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Dorothy Kunhardt

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Dorothy Kunhardt
A young white woman, standing, hair center-parted; wearing a white top and skirt, with a round collar and long sleeves
Dorothy Meserve, from the 1923 Bryn Mawr yearbook
Born
Dorothy Meserve

(1901-09-29)September 29, 1901
New York City
DiedDecember 23, 1979(1979-12-23) (aged 78)
Notable workPat the Bunny
SpousePhilip B. Kunhardt
Children4
RelativesGeorge Cabot Lodge II (son-in-law)
Peter Kunhardt (grandson)
Peter W. Kunhardt Jr. (great-grandson)

Dorothy Kunhardt (née Meserve; September 29, 1901 – December 23, 1979) was an American children's-book author, best known for the baby book Pat the Bunny.[1] She was also a historian and writer about the life of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln.

Works

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Kunhardt wrote nearly 50 books, including one of the bestselling children's books in history, Pat the Bunny, which has sold over six million copies.[2] She initially wrote it for her youngest child, Edith Kunhardt Davis.[3] Other works include Twenty Days, an account of Lincoln's assassination and the twenty days that followed, which she wrote with her son, Philip B. Kunhardt, Jr.; Tiny Animal Stories; The Telephone Book; Lucky Mrs. Ticklefeather; Brave Mr. Buckingham; Junket is Nice (1933); Wise Old Aard-Vark (1936); and Now Open the Box.[citation needed]

Personal life

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A daughter of historian Frederick Hill Meserve,[4] she was born in New York City and graduated from Bryn Mawr College in 1923.[5][6] She married Philip B. Kunhardt Sr. (son of George E. Kunhardt), a New Yorker and a Harvard Crimson football letterwinner.[7][8] Their home in Morristown, New Jersey housed a collection of items related to the American Civil War and Abraham Lincoln.[9]

They had four children:

  • Nancy Kunhardt Lodge (1927–1997),[10] who was married to Harvard Business School professor emeritus George Cabot Lodge II[11]
  • Philip Bradish Kunhardt Jr. (1928–2006),[12][13] former reporter and managing director of Life magazine[14] and producer of documentaries such as PBS's The American President;[15] married to the former Katharine Trowbridge and had 6 children,[16] including documentary filmmaker Peter Kunhardt, whose son is Peter W. Kunhardt, Jr.
  • Kenneth Bradish Kunhardt (1930–1995), stockbroker; married to the former Edith L. Woodruff of New York City, former schoolteacher,[17][18] they had 4 children. Edith Woodruff was related to the Coolidge family of Boston through her mother.
  • Edith Kunhardt Davis (1937–2020), children's author and illustrator[19]

References

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  1. ^ Philip B. Kunhardt Jr. (December 23, 1990). "The Original Touchy-Feely: 'Pat the Bunny' Turns 50". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-02-24.
  2. ^ "A Rabbit's Feat : After 50 Years, 'Pat the Bunny' Remains a Developmental Touchstone for Millions of Babies". Los Angeles Times. April 11, 1994.
  3. ^ "Back in Print: 'Pat the Bunny' Author's Earliest Titles". Publishers Weekly. August 1, 2013.
  4. ^ "Keeping Lincoln's memory alive for 5 generations". CNN. February 12, 2009.
  5. ^ Zipes, Jack David, ed. (2006). "Kunhardt, Dorothy". Oxford Encyclopedia of Children’s Literature. Vol. 3. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195146561.
  6. ^ "The Class Book of 1923". Bryn Mawr College Library – The Archives. Bryn Mawr College.
  7. ^ "Harvard Club of New York: Social Focus for the Locals". The Harvard Crimson. January 8, 1957.
  8. ^ "Media Center: Harvard Crimson Football All-Time Letterwinners (since 1874)". gocrimson.com.
  9. ^ Seelye.Katharine Q. "Edith Kunhardt Davis, Author of ‘Pat the Bunny’ Sequels, Dies at 82", The New York Times, January 19, 2020. Accessed August 22, 2022. "Dorothy Kunhardt revered Abraham Lincoln, a passion she inherited from her father, Frederick Hill Meserve. Their house in Morristown was filled with Lincoln and Civil War memorabilia."
  10. ^ From information in Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936–2007 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015.
  11. ^ "Sen. Lodge's son to wed April 23". The Lowell Sun. April 15, 1949.
  12. ^ "Philip B. Kunhardt Jr., 78, Writer and Producer of Documentaries, Is Dead". The New York Times. March 24, 2006.
  13. ^ "Magazine editor, 78, was larger than Life". The Daily Princetonian. April 24, 2006. Archived from the original on June 6, 2014.
  14. ^ "The American President — About the Series: Bios". PBS. Archived from the original on June 6, 2014.
  15. ^ "The American President". PBS. Archived from the original on June 6, 2014.
  16. ^ "Memorials – Philip B. Kunhardt Jr. '50". Princeton Alumni Weekly. July 19, 2006. Archived from the original on June 7, 2014.
  17. ^ "Marriages". The College News. 39 (2). Bryn Mawr College: 3. October 8, 1952.
  18. ^ Burke's Presidential Families of the United States of America. Arco (Burke’s Peerage Ltd). 1975. p. 116. ISBN 9780850110173.
  19. ^ "Edith Kunhardt Davis, keeper of the legacy of 'Pat the Bunny,' dies at 82". Washington Post. January 21, 2020. Archived from the original on 2020-01-22. Retrieved March 24, 2024.
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