Tibor Gergely

Who was Tibor Gergely?

Tibor Gergely was an artist best known for his work in several popular children's books. Born in Budapest in 1900, he studied art briefly in Vienna before emigrating to the United States in 1939, where he settled in New York City. Largely a self-taught artist, he also contributed several covers of The New Yorker, mostly during the 1940s. Among the most popular children's books Gergely illustrated are The Happy Man and His Dump Truck, Busy Day Busy People, The Little Red Caboose, The Fire Engine Book, Tootle, Five Little Firemen, Five Hundred Animals from A to Z, and Scuffy the Tugboat. Many of his better known books were published by Little Golden Books. His best work is collected in "The Great Big Book of Bedtime Stories." Gergely died in 1978, in New York.

As of 2001, Tootle was the all-time third best-selling hardcover children's book in English, and Scuffy the Tugboat was the eighth all-time bestseller.