Wanda Hazel Gág was an American artist, author, translator, and illustrator. She is best known for writing and illustrating the children's book Millions of Cats, the oldest American picture book still in print. Gág was also a noted printmaker, receiving international recognition and awards. Growing Pains, a book of excerpts from the diaries of her teen and young adult years, received critical acclaim. Her books were awarded Newbery Honors and Caldecott Honors.
By 1919 Gág was earning her living as a commercial illustrator. In 1921 she became a partner in a business venture called Happiwork Story Boxes; boxes decorated with story panels on its sides. Gág's one-woman-show in the Weyhe Gallery in 1926 led to her being acclaimed as "… one of America’s most promising young graphic artists… " and was the start of a lifelong relationship with its manager, Carl Zigrosser. Gág began to sell numerous lithographs, linoleum block prints, water colors and drawings through the gallery.
In 1927 Gág's illustrated story Bunny's Easter Egg was published in John Martin's Book magazine for children. Gág's work caught the attention of Ernestine Evans, director of Coward-McCann's children's book division. Evans was delighted to learn that Gág had children's stories and illustrations in her folio and asked her to submit her own story with illustrations. The result, Millions of Cats, had been developed from a story that Gág had written to entertain the children of friends. It was published in 1928. In 1935 Gág published the "proto-feminist" Gone is Gone; or, the Story of a Man Who Wanted to Do Housework. To encourage the reading of fairy-tales, Gág translated and illustrated Tales from Grimm in 1936. Two years later she translated and illustrated the Grimm story "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" in reaction to the "trivialized, sterilized, and sentimentalized" Disney movie version.
(source: wikipedia)