Postage stamp honoring beloved author and CT native Tomie dePaola to be issued Friday
Tomie dePaola, the beloved children’s book author and illustrator who was born and raised in Meriden, has been honored with a postage stamp, which will be issued Friday, the United States Postal Service announced.
The forever stamp has dePaola’s name across the top. Below is a reproduction of the cover of his most famous book, Strega Nona, which was published in 1975. The title character is seen front of her house, holding her magical pasta pot, with a rabbit, bird and peacock.
DePaola (1934-2020) wrote more than 260 books. His most famous was “Strega Nona,” about a witch, whose assistant, Big Anthony, causes havoc in town. DePaola followed up the success of that book with 11 sequels about Strega Nona and Big Anthony.
A first-day-of-issue ceremony will be held Friday at 11 a.m. at the Currier Museum of Art in Manchester, New Hampshire.
DePaola conceived of the idea of Strega Nona while on the faculty of Colby Sawyer College in New London, N.H. He spent his later years in that state and died there in 2020 at age 85.
A news release from the postal service said dePaola’s “extraordinarily varied body of work encompasses folk tales and legends, informational books, religious and holiday stories, and touching autobiographical accounts. His illustrations are immediately recognizable by their clean, bold lines and uncomplicated shapes. Deceptively simple, dePaola’s stories contain layers of emotional meaning and appeal to readers of all ages.”
The Strega Nona books are set in Calabria, the hometown of dePaola’s paternal grandparents. DePaola was inspired by his family and his Meriden upbringing in other books he wrote, including “26 Fairmont Avenue,” “The Art Lesson,” “The War Years,” “Nana Upstairs and Nana Downstairs” and “Watch Out for the Chicken Feet in Your Soup.”
In “26 Fairmont Avenue,” which won the 2000 Newbery Honor Award, dePaola described his hometown in the late 1930s, including references to Saint Joseph Church, his family’s apartment on Columbus Avenue, their new house “out in the sticks” that had “a big yard with a view of West Peak with Castle Craig on top” and Harbor Brook (“It ran all the way through Meriden and families dumped stuff in it”).
DePaola often did personal appearances at the Meriden Public Library. In 2011, the library renamed its children’s wing the Tomie dePaola Children’s Library.
Susan Dunne can be reached at sdunne@courant.com.