Tomi Ungerer: Octopus in the Bathtub, Blunderbuss in the Nursery

Most Americans like to imagine the authors of children’s books as cheery Mister Rogers types, endowed with primary-colored minds occupied only by the continuing adventures of their particular brand of talking rodent, wayward snowman, or scruffy but lovable youngster. And so, in the 1950s and ’60s, the country struggled with Tomi Ungerer, who mixed creating children’s books about such characters as an heroic octopus (Emile, pictured at right, in the bath) and a family of daring French pigs with work designed for an adult audience, including anti-Vietnam posters and erotica.