Where's Charcoal?

 

Hans Rey with Charcoal, c. 1944
McCain Library & Archives
University of Southern Mississippi



            Most people associate the names Hans and Margret Rey with a curious little monkey named George. However, when Charcoal, a small black cocker spaniel, joined the family in 1942, “Charkie” became a regular feature in Margret and Hans Rey’s children’s books. Charcoal was also included on the couple’s annual New Year’s card. Click the dates below to see two of these cards posted on January 10, 2012 and March 9, 2012.  
            The Reys befriended an assortment of animals during the 42 years they were together—marmoset monkeys in Brazil, turtles in Paris, and a tamed chipmunk at their summer home in New Hampshire.

Margret and Charcoal in the park, c. 1944
McCain Library and Archives
University of Southern Mississippi

            “Animals have always played an important part in our lives,” Hans is quoted as saying. Animals were important, both personally and professionally. “We live off the profits of ‘monkey business,’” he added wryly.

            Want to play “Where’s Charcoal?”  The next time you visit the children’s department in your local public library, check out The Complete Adventures of Curious George (Houghton Mifflin, 2001). Beginning with Curious George Takes a Job, count how many times you can “spy” Charcoal in the background. One hint: Curious George Learns the Alphabet doesn’t have any dogs pictured, but there are lots of other animals to see. How many different animals can you find?

Memories Stitched Over Time

McCain Library and Archives
University of Southern Mississippi



        In late 1949 Margret and Hans Rey were forced to abandon their third floor apartment on Washington Square. The land and buildings had been purchased by New York University (NYU). Within months the apartment house was gone, torn down to make way for NYU’s new law school. Imagine the sadness they must have felt, watching its destruction. Hans announced the change to friends and relatives with his 1950 holiday card. Before the couple moved out, however, Margret decided to preserve her memories of 42 Washington Square South by stitching them into a needlepoint wall hanging. Characteristically, Hans provided the design. Using graph paper, he sketched out a pattern for Margret to follow with her needle. 

McCain Library and Archives
University of Southern Mississippi



        The framed wall hanging, along with Hans’ graph paper pattern, came to the de Grummond Collection as part of the Rey literary estate. Together they provide not only an historic record of their home with its Washington Square “front yard,” but also a glimpse into Margret’s heart and what she held dear. We can only wonder what her thoughts and feelings were as Hans’ design came to life with her needle and yarn. No doubt she had a memory for each stitch—the laughter of a close friend invited for dinner, their annual New Year’s Eve celebration, the day a contract arrived for her first solo book, Pretzel—memories stitched together to last her for a lifetime. She displayed the completed piece in their new apartment on Washington Place and later in the house in Cambridge, Massachusetts.



McCain Library and Archives
University of Southern Mississippi



        Margret was never prouder than the day she became a U. S. citizen in 1946 and that first small apartment on Washington Square symbolized that new life—her new life, her new beginning—as an author in her own right, as a New Yorker, as an American.