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Author Carle (archive picture 2009)
Photo: Richard Drew / AP
The children's author and artist Eric Carle is dead. His family confirmed that.
Carle died last Sunday in his home in Northampton, Massachusetts.
He was surrounded by family members.
Carle was 91 years old.
Carle wrote and illustrated more than 75 books during his career.
By far the best-known is »The Very Hungry Caterpillar«: Since it was first published in 1969, more than 40 million copies have been sold worldwide.
It is considered one of the most popular children's books and has been translated into around 60 languages.
Originally the story was supposed to be about a bookworm named Willi who eats his way through 26 different foods.
On the advice of his publishing colleague, however, Carle changed the story: It is now about a small, very, very hungry caterpillar that turns into a beautiful butterfly in the end.
"I remember that as a child I always had the feeling that I would never grow up and big and eloquent and intelligent," Carle told the New York Times in 1994.
»› The little caterpillar ‹is a book of hope: You too can grow and you too can grow wings."
aar / AP
