Of course, if you had been looking for it, you would have taken note of the dollhouse Madeline received from “Papa” during her hospital stay in the original book. Marciano discovered the text and accompanying sketches while researching his grandfather and published it posthumously as “Madeline in America and Other Holiday Tales.”

This detail was apparently buried in a manuscript Bemelmans drafted in the early 1950s after a visit to Texas. “I used to get almost indignant over it, but these things take on a life of their own and sometimes misperceptions are the stuff of legends.”Īccording to Marciano, although Madeline attends a French boarding school, she is an American with parents bearing the surname Fogg. “It’s not an orphanage she’s not a nun and Madeline is not French,” Marciano told NPR. I had to throw many of my preconceived notions out the window after coming across this NPR interview with Bemelmans’ grandson, John Bemelmans Marciano, who has revived the Madeline empire in recent years with new titles like “Madeline and the Cats of the Rome” and “Madeline and the White House.” I also was under the impression that Madeline was French, as was her author - anyone who would attempt to rhyme “again” and “rain” simply couldn’t be American, could they? And I was certain that Miss Clavel was a nun. Indeed, many believe that “old house in Paris” was an orphanage. Such was my experience when researching “Madeline” and its author/illustrator Ludwig Bemelmans for my post about the ultimate little girl’s library.ĭespite evidence to the contrary, I was one of the many who assumed Madeline had no family.

It’s a little like that old optical illusion in which one either sees a young lady or an old woman - your brain usually interprets the picture one way and it can be difficult to grasp hold of the alternate image.

However, there are some books that are so iconic and familiar that it can be difficult to see their treasured images and verses afresh, to separate the story from our long-engrained impressions. I’m always curious about the story behind the story. When I write about a book, I like to spend time learning as much as I can about the author and illustrator, their artistic methods and their literary inspirations.

Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans