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Ludwig Bemelmans (April 27, 1898 – October 1, 1962) was an Austrian-born American writer and illustrator of children's books and adult novels.

He is known best for the Madeline picture books.

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Six were published, the first in 1939.


Bemelmans was born to the Belgian painter Lambert Bemelmans and the German Frances Fischer in Meran, Austria-Hungary (now Italy). His father owned a hotel. He grew up in Gmunden on the Traunsee in Upper Austria.

His first language was French and his second German.


In 1904, his father left his wife and Ludwig’s governess, both of whom were pregnant with his children, for another woman, after which his mother took Ludwig and his brother to her native city of Regensburg, Germany.

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Bemelmans had difficulty in school, as he hated the German style of discipline. He was apprenticed to his uncle Hans Bemelmans at a hotel in Austria. In a 1941 New York Times interview with Robert van Gelder, he related that while