March 20, 2025 • 30 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, Louise Borden, author of The Journey That Saved Curious George: The True Wartime Escape of Margret and H.A. Rey shares the story of how one of the most iconic children's book characters in history escaped from the clutches of the Third Reich and into the arms of America.
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we continue with our American stories. The idea for
Curious George began in the creators Margaret and ha Ray's
earlier book about a lonely giraffe named Raffi, who were
friends nine monkeys, the youngest of which is called Fife. Eventually,
the Rays decided to develop a story just about Fife.
(00:32):
This was one of the stories they smuggled out of
France just before the Nazi invasion during World War II,
only to learn when they got to the US that
American publisher Houghton Mifflin had doubts about the name Fifi
for a boy monkey, and so Fifi became George. Here
is Louise Bordon with the story. Louise is the author
(00:55):
of the Journey that Saved Curious George, the true wartime
escape of Margaret and h. A. Ray. Let's say a listen.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Welcome to all who enjoy our American stories. I'm the
author of many books for young readers, and my subjects
range from kindergarten to the Holocaust. When I find a
real event that inspires me, like the wartime escape of
Margaret and h Ray in nineteen forty, I begin a
winding road of research. A few years ago, an Ohio
(01:32):
kindergartener told his librarian before my visit to their school,
Louise Borden is a studier. The librarian corrected him and said,
you mean Louise Borden is a student, and the kindergartener
stated again, no, Jesus studier. I love that term studier.
(01:55):
A project may take five or even eight years until
I hold a bound book in my hands, and I'm
just the first person of a publishing team who will
create that new book, whether it's thirty two pages or
two hundred. Six of my books are set during World
War II. I tell young readers that I didn't live
(02:16):
through World War Two. My sisters and I were born
after the war occurred, but our father served in the
US Army Air Forces in the Pacific and returned home,
while his brother, a naval officer, did not when his
submarine was lost in nineteen forty four. I've honored my
uncle by writing Across the Blue Pacific, illustrated by Robert
(02:39):
Andrew Parker. When kids read our book and say they're
inspired by Ted Walker's wartime story, it's very moving to me.
Some years ago, I was asked to speak at an
event whose theme was telling the American story. Besides my uncle,
I've written about other inspiring Americans, the Wright Brothers, Bessie Coleman,
(03:02):
the first African American to earn a pilot's license, the
Children of Boston on the eve of the American Revolution.
So I'm pleased to join in a podcast with the
title Our American Stories and tell you the story behind
what I think is my most important book, The Journey
that Saved Curious George, The True Wartime Escape of Margaret
(03:25):
and h. A. Ray, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Join
me on two journeys. My own journey is a writer
an amateur detective, and the Journey of the Rays, who
brought the story of a Monkey and his friend, the
Man with the Yellow Hat to the United States. The
(03:50):
famous book Curious George, created by h. A. And Margaret Ray,
is now eighty years old, but George is ever young.
Whenever Americans watched tragic events on TV and see refugees
around the world leaving their homes to avoid hurricanes or
earthquakes or war, I'm struck by the parallels to June
(04:14):
nineteen forty with an exodus from Paris and other French
cities when almost ten million people were on the roads.
What if you had to flee from your home or
town right now, what would you take with you as
you traveled into the unknown along unfamiliar roads? And what
(04:34):
would you leave behind? When I was growing up, I
knew those yellow Curious George books on the shelves of
my school library, but I knew nothing about the author
H Ray, whose name appeared on the covers. I had
no clue what the H and the A stood for.
But I was a reader and I loved social studies.
(04:56):
And later, on my sixth grade report card, my teacher,
Missus Reeser, wrote quote, I think Louise will enjoy research
all her life bon voyage. When I see her words now,
decades later, I know wise Missus Reeser would be pleased
that her prediction came true. Here's a bit of background
(05:17):
for my journey years ago on a college study trip
to Europe with fellow history students. My sister and I
were on our own for several days, and we bicycled
along country roads in Holland with just a few items
in the baskets on her bikes. I never imagined then
how this experience would help me when I wrote about
(05:38):
Margaret and Hans Ray. Decades later. My senior research at
Dennison University was the European response to Hitler, focusing on
resistance movements and ordinary citizens set against the canvas of
wartime events. Ever since, I've held a lifelong interest in
(05:58):
World War Two. My first book for young readers was
published in nineteen eighty nine, and at the time I
was part owner of an independent bookstore and subscribed to
a trade journal, Publishers Weekly often called p W, to
learn more about the industry of books. Later, I left
(06:19):
my bookseller job to pursue the writing life, but continued
to read p W. After publishing six or seven picture books,
I began The Little Ships, the heroic Rescue at Dunkirk.
From my college studies, I knew about the exodus of
refugees from Paris to escape from the German invasion and
(06:41):
the plight of British and French soldiers trapped on the
beaches at Dunkirk. One day, at my desk, surrounded by
research for The Little Ships, I paged through that week's
Publishers Weekly and noticed a short autobiographical sketch of Margaret
and h A. Ray and In this snippet, Margaret Ray said,
(07:03):
in June nineteen forty, on a rainy morning before dawn,
a few hours before the Nazis entered, we left Paris
on bicycles with nothing but warm coats and our manuscripts.
