Instantaneous identification of an author with a popular and well-known creation, in this case a curious monkey, is the hallmark of significant contribution. H. A. Rey and his collaborator wife, Margret, were so closely linked with Curious George that a disappointed child once said, "I thought you were monkeys too." The Curious George books have been translated into twelve different languages and boast sales in the millions. Curious George is presently in its twenty-seventh printing.

By the time Curious George was published in America in 1941, Hans Augusto Rey had already passed the halfway point of his life. The son of Alexander and Martha Windmuller Reyersbach, he was born in Hamburg, Germany, and grew up near the Hagenbeck Zoo, where reportedly he developed a lifelong love for animals. He studied philosophy and natural sciences and learned to speak four languages, but he never studied art. After service with the...