Sometime in the late Seventies I came across the astonishing text of Dr. Heinrich Hoffmann's Struwwelpeter. That first perusal envenomed me with a desire to illustrate those poems - a desire that lasted nearly twenty years until my good friend and publisher Adam Parfrey encouraged me to get it out of my system at last. Without his patience and enthusiasm I would no doubt be festering still. From childhood I have appreciated the inexorable cruel justice meted out in the fairy tales set forth by Anderson, Lang and The Brothers Grimm. Evil was punished with a zeal and rigor that was very satisfying. By contrast, the author of Struwwelpeter reserves his apocalyptic justice for peccadilloes far less weighty than those practiced by the raging, cannibalistic, and adult ogres of Grimm et. al. Still more electrifying to think that this collection was put together by a loving father for the edification of his own child. In Dr. Hoffmann's world, exuberance is rewarded with a severed limb, childish greed visited by hornets; tears beget blindness and vanity merits mutilation. Whew! One can only ponder how Dr. Hoffmann would treat the very real mayhem practiced by some of today's youth.

Wait a minute - maybe the Dr. knew best after all.

 

"Struwwelpeter"

 

 

"Struwwelpeter"

 

 

"Romping Lolly"

 

 

"The Sweet Tooth"

 

 

"The Crybaby"

 

 

"Phoebe Ann"