Curious George among them, tied to the baggage racks and
started peddling south. We finally made it to Lisbon by train,
(07:25):
having sold our bicycles to customs officials at the French
Spanish border. Our migrations came to an end won clear
crisp October morning in nineteen forty when we saw the
Statue of Liberty rise above the harbor of New York
and we landed in the USA. Wow, how amazing bicycles.
(07:50):
That's quintessential Curious George. Instantly I wanted to know more.
I found a map of France and traced a line
from Paris to the Spanish Order hundreds of miles. Where
did they take a train? I had an image in
my head of Margaret and Hans, unknown artists in a
(08:10):
sea of refugees, an image I would carry with me
over the next years of trying to find their story.
I kept marveling to myself, what an incredible journey. I
assumed there must be a book about this, a book
I wanted to read, But there wasn't. No one had
(08:30):
dusted off the history until a seed of wonder and
curiosity was planted that morning when I read Publishers Weekly.
I labeled my first folder of notes June nineteen forty.
This file would grow to dozens of folders and boxes
of information, scattered across two rooms of our house in Cincinnati.
(08:52):
I emailed Hoton Mifflin to ask if anyone there knew
details about the Ray's escape. No one did.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
And you've been listening to Louise Borden, who a student,
A young student. I think aptly called her a studier,
because that's in the end what she was and is
is a studier of other people, A researcher, a fancier word,
but I like studier, and this story is as much
about her as it is about Margaret and ha Ray's story.
(09:19):
In fact, they intersect. I had an image of Margaret
and h A. Ray as unknown artists in a sea
of refugees. He tracked that bicycle trip, He looked at it.
What was that like? What an adventure? He tracked that
train ride she was trying to walk in the shoes
of another. And that's what studiers do. When we come
(09:41):
back more with Louise Borden, studier, historian and just straight
up great storyteller. Here on our American stories, and we
(10:09):
continue with our American stories, and with Louise Borden, author
of The Journey That Saved Curious George. We last left
off with this remarkable and young artistic couple landing at
the shores of New York. Let's continue with Louise Burden.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
I emailed Hoton Mifflin to ask if anyone there knew
details about the Ray's escape. No one did, but I
was pointed to lay Lee On, the executor of the
Ray estate. Margaret Ray had died recently at the age
of ninety. Oh how I regretted never being able to
meet her, and Ha had passed away in the late
(10:48):
nineteen seventies. Ley Lee, living in Boston, would become an
early and steady encourager of my vision for a book.
She told me she'd just shipped dozens of boxes from
the Ray's long creative lives to the De Grummen Collection
at the University of Southern Mississippi. So I called the
(11:10):
d Grumman's curator at the time and asked her to
look for any envelopes with a return address in Paris,
and she called me back the Terrasse Hotel twelve Rue
Joseph dems Off. I went to Paris to find the
Terrass Hotel, but on my first visit there, yes, it
(11:31):
still existed and was beautiful. The owner and the manager
were away. No one could help me with any information.
Back home in Ohio, I found some biographical facts about
the Rays. I learned the H stood for Hans and
the A stood for Augusto, and that Hans's last name
(11:53):
was ryer's Bach. Hmmm, why did h A change his
name Terray? And when I learned Margaret and Hans were
both German Jews who'd grown up in Hamburg. I learned
Hans was born in eighteen ninety eight and Margaret was
born in nineteen o six, that their families knew each
other in Hamburg, that Hans, who loved animals and could
(12:17):
imitate the sounds of many, lived near the Hagenbeck Zoo
and served in World War One in the German army
and was a self taught artist. That after the war,
due to hard economic times, he loved Hamburg to live
in Rio, Brazil, Brazil. Soon I had folders labeled Hamburg
(12:38):
and Brazil. I learned that Margaret Margaret Woldstein had attended
art school and was a photographer and artist. And ten
years later, in nineteen thirty five, after Hitler came to
power in Germany and began his Nazi laws against Jews,
Margaret also left Hamburg and went to Rio. There she
(13:00):
connected with her family friend Hans Ryersbach, who was to
shorten his name to Ray, and the two artists were
married in August of nineteen thirty five. Very importantly, as
German born Jews, they became Brazilian citizens, and in nineteen
(13:20):
thirty six they sailed to Europe, taking pet Marmoseps with
them aboard their ship and traveled on to Paris to
spend their honeymoon. The images for a book for young
readers were all there. Here was the larger story, beyond
their escape on bicycles without a contract from any publisher,
(13:42):
I headed to the de grumm And Collection early on
a dark, rainy Ohio morning, leaving my house at five
thirty a m. The same time I would learn the
rais left Paris. When I finally arrived in Gulfport, I
rented a car and drope sixty miles north to Hattiesburg,
where the de Grumman collection is located. Most of the
(14:06):
documents were in black and white, but scattered across my
work table where the colors of the books created by
Margaret and h A and their now iconic illustrations. I
was instantly drawn to Hans's first book, published in France
and also in England, titled Raffy and the Nine Monkeys,
with its bright green cover about a giraffe and nine
(14:30):
little monkeys, including the youngest named Fifi. I spotted a
telegram among some papers have had a very narrow escape baggage,
all lost, asking for money to be wired to the Rays.
