Artist, Author. She wrote and illustrated the children's classic "Millions of Cats" (1928). This charming little fable was innovative in its use of double-page spread graphics and hand-lettered text, and is considered by many as the first modern picture book. It has never been out of print and continues to delight young readers. Wanda Hazel Gag was born in New Ulm, Minnesota, of German-Bohemian descent. Her father, a painter, died when she was 15, and she struggled to support her ailing mother and six younger siblings while continuing her education. She studied at the Minneapolis Art School and went to New York in 1917 on a scholarship from the Art Students League. After several years as a fashion illustrator she moved to a small farm in Hunterdon County, New Jersey to devote herself to painting. Gag's unique style combined German folk-like naivete and Art Deco lines with imaginative draftsmanship, and she often drew and painted on sandpaper to achieve unusual textures; she was also a superb printmaker. A successful 1926 exhibition in Manhattan led a publisher to commission "Millions of Cats", her first children's book. It was followed by "The Funny Thing" (1929), "Snippy and Snappy" (1931), "Wanda Gag's Storybook" (1933), "The ABC Bunny" (1933), "Gone Is Gone" (1935), and "Nothing At All" (1941). In addition she translated four volumes of Grimm's Fairy Tales, which were published between 1936 and 1947. During her career as a children's author Gag was twice nominated for Newbery and Caldecott Medals, the top American prizes in her field. She died of lung cancer at 53 and her ashes were scattered along the path to her studio. Today her artwork can be seen at the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian Institute, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, and in museums across the United States. Her childhood home in New Ulm is on the National Register of Historic Places.