Amy Mann and Lily Boschain enjoy the adventures of Curious George.

By Amy Mann, Children’s Services at Warsaw Community Public Library

Did you know that the original monkey we know as Curious George was French, and that his name was Fifi? Since 1941, when the first Curious George story was published in the United States, generations of children have come to know the little mischief-maker who lives with the Man in the Yellow Hat.

Curious George, in manuscript form, went on a perilous journey with his creators, German-born Jews who fled Paris on self-made bicycles in June of 1940. We know them now as H. A. and Margret Rey, but they were then Hans Reyersbach and Margarete Waldstein. Born in 1898, Hans served in the German army during World War I, and later painted circus posters for a living. He studied at two German universities, and then travelled to Rio de Janeiro to find work. Margarete, who had known Hans in her youth in Hamburg before working as a photographer in London, also found her way to Rio, where the two reconnected. Hans and Margarete married, and soon after, became Brazilian citizens.

On their honeymoon trip to Europe, the couple brought their two pet marmoset monkeys. The wife, who by now was called Margret, knitted tiny sweaters to keep them warm on the ship, but sadly, the monkeys died on the voyage. In Paris, where they settled, the Reys published a story called “Raffi and the 9 Monkeys” in 1939. The youngest one of these primates would become the beloved Curious George. The money the couple received as an advance on future stories financed their escape from the Nazis to Spain, Portugal, Rio (again), and finally New York. They were able to obtain visas fairly easily because of their Brazilian citizenship.

The Reys wrote seven books about the little monkey, and more books were created by other writers using the couple’s style. Hans passed away in 1977, and Margret in 1996, leaving no heirs. Seventy-five million copies of the George stories have been sold, and the original tale has never gone out of print. The Reys’ legacy of the Curious George books and the other books that they wrote will surely continue in the lives of their many readers.

Children’s Services of the Warsaw Community Public Library will be celebrating curiosity the remainder of September, and into the future.