Signed Ray. Thankfully, the Rays were sabers and kept everything
(14:53):
from their publishing lives, royalty statements, editorial letters, drafts, ideas, sketches, proofs,
and black and white photos taken by Margaret in the
nineteen thirties and nineteen forties. I came home from this
first trip to the de Grummen with hundreds of xeroxed copies.
(15:13):
I would later enlarge these tiny pages and translate them
with the help of my sister Cindy and Missouri, and
in Cincinnati, my former high school French teacher, Renee Lowther,
who'd lived through the German occupation of France. I recall
the day Cindy and I, with pages strewn across her
(15:33):
dining room table, read the June twelfth, nineteen forty entry
in Hans's calendar, written in French, left Paris at five
thirty a m by bicycle. We realized then that h
was going to tell us where he and Margaret went
on the two bicycles that he'd assembled from spare parts
(15:56):
in a Paris bike shop the day before the Rays
left the Turret hotel. I soon had folders of maps
of France, Spain, and Portugal. I made tracking calendars for
the years nineteen thirty six to nineteen forty, writing on
various dates where they were, including a chateau in nineteen
(16:17):
thirty nine where the Rays visited friends for three months
working on art for a book about a curious monkey
named Fifi. And I added Hans's diary entries onto my
nineteen forty tracking calendar. Each day he'd scribbled a few
words about their journey south from Paris. Then I began
(16:38):
working on an early draft. When writing for children, I'm
always thinking about the structure of the book. How can
a long ago time and complicated political era best be
shown to young readers, and what will expand the text
in meaningful ways. I was enchanted by a small watercolor
(17:01):
painting at the d Grummen that Hans had made in
Hamburg at the age of eight Bingo, I said to myself,
that's where all begin this story in Hamburg with Hans
as a kid. Here's the opening text. In nineteen o six,
Hans Augusta Reyersbach was a boy growing up in Hamburg, Germany,
(17:23):
a port city with canals and a thousand bridges and
the river elb that ran to the North Sea. At
the age of eight, Hans spent many hours in the
cold breeze near Hamburg's docks, watching foreign ships and barges
move along the Elbe. For the rest of his life,
Hans would love boats and rivers and the sea. I
(17:47):
took more research trips, returning to Paris to stay in
a balcony room at the Terrasse Hotel, just as the
Rays had stayed in a balcony room where they spent
their honeymoon in nineteen thirty six, but instead of staying
for a few weeks, the two artists ended up living
at the terrass for four years. On that trip, I
(18:08):
rented a car and drove out of Paris. Gripping the wheel,
I headed south along country roads to a tomp tour
and Orleans, using a nineteen forties map of France, following
the bicycles footsteps that Hans had noted in his calendar diary.
Then in Orleans, I veered off their escape journey's route
(18:31):
and took a train south to find the chateau near Lectour.
The owners a British couple who became as amazed by
the Ray's lives as I was when I explained Hans
and Margaret's years in France. There are months working on
book projects in a tower room of this very chateau,
and later their escape from Paris.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
And you've been listening to Louise Bourdon, and indeed Studyer
is becoming more and more well what she was Tracker.
I mean, imagine from Hattiesburg to Paris and then using
a nineteen forties map, rechasing the steps of this remarkable couple.
These artists. When we come back more of Louise Borden's trek,
(19:17):
discover the real life story and escape of Margaret and
h a Ray from the Nazis. Here on our American stories,
(19:38):
and we continue with our American stories and the story
of Louise bordon in many ways, and her journey to
find out about the journey that saved Curious George and
that would be Margaret an ha raised journey, and how
these two journeys in the end intersect. Let's pick up
with Louise Borden where we last left off.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
This was in the late days of cassette tapes, and
when I was in my car alone, driving hours to
travel to schools for author talks, I often listened to
an audio recording I'd found at the de Grumman collection.
Here's a clip from a WGBH Boston radio interview of
the Rays in May nineteen sixty six. This recording brought
(20:24):
me closer to the artists I was trying to write about.
Speaker 3 (20:29):
We were living in France when we did the first curist.
Judge George was really born in France. It's a matter
of fact, I tell you a little more precisely. We
did a book about a giraffe, and the giraffe took
nine little monkeys in and one of those little monkeys
was George. And then a while leader we thought of
(20:49):
a book about a monkey, and we did this first
Curious Judge. Never thought of a series. And then over
the years we get so many letters from children saying,
what can George do next? And won't you do another book?
So then we did another book. Tell us about Curious
George in the hospital. Did it start because you had
a child who had to go to the hospital.
Speaker 4 (21:10):
No, we don't really don't have children, and you have
Curious George started. Yes, it is sort of a child,
and it's one of the children who take care of
their parents. You know, we are in the monkey business,
you might say.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
Tell us about your background. It goes from Germany, but
my husband left it in Germany nineteen twenty five, where
I left it much later, and we met again in
Brazil in the thirties. I mean, you knew each other,
and we knew each other a little bit.
Speaker 4 (21:41):
And Ji I knew her when she was a child
at her father's house, and she doesn't remember. She came
sliding down the benisters and I was standing downstairs with
her older sister, and there she came. That's how I
met her.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
Aren't those voices so wonderful to listen to? After Journey
was published, at his office in New York, I met
Andre Schiffren, the son of Jacques Schiffrin, Hans's editor at Galimar,
and showed him his father's letters to h Andre's fifth
(22:16):
birthday was the day the Germans marched into Paris. The
Schiffrin family would also leave France due to the German
invasion and because Jacques, who was Jewish, had lost his job.
