It is a great sadness that a witty and graceful prose stylist like Ludwig Bemelmans should today be remembered primarily for his children s books about Madeline. His works should be in every bookstore, somewhere near Waugh and Thurber, and studied by anyone who wants to learn how to put a sentence together without any nails.
Still, to have a degree of immortality is a blessing, and today there are little girls (and some boys) all over the world who can recite for you the opening lines of Bemelmans first book about Madeline: In an old house in Paris that was covered with vines, Lived twelve little girls in two straight lines.