Dick Bruna - Biography

Biography

Dick Bruna's father eventually became the largest publisher in Netherlands. His company, A.W. Bruna & Zoon, had a bookstand at virtually every one of the country's abundant railway stations. His father's intentions were for Bruna to follow in his footsteps, but Bruna had different plans. Bruna's brother eventually took over the business, but Dick Bruna always remained a close collaborator.

In 1955, while on holiday with his wife Irene and their child, he saw a rabbit hopping around their house and later made attempts to draw it, thereby creating Miffy. "Miffy" is the English-language name, whereas "Nijntje" (pronounced nein-che) is the original Dutch name of the rabbit, stemming from "konijntje" which is the diminutive form of "konijn" (rabbit).

Over the years Bruna has illustrated over 2,000 covers and over 100 posters for the family business, A.W. Bruna & Zoon. His most recognized illustrations were for the Zwarte Beertjes (English: little black bears) series of books, including The Saint, James Bond, Simenon, and Shakespeare.

Read more about this topic:  Dick Bruna

Famous quotes containing the word biography:

    As we approached the log house,... the projecting ends of the logs lapping over each other irregularly several feet at the corners gave it a very rich and picturesque look, far removed from the meanness of weather-boards. It was a very spacious, low building, about eighty feet long, with many large apartments ... a style of architecture not described by Vitruvius, I suspect, though possibly hinted at in the biography of Orpheus.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    In how few words, for instance, the Greeks would have told the story of Abelard and Heloise, making but a sentence of our classical dictionary.... We moderns, on the other hand, collect only the raw materials of biography and history, “memoirs to serve for a history,” which is but materials to serve for a mythology.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    A great biography should, like the close of a great drama, leave behind it a feeling of serenity. We collect into a small bunch the flowers, the few flowers, which brought sweetness into a life, and present it as an offering to an accomplished destiny. It is the dying refrain of a completed song, the final verse of a finished poem.
    André Maurois (1885–1967)