Jacques was the editor who'd first encouraged h. A. Ray
to write for children and published Raffi in the Nine Monkeys.
(22:39):
He would settle in New York City like his friends
the Rays, and become a founder of the publishing house
Pantheon Books. The seven original Curious George books have now
been printed in the millions and are published in many languages.
I signed two book contracts with Houghton Mifflin, and Amy
(22:59):
Flynn became my editorial guide for both the book about
the Rays and the book about Ted Walker, my uncle.
My first visit to her Houghton Mifflin office in Boston
was on an October day, I walked up Boylston Street
with my manuscript, The True Escape of Curious George tucked
in my backpack, and it was snowing October, the calendar
(23:25):
month that the Rays arrived in the United States. I'd
recently written a book called Sleds on Boston Common, published
by Simon and Schuster, and so I told myself, don't
be nervous. I love snow, and today will be a
great day to discuss my heroes. Margaret and a j
who for years had walked on snowy Boston sidewalks, headed
(23:49):
to Houghton Mifflin to discuss their Curious George projects. At
some point, Amy and I began to discuss who would
illustrate the text, and I'd admired the work of Alan Drummond.
We structured the book with two parts, two artists, an
escape from Paris, and after Alan finished his illustrations, they
(24:10):
seemed to me to be as iconic as Ha's book characters.
Whenever I opened The Journey that Saved Curious George, I
loved seeing Alan's watercolor map of the route the Rays
followed from Paris on those bicycles before they boarded a train.
In Orleans and continued on to the French border and
(24:32):
then on through Spain and Portugal, carrying with them a
few possessions and precious manuscripts, including one about a curious
monkey named Fifi who had a friend the man with
the yellow hat. After spending weeks in Lisbon, called the
city of refugees at the time, the Rays took a ship,
(24:53):
the Angola, and sailed across the Atlantic to Rio, holding
those important Brazilian in passports. Then with visas to travel
on to the US. They boarded a ship in Rio
and sailed into New York Harbor on October fourteenth, nineteen forty.
Hans stated in a letter in the archives, one never
(25:17):
forgets the day you arrive in America. Alan's wonderful map
at the end of the book shows these sea voyages.
Now kids can join the journey too. I want them
to know those roads the Rays followed and the courage
it took to travel them. Now kids can be inspired
(25:39):
by the sea journey of Margaret and Hans and the
artistic talent they brought to America. Kids can also find
in an in section of the book some of the
photographs that helped me as a detective. I want them
to see, as I did in Missus Reeser's class, that
research is intriguing and fun, not boring. Imagine our world
(26:02):
without Curious George. In late September nineteen forty, three, months
after the Rays escape from Paris, a Nazi ordinance required
all foreign Jews living in the occupied zone of France
to register at police stations. Beginning in June nineteen forty one,
(26:26):
thousands of foreign Jews were deported. Margaret and Hans would
no doubt have been on one of those trains to
Hitler's camps. Have had a very narrow escape, Hans wrote
on that long ago telegram to relatives, A very narrow escape,
isn't that always George. George gets into mischief because of
(26:48):
his antics and his curiosity, but then, in each book,
with those familiar yellow covers, gets out of trouble for
a happy ending. One of my favorite illustrations from the
first of the seven original Curious George books shows the
man with the yellow hat walking down a ship gangplank,
(27:09):
and ahead of him is George holding a passport. Today,
George is our ambassador for reading around the world and
also for curiosity. Since the publication of the journey that
saved Curious George. There have been exhibits across the US
and even an animated documentary about Margaret and Hans. As
(27:33):
Ha stated in the recording I listened to on that
cassette tape years ago, we are in the monkey business.
Isn't this the quintessential American story of two artists who
fled wartime Europe and arrived in the US, bringing their
ideas and art. The light of the illustrations created by Ha,
(27:56):
a man born in eighteen ninety eight, still shines across
libraries and bookstores in our twenty first century. When I'm
typing away at my desk, the courage and optimism of
Margaret and Hans are always steady inspiration to me. H
A once said, Let's think of the future. That's where
(28:19):
we shall spend the rest of our lives. How lucky
we are that the Rays and their stories and their
ever young book character George are still with us because
of an escape on bicycles, because of help along the way,
because Margaret and h A sailed into New York Harbor,
(28:42):
because they became proud US citizens six years later. What
a wonderful ending and also a wonderful beginning to this
beautiful American story. Now George belongs to all of us,
so it's our story.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
Two and a terrific job on the production by Greig Hengler,
and a special thanks to Louise Borden for sharing her
story with us. And she is the author of the
journey that saved Curious George, the true wartime escape of
Margaret and h A. Ray, and my goodness, no truer
(29:23):
words could ever be said. On October fourteenth, nineteen forty,
this couple comes to the New York Harbor. One never
forgets the day you arrive in America. My grandparents both
told me that again and again. Let's think of the future.
Ha told his bride that's where we'll spend the rest
of our lives. And that's why people come here too.
(29:45):
Not for the past, they're escaping that the coming for
the future and for future generation. The story of Louise Borden, the.
