution to arts and letters.