Ingri and Edgar Parin d'Aulaire

The couple immigrated to the United States from Europe and worked on books that focused on history such as Abraham Lincoln, which won the 1940 Caldecott Medal.

They were part of the group of immigrant artists composed of Feodor Rojankovsky, Roger Duvoisin, Ludwig Bemelmans, Miska Petersham and Tibor Gergely, who helped shape the Golden Age of picture books in mid-twentieth-century America.

Edgar, a pupil of Hans Hofmann and Henri Matisse,[3] studied fresco in Florence, painted murals in France and Norway, and exhibited in Paris, Berlin and Oslo.

Her uncle, for instance, was a clergyman and poet who translated the Icelandic Eddas into Norwegian and set his own poetry to music by Edvard Grieg.

A modest insurance settlement following a near-fatal bus–trolley collision in Paris provided the seed money for Edgar's steerage-class voyage to the U.S. to scout for opportunities.

Edgar concentrated on illustrating books using wood block engravings and stone lithography; Ingri garnered commissions to paint portraits of prominent businessmen.

Many of the d'Aulaires' early books depict the scenery and folktales of Norway: Ola, Children of the Northlights, East of the Sun and West of the Moon.

Later their attention shifted to their adopted country and they produced books about American heroes such as Pocahontas, Benjamin Franklin, and Buffalo Bill.

This volume was carefully printed to reproduce the vibrant color and texture of the original lithographs, and includes a glowing foreword by Michael Chabon.

In 2016, University of Minnesota Press reissued East of the Sun and West of the Moon under the title d'Aulaires' Book of Norwegian Folktales.