Mordicai Gerstein (1935-2019) was born in Los Angeles into a creative family and grew up drawing from an early age. He studied at the Chouinard Art Institute, where he received traditional artistic training that later shaped his work both in books and in animation.
In the beginning of his career, Gerstein worked in animation, creating characters and visual concepts for television commercials. His sense of movement and timing, developed during these years, later became a recognizable feature of his book illustrations.
Gerstein’s first major work in children’s publishing was as an illustrator of Elizabeth Levy’s long-running “Something Queer” mystery series. Over time he transitioned into writing and illustrating his own stories, exploring themes of imagination, myth, history, and the curiosity of everyday life. Throughout several decades he created more than forty books for children.
His best-known work is The Man Who Walked Between the Towers (2003), inspired by Philippe Petit’s high-wire walk between the Twin Towers in 1974. For this book, Gerstein received the Caldecott Medal in 2004.
In addition to books, Gerstein worked in television: during the late 1970s and early 1980s, he directed four animated holiday specials based on the Berenstain Bears. This period strengthened his interest in storytelling through motion, which continued to influence his later illustrations.
Gerstein lived and worked in Massachusetts for many years. He continued painting, writing, and illustrating until the end of his life, leaving a large and varied body of work that includes picture books, early readers, and visually rich explorations of historical events, folklore, and everyday wonder.
Amazon | Mordicai Gerstein
Published in 2003, The Man Who Walked Between the Towers tells the story of Philippe Petit, a French street performer who walked a high wire between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in 1974. Gerstein captures both the daring of the feat and the poetry of the moment […]
