_Miroslav Sasek

_Sasek's work is something I discovered in a thrift store while travelling in Miami last summer, and i immediately fell for it, since then i have aimed to buy the 'This is' for whatever city I am in at that time. lovely illustrations, lovely books.

_Biography

Born: 16 November 1916, Prague, Czechoslovakia
Died: 1980, Munich?, Germany
There are few other details about his personal life, other than that he was married with one son, Dusan Pedro.
Education & career

According to cover notes in Stone is Not Cold, Sasek trained as an architect in Prague because his parents didn't approve of him becoming a painter. However he studied for some time at the l'Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. He escaped from Prague in 1948 and settled in Munich (he claimed he would be happy anywhere and ended up in Munich because his wife's work was there). From 1951-57 he worked for Radio Free Europe before starting on the This Is series, with This is Paris.
Works

_Books

He produced 18 books in the This is series, as well as three other books which he wrote and illustrated: Benjamin a tisíc morskych dasu Kapitána Barnabáse (1947), Stone is Not Cold (1961) and Mike and the Modelmakers (1970). He also illustrated at least four other books: Eduard Petiska's Sedm mamlasu (1950), Willhelmina Femmster Jashimski's Letters from Pompeii (1963), Max Colpet's Zoo ist Das Leben (1974) and a 1967 pamphlet by Effie Lee Morris called See the city! A beginner's guide to San Francisco.