Waldo Hunt, King of the Pop-Up Books, Dead at 88

Waldo Hunt, affectionately known as the "King of the Pop-Up Book", died November 6th at the ripe old age of 88 in Porterville, California. Mr. Hunt lived in Springfield, California. The former advertising man was considered to have been almost solely responsible for the resurgence of pop-up books after World War II.

The earliest 'moveable' books were actually produced prior to the invention of the printing press. The earliest recorded examples are by a Catalan mystic and poet named Raman Llull, who died in 1316. These early examples of moveable discs were used to illustrate his "search" for the truth. By cutting out these circles with different numbers and letters, the person using the book was to line up different discs and gain knowledge. Other uses of early 16^th century "lift the flap" style creations including detailed anatomy studies, whereby the pages were peeled off revealing the multiple layers of the abdomen.

While most people today think of pop-up books as being for children, it wasn't until the 18^th century that this genre was created for a children's market. In fact, few children's books of any kind were published until the last half of the 18^th century. One remarkable entry into the children's moveable book market was designed by a London printer named Robert Sayer. In 1765 he developed a 'lift the flap' style book. Two engraved scenes were layered on each other. By a rather complicated set of cuts, multiple scenes could be made.

During the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, most of the finer children's books were made in Germany for English publishing houses. This collaboration came to an end with the outset of World War I, and effectively stopped the production of pop-up, moveable books until Mr. Hunt emerged onto the scene.

Waldo "Wally" Hunt sold his advertising agency in the mid-1950's and by the early 1960's had started a new company, Graphics International. He started by producing pop-up advertising inserts for magazines, including the famous Wrigley Zoo, a series of menageries advertising the chewing gum. Once Hunt was able to overcome high production costs and bias against the genre by most publishing houses, success soon followed.

Hunt was able to overcome both obstacles, and eventually sold his Graphics International to Hallmark. He then started Intervisual Books. Hunt put together a world class staff including artists, designers, and paper engineers. This successful enterprise was sold to Dalamation Press, a well known children's book publisher.

Many of Hunt's books were honored with prestigious awards. One example was author Jan Pienkowski's "Haunted House" (Heinemann, 1979), which won the Kate Greenaway Medal, a British prize for illustrations in a chilldren's book. That a pop-up book received this award was very rare.

Sources:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/26/arts/26hunt.html?_r=1&ref=books

http://www.library.unt.edu/rarebooks/exhibits/popup2/introduction.htm