Cirrus@Austlit

Kurt Wiese was born in Minden, Germany in 1887. In 1909 he went to China to work as an exporter. During World War I, Wiese was captured by the Japanese, handed over to the British and sent to Australia, where he spent the next five years in the bush as a prisoner of war. It was during this period that he began to draw seriously and consider illustrating as a career. At the War's end, he returned to Germany, before leaving for Brazil in 1923. In Brazil, Wiese illustrated school and children's books. In 1927, he moved to the USA, where he had a long and prolific career as an illustrator and author of children's books. Wiese's first major success was his illustrations for Felix Salten's Bambi in 1929. Later he received Caldecott Honor citations and also illustrated the Newbery Award winner Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze. Some of his works have an Australian theme, for example, Karoo the Kangaroo (1929). Wiese died in 1974 at Idell, New Jersey.