Speaker 5 (29:53):
Story of Ha and Margaret Ray, the story of two
artists escaping from the Nazis, and best of all, the
story of this character George, who made the world a
more beautiful place.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
Here on our American Stories
And we continue with our American stories. The idea for
Curious George began in the creators Margaret and ha Ray's
earlier book about a lonely giraffe named Raffi, who were
friends nine monkeys, the youngest of which is called Fife. Eventually,
the Rays decided to develop a story just about Fife.
(00:32):
This was one of the stories they smuggled out of
France just before the Nazi invasion during World War II,
only to learn when they got to the US that
American publisher Houghton Mifflin had doubts about the name Fifi
for a boy monkey, and so Fifi became George. Here
is Louise Bordon with the story. Louise is the author
(00:55):
of the Journey that Saved Curious George, the true wartime
escape of Margaret and h. A. Ray. Let's say a listen.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
Welcome to all who enjoy our American stories. I'm the
author of many books for young readers, and my subjects
range from kindergarten to the Holocaust. When I find a
real event that inspires me, like the wartime escape of
Margaret and h Ray in nineteen forty, I begin a
winding road of research. A few years ago, an Ohio
(01:32):
kindergartener told his librarian before my visit to their school,
Louise Borden is a studier. The librarian corrected him and said,
you mean Louise Borden is a student, and the kindergartener
stated again, no, Jesus studier. I love that term studier.
(01:55):
A project may take five or even eight years until
I hold a bound book in my hands, and I'm
just the first person of a publishing team who will
create that new book, whether it's thirty two pages or
two hundred. Six of my books are set during World
War II. I tell young readers that I didn't live
(02:16):
through World War Two. My sisters and I were born
after the war occurred, but our father served in the
US Army Air Forces in the Pacific and returned home,
while his brother, a naval officer, did not when his
submarine was lost in nineteen forty four. I've honored my
uncle by writing Across the Blue Pacific, illustrated by Robert
(02:39):
Andrew Parker. When kids read our book and say they're
inspired by Ted Walker's wartime story, it's very moving to me.
Some years ago, I was asked to speak at an
event whose theme was telling the American story. Besides my uncle,
I've written about other inspiring Americans, the Wright Brothers, Bessie Coleman,
(03:02):
the first African American to earn a pilot's license, the
Children of Boston on the eve of the American Revolution.
So I'm pleased to join in a podcast with the
title Our American Stories and tell you the story behind
what I think is my most important book, The Journey
that Saved Curious George, The True Wartime Escape of Margaret
(03:25):
and h. A. Ray, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Join
me on two journeys. My own journey is a writer
an amateur detective, and the Journey of the Rays, who
brought the story of a Monkey and his friend, the
Man with the Yellow Hat to the United States. The
(03:50):
famous book Curious George, created by h. A. And Margaret Ray,
is now eighty years old, but George is ever young.
Whenever Americans watched tragic events on TV and see refugees
around the world leaving their homes to avoid hurricanes or
earthquakes or war, I'm struck by the parallels to June
(04:14):
nineteen forty with an exodus from Paris and other French
cities when almost ten million people were on the roads.
What if you had to flee from your home or
town right now, what would you take with you as
you traveled into the unknown along unfamiliar roads? And what
(04:34):
would you leave behind? When I was growing up, I
knew those yellow Curious George books on the shelves of
my school library, but I knew nothing about the author
H Ray, whose name appeared on the covers. I had
no clue what the H and the A stood for.
But I was a reader and I loved social studies.
(04:56):
And later, on my sixth grade report card, my teacher,
Missus Reeser, wrote quote, I think Louise will enjoy research
all her life bon voyage. When I see her words now,
decades later, I know wise Missus Reeser would be pleased
that her prediction came true. Here's a bit of background
(05:17):
for my journey years ago on a college study trip
to Europe with fellow history students. My sister and I
were on our own for several days, and we bicycled
along country roads in Holland with just a few items
in the baskets on her bikes. I never imagined then
how this experience would help me when I wrote about
(05:38):
Margaret and Hans Ray. Decades later. My senior research at
Dennison University was the European response to Hitler, focusing on
resistance movements and ordinary citizens set against the canvas of
wartime events. Ever since, I've held a lifelong interest in
(05:58):
World War Two. My first book for young readers was
published in nineteen eighty nine, and at the time I
was part owner of an independent bookstore and subscribed to
a trade journal, Publishers Weekly often called p W, to
learn more about the industry of books. Later, I left
(06:19):
my bookseller job to pursue the writing life, but continued
to read p W. After publishing six or seven picture books,
I began The Little Ships, the heroic Rescue at Dunkirk.
From my college studies, I knew about the exodus of
refugees from Paris to escape from the German invasion and
(06:41):
the plight of British and French soldiers trapped on the
beaches at Dunkirk. One day, at my desk, surrounded by
research for The Little Ships, I paged through that week's
Publishers Weekly and noticed a short autobiographical sketch of Margaret
and h A. Ray and In this snippet, Margaret Ray said,
(07:03):
in June nineteen forty, on a rainy morning before dawn,
a few hours before the Nazis entered, we left Paris
on bicycles with nothing but warm coats and our manuscripts.
Curious George among them, tied to the baggage racks and
started peddling south. We finally made it to Lisbon by train,
(07:25):
having sold our bicycles to customs officials at the French
Spanish border. Our migrations came to an end won clear
crisp October morning in nineteen forty when we saw the
Statue of Liberty rise above the harbor of New York
and we landed in the USA. Wow, how amazing bicycles.
(07:50):
That's quintessential Curious George. Instantly I wanted to know more.
I found a map of France and traced a line
from Paris to the Spanish Order hundreds of miles. Where
did they take a train? I had an image in
my head of Margaret and Hans, unknown artists in a
(08:10):
sea of refugees, an image I would carry with me
over the next years of trying to find their story.
I kept marveling to myself, what an incredible journey. I
assumed there must be a book about this, a book
I wanted to read, But there wasn't. No one had
(08:30):
dusted off the history until a seed of wonder and
curiosity was planted that morning when I read Publishers Weekly.
I labeled my first folder of notes June nineteen forty.
This file would grow to dozens of folders and boxes
of information, scattered across two rooms of our house in Cincinnati.
(08:52):
I emailed Hoton Mifflin to ask if anyone there knew
details about the Ray's escape. No one did.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
And you've been listening to Louise Borden, who a student,
A young student. I think aptly called her a studier,
because that's in the end what she was and is
is a studier of other people, A researcher, a fancier word,
but I like studier, and this story is as much
about her as it is about Margaret and ha Ray's story.
(09:19):
In fact, they intersect. I had an image of Margaret
and h A. Ray as unknown artists in a sea
of refugees. He tracked that bicycle trip, He looked at it.
What was that like? What an adventure? He tracked that
train ride she was trying to walk in the shoes
of another. And that's what studiers do. When we come
(09:41):
back more with Louise Borden, studier, historian and just straight
up great storyteller. Here on our American stories, and we
(10:09):
continue with our American stories, and with Louise Borden, author
of The Journey That Saved Curious George. We last left
off with this remarkable and young artistic couple landing at
the shores of New York. Let's continue with Louise Burden.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
I emailed Hoton Mifflin to ask if anyone there knew
details about the Ray's escape. No one did, but I
was pointed to lay Lee On, the executor of the
Ray estate. Margaret Ray had died recently at the age
of ninety. Oh how I regretted never being able to
meet her, and Ha had passed away in the late
(10:48):
nineteen seventies. Ley Lee, living in Boston, would become an
early and steady encourager of my vision for a book.
She told me she'd just shipped dozens of boxes from
the Ray's long creative lives to the De Grummen Collection
at the University of Southern Mississippi. So I called the
(11:10):
d Grumman's curator at the time and asked her to
look for any envelopes with a return address in Paris,
and she called me back the Terrasse Hotel twelve Rue
Joseph dems Off. I went to Paris to find the
Terrass Hotel, but on my first visit there, yes, it
(11:31):
still existed and was beautiful. The owner and the manager
were away. No one could help me with any information.
Back home in Ohio, I found some biographical facts about
the Rays. I learned the H stood for Hans and
the A stood for Augusto, and that Hans's last name
(11:53):
was ryer's Bach. Hmmm, why did h A change his
name Terray? And when I learned Margaret and Hans were
both German Jews who'd grown up in Hamburg. I learned
Hans was born in eighteen ninety eight and Margaret was
born in nineteen o six, that their families knew each
other in Hamburg, that Hans, who loved animals and could
(12:17):
imitate the sounds of many, lived near the Hagenbeck Zoo
and served in World War One in the German army
and was a self taught artist. That after the war,
due to hard economic times, he loved Hamburg to live
in Rio, Brazil, Brazil. Soon I had folders labeled Hamburg
(12:38):
and Brazil. I learned that Margaret Margaret Woldstein had attended
art school and was a photographer and artist. And ten
years later, in nineteen thirty five, after Hitler came to
power in Germany and began his Nazi laws against Jews,
Margaret also left Hamburg and went to Rio. There she
(13:00):
connected with her family friend Hans Ryersbach, who was to
shorten his name to Ray, and the two artists were
married in August of nineteen thirty five. Very importantly, as
German born Jews, they became Brazilian citizens, and in nineteen
(13:20):
thirty six they sailed to Europe, taking pet Marmoseps with
them aboard their ship and traveled on to Paris to
spend their honeymoon. The images for a book for young
readers were all there. Here was the larger story, beyond
their escape on bicycles without a contract from any publisher,
(13:42):
I headed to the de grumm And Collection early on
a dark, rainy Ohio morning, leaving my house at five
thirty a m. The same time I would learn the
rais left Paris. When I finally arrived in Gulfport, I
rented a car and drope sixty miles north to Hattiesburg,
where the de Grumman collection is located. Most of the
(14:06):
documents were in black and white, but scattered across my
work table where the colors of the books created by
Margaret and h A and their now iconic illustrations. I
was instantly drawn to Hans's first book, published in France
and also in England, titled Raffy and the Nine Monkeys,
with its bright green cover about a giraffe and nine
(14:30):
little monkeys, including the youngest named Fifi. I spotted a
telegram among some papers have had a very narrow escape baggage,
all lost, asking for money to be wired to the Rays.
Signed Ray. Thankfully, the Rays were sabers and kept everything
(14:53):
from their publishing lives, royalty statements, editorial letters, drafts, ideas, sketches, proofs,
and black and white photos taken by Margaret in the
nineteen thirties and nineteen forties. I came home from this
first trip to the de Grummen with hundreds of xeroxed copies.
(15:13):
I would later enlarge these tiny pages and translate them
with the help of my sister Cindy and Missouri, and
in Cincinnati, my former high school French teacher, Renee Lowther,
who'd lived through the German occupation of France. I recall
the day Cindy and I, with pages strewn across her
(15:33):
dining room table, read the June twelfth, nineteen forty entry
in Hans's calendar, written in French, left Paris at five
thirty a m by bicycle. We realized then that h
was going to tell us where he and Margaret went
on the two bicycles that he'd assembled from spare parts
(15:56):
in a Paris bike shop the day before the Rays
left the Turret hotel. I soon had folders of maps
of France, Spain, and Portugal. I made tracking calendars for
the years nineteen thirty six to nineteen forty, writing on
various dates where they were, including a chateau in nineteen
(16:17):
thirty nine where the Rays visited friends for three months
working on art for a book about a curious monkey
named Fifi. And I added Hans's diary entries onto my
nineteen forty tracking calendar. Each day he'd scribbled a few
words about their journey south from Paris. Then I began
(16:38):
working on an early draft. When writing for children, I'm
always thinking about the structure of the book. How can
a long ago time and complicated political era best be
shown to young readers, and what will expand the text
in meaningful ways. I was enchanted by a small watercolor
(17:01):
painting at the d Grummen that Hans had made in
Hamburg at the age of eight Bingo, I said to myself,
that's where all begin this story in Hamburg with Hans
as a kid. Here's the opening text. In nineteen o six,
Hans Augusta Reyersbach was a boy growing up in Hamburg, Germany,
(17:23):
a port city with canals and a thousand bridges and
the river elb that ran to the North Sea. At
the age of eight, Hans spent many hours in the
cold breeze near Hamburg's docks, watching foreign ships and barges
move along the Elbe. For the rest of his life,
Hans would love boats and rivers and the sea. I
(17:47):
took more research trips, returning to Paris to stay in
a balcony room at the Terrasse Hotel, just as the
Rays had stayed in a balcony room where they spent
their honeymoon in nineteen thirty six, but instead of staying
for a few weeks, the two artists ended up living
at the terrass for four years. On that trip, I
(18:08):
rented a car and drove out of Paris. Gripping the wheel,
I headed south along country roads to a tomp tour
and Orleans, using a nineteen forties map of France, following
the bicycles footsteps that Hans had noted in his calendar diary.
Then in Orleans, I veered off their escape journey's route
(18:31):
and took a train south to find the chateau near Lectour.
The owners a British couple who became as amazed by
the Ray's lives as I was when I explained Hans
and Margaret's years in France. There are months working on
book projects in a tower room of this very chateau,
and later their escape from Paris.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
And you've been listening to Louise Bourdon, and indeed Studyer
is becoming more and more well what she was Tracker.
I mean, imagine from Hattiesburg to Paris and then using
a nineteen forties map, rechasing the steps of this remarkable couple.
These artists. When we come back more of Louise Borden's trek,
(19:17):
discover the real life story and escape of Margaret and
h a Ray from the Nazis. Here on our American stories,
(19:38):
and we continue with our American stories and the story
of Louise bordon in many ways, and her journey to
find out about the journey that saved Curious George and
that would be Margaret an ha raised journey, and how
these two journeys in the end intersect. Let's pick up
with Louise Borden where we last left off.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
This was in the late days of cassette tapes, and
when I was in my car alone, driving hours to
travel to schools for author talks, I often listened to
an audio recording I'd found at the de Grumman collection.
Here's a clip from a WGBH Boston radio interview of
the Rays in May nineteen sixty six. This recording brought
(20:24):
me closer to the artists I was trying to write about.
Speaker 3 (20:29):
We were living in France when we did the first curist.
Judge George was really born in France. It's a matter
of fact, I tell you a little more precisely. We
did a book about a giraffe, and the giraffe took
nine little monkeys in and one of those little monkeys
was George. And then a while leader we thought of
(20:49):
a book about a monkey, and we did this first
Curious Judge. Never thought of a series. And then over
the years we get so many letters from children saying,
what can George do next? And won't you do another book?
So then we did another book. Tell us about Curious
George in the hospital. Did it start because you had
a child who had to go to the hospital.
Speaker 4 (21:10):
No, we don't really don't have children, and you have
Curious George started. Yes, it is sort of a child,
and it's one of the children who take care of
their parents. You know, we are in the monkey business,
you might say.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
Tell us about your background. It goes from Germany, but
my husband left it in Germany nineteen twenty five, where
I left it much later, and we met again in
Brazil in the thirties. I mean, you knew each other,
and we knew each other a little bit.
Speaker 4 (21:41):
And Ji I knew her when she was a child
at her father's house, and she doesn't remember. She came
sliding down the benisters and I was standing downstairs with
her older sister, and there she came. That's how I
met her.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
Aren't those voices so wonderful to listen to? After Journey
was published, at his office in New York, I met
Andre Schiffren, the son of Jacques Schiffrin, Hans's editor at Galimar,
and showed him his father's letters to h Andre's fifth
(22:16):
birthday was the day the Germans marched into Paris. The
Schiffrin family would also leave France due to the German
invasion and because Jacques, who was Jewish, had lost his job.
