Favorite Fairy Tales by the Brothers Grimm

About Authors

Jacob was born in 1785, and Wilhelm in 1786 in the German city of Hanau. In four years, instead of eight, the brothers completed a full course of high school. They received a law degree and teached as professors at the University of Berlin. They structured a German grammar and composed a dictionary of German language. Grimm brothers admired collecting and studying folk tales since their student years. The Grimm brothers' achievements began with the publication in 1812 of the first volume of their first collection of fairy tales, three years later the second volume was published, and a little later the third volume of "Children's and Family Tales" completed that extraordinary work (1812, 1815, 1822). Among them are "Bremen Musicians", "Porridge Pot", "Cat in Boots", "Little Red Riding Hood", "Snow White", "Cinderella", "Golden Goose", "Wolf and Seven Goats" - all about 200 fairy tales. Some specialists believe that the Grimm brothers did not create fairy tales, but processed and creatively translated those which were written on the basis of folk tales. After the release of the first fairy-tale collection, the creative brother duet decides to devote themselves entirely to literature and science: both brothers settled in Kassel, where the younger one worked as a secretary in the library, and the older, decisively refusing the benefits of his diplomatic career and joined to him as a librarian. Further life of the Grimms were strongly linked to scientific and teaching work: seven years from 1830, they lived in Goettingen, the next three years again in Kassel, and from 1840 on royal invitation they settled in Berlin, where they spent the rest years. At the end of their lives, they began to create the first dictionary of German: Wilhelm died December 16, 1859, completing the work on the letter D; Jacob survived his brother by almost four years, having completed letters A, B, C and E. He died on September 20, 1863 at the desk, working on the word Frucht (fruit).

Since childhood, Lisbeth Zwerger has dreamed of becoming an illustrator and has gained worldwide recognition by developing her individual artistic style. In her works, Lisbeth does not try to unravel and explain the plot, she tries to enhance the magic of the text, to make it even more magical and mysterious. The characters of her heroes are complex and diverse, combining romance and humor, distorted, drawn proportions and dynamic dance poses, tenderness and grotesque. Lisbeth Zwerger illustrated E. T. A. Hoffmann, C. Dickens, O. Wilde, E. Nesbitt, the Grimm brothers, L. Carroll, and L. F. Baum.

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