Born in Hungary in the late nineteenth century, Kate Seredy, author and illustrator, is best remembered for the books she wrote about her homeland, especially the 1938 Newbery Medal-winner, The White Stag. The only child of Louis Peter Seredy, a schoolteacher, and his wife, Anna Irany Seredy, Kate Seredy from an early age was surrounded by good books, good music, and adult conversation. After high school she attended the Academy of Arts in Budapest, from which she received an art teacher's diploma. During the summers, she studied in Italy, Germany, and France.

By her account, she left Paris on the last train for Hungary as World War I broke out. During the conflict, she spent two years as a war nurse in front-line hospitals before the work proved too much for her and she required months of hospitalization herself. The experience made her a confirmed pacifist, as some of...