Jacques was the editor who'd first encouraged h. A. Ray
to write for children and published Raffi in the Nine Monkeys.
(22:39):
He would settle in New York City like his friends
the Rays, and become a founder of the publishing house
Pantheon Books. The seven original Curious George books have now
been printed in the millions and are published in many languages.
I signed two book contracts with Houghton Mifflin, and Amy
(22:59):
Flynn became my editorial guide for both the book about
the Rays and the book about Ted Walker, my uncle.
My first visit to her Houghton Mifflin office in Boston
was on an October day, I walked up Boylston Street
with my manuscript, The True Escape of Curious George tucked
in my backpack, and it was snowing October, the calendar
(23:25):
month that the Rays arrived in the United States. I'd
recently written a book called Sleds on Boston Common, published
by Simon and Schuster, and so I told myself, don't
be nervous. I love snow, and today will be a
great day to discuss my heroes. Margaret and a j
who for years had walked on snowy Boston sidewalks, headed
(23:49):
to Houghton Mifflin to discuss their Curious George projects. At
some point, Amy and I began to discuss who would
illustrate the text, and I'd admired the work of Alan Drummond.
We structured the book with two parts, two artists, an
escape from Paris, and after Alan finished his illustrations, they
(24:10):
seemed to me to be as iconic as Ha's book characters.
Whenever I opened The Journey that Saved Curious George, I
loved seeing Alan's watercolor map of the route the Rays
followed from Paris on those bicycles before they boarded a train.
In Orleans and continued on to the French border and
(24:32):
then on through Spain and Portugal, carrying with them a
few possessions and precious manuscripts, including one about a curious
monkey named Fifi who had a friend the man with
the yellow hat. After spending weeks in Lisbon, called the
city of refugees at the time, the Rays took a ship,
(24:53):
the Angola, and sailed across the Atlantic to Rio, holding
those important Brazilian in passports. Then with visas to travel
on to the US. They boarded a ship in Rio
and sailed into New York Harbor on October fourteenth, nineteen forty.
Hans stated in a letter in the archives, one never
(25:17):
forgets the day you arrive in America. Alan's wonderful map
at the end of the book shows these sea voyages.
Now kids can join the journey too. I want them
to know those roads the Rays followed and the courage
it took to travel them. Now kids can be inspired
(25:39):
by the sea journey of Margaret and Hans and the
artistic talent they brought to America. Kids can also find
in an in section of the book some of the
photographs that helped me as a detective. I want them
to see, as I did in Missus Reeser's class, that
research is intriguing and fun, not boring. Imagine our world
(26:02):
without Curious George. In late September nineteen forty, three, months
after the Rays escape from Paris, a Nazi ordinance required
all foreign Jews living in the occupied zone of France
to register at police stations. Beginning in June nineteen forty one,
(26:26):
thousands of foreign Jews were deported. Margaret and Hans would
no doubt have been on one of those trains to
Hitler's camps. Have had a very narrow escape, Hans wrote
on that long ago telegram to relatives, A very narrow escape,
isn't that always George. George gets into mischief because of
(26:48):
his antics and his curiosity, but then, in each book,
with those familiar yellow covers, gets out of trouble for
a happy ending. One of my favorite illustrations from the
first of the seven original Curious George books shows the
man with the yellow hat walking down a ship gangplank,
(27:09):
and ahead of him is George holding a passport. Today,
George is our ambassador for reading around the world and
also for curiosity. Since the publication of the journey that
saved Curious George. There have been exhibits across the US
and even an animated documentary about Margaret and Hans. As
(27:33):
Ha stated in the recording I listened to on that
cassette tape years ago, we are in the monkey business.
Isn't this the quintessential American story of two artists who
fled wartime Europe and arrived in the US, bringing their
ideas and art. The light of the illustrations created by Ha,
(27:56):
a man born in eighteen ninety eight, still shines across
libraries and bookstores in our twenty first century. When I'm
typing away at my desk, the courage and optimism of
Margaret and Hans are always steady inspiration to me. H
A once said, Let's think of the future. That's where
(28:19):
we shall spend the rest of our lives. How lucky
we are that the Rays and their stories and their
ever young book character George are still with us because
of an escape on bicycles, because of help along the way,
because Margaret and h A sailed into New York Harbor,
(28:42):
because they became proud US citizens six years later. What
a wonderful ending and also a wonderful beginning to this
beautiful American story. Now George belongs to all of us,
so it's our story.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
Two and a terrific job on the production by Greig Hengler,
and a special thanks to Louise Borden for sharing her
story with us. And she is the author of the
journey that saved Curious George, the true wartime escape of
Margaret and h A. Ray, and my goodness, no truer
(29:23):
words could ever be said. On October fourteenth, nineteen forty,
this couple comes to the New York Harbor. One never
forgets the day you arrive in America. My grandparents both
told me that again and again. Let's think of the future.
Ha told his bride that's where we'll spend the rest
of our lives. And that's why people come here too.
(29:45):
Not for the past, they're escaping that the coming for
the future and for future generation. The story of Louise Borden, the.
Speaker 5 (29:53):
Story of Ha and Margaret Ray, the story of two
artists escaping from the Nazis, and best of all, the
story of this character George, who made the world a
more beautiful place.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
Here on our American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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