Happy 90th, Doris Orgel! (Austrian-born writer/translator, "The Princess & the God" 1996)

[leno...@yahoo.com]

Aka Suzanne Altman & Doris Adelberg.

Born in Vienna, her family fled to Yugoslavia and then to the U.S.,
staying briefly in Missouri in 1941. She lives in NYC.

Best known for "The Devil in Vienna," 1978. It was filmed for Disney
TV in 1988 as "A Friendship in Vienna," starring Jane Alexander and Ed
Asner.

From "Contemporary Authors Online":

As the persecution worsened, many Jewish parents sent their children
abroad to what they thought were safe havens. But Orgel's parents
resolved to keep their family together, come what may. In the summer
of 1938, thanks to a ruse, great courage, and good luck, they managed
to gain entrance to what was Yugoslavia. "The older I grow," she
remarked in SAAS, "the more acutely I am aware of the enormous risk
this entailed. I now acknowledge what as an adolescent and young adult
I went to great lengths to keep secret from myself: That we got out by
a hair's breadth. That we easily might not have."

They stayed in Yugoslavia until the following spring. Orgel attended
school in Zagreb, a bewildering experience because everybody spoke
Croatian, "of which I couldn't understand a word," she told CA. In
April, 1939, they traveled by train and boat to England. For a while,
they lived in London, then in the country. "I loved it there," the
author said. "I knew enough English to do well at school, make
friends, and thrill to a whole new world of reading: Charles
Kingsley's Water Babies, George Macdonald's The Princess and the
Goblin, Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, Anna Sewell's Black
Beauty, and Shakespeare's Julius Caesar and A Midsummer Night's
Dream."

https://www.encyclopedia.com/children/scholarly-magazines/orgel-doris-1929-doris-adelberg-suzanne-altman-joint-pseudonym
(long bio & booklist)

"...In Merry, Rose, and Christmas-Tree June, illustrated by
Edward Gorey, Jane goes to visit her great aunt and misses her beloved
dolls Merry and Rose. Given the chance to select any doll at a doll
shop, Jane chooses an old doll that was first put up for sale several
Christmases ago. The shop owner tells Jane that the newer dolls can do
mechanical things, such as walk a few steps or cry a few tears. Even
so, Jane chooses the old doll who cannot do any mechanical things but
can dance and sing and eat and play and do everything Jane wants her to
—via pretend, as all well-loved dolls can do. According to a reviewer
in the Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, Orgel 'strikes a
blow for imaginative play.'...

"...Another book based on Orgel's experiences recalls her life
in Nazi Austria. Inge, the narrator and protagonist of The Devil in
Vienna, is a combination of Orgel and her older sister. The book is
written in the form of entries in a young girl's diary. Inge begins
her story in 1938 when Hitler and his troops arrived in Austria and
the Jews there faced degradation and persecution. Inge has one non-
Jewish person she can count on—Lieselotte, her best friend. Although
Lieselotte's father is a Nazi, she remains loyal to Inge. The girls
maintain their friendship after their parents forbid them to meet,
after Inge is sent to a school for Jews, and even after Lieselotte
moves to Germany. When Inge's family confronts overwhelming
bureaucratic obstacles to leaving the country, it is Lieselotte's
uncle, a Catholic priest, who plays a crucial part in helping them
escape."

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=%22doris%20orgel%22&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi
(covers & photos)

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0649781/maindetails
(brief filmography)

http://www.123helpme.com/preview.asp?id=45119
(beginning of a review of "The Devil in Vienna")

https://www.google.com/search?ei=CEFnXO-FC8Sf_Qb0poHoDA&q=doris+orgel+kirkus&oq=doris+orgel+kirkus&gs_l=psy-ab.3..33i160l2.8453.9569..9780...0.0..0.152.672.5j2......0....1..gws-wiz.......0j0i22i30j33i299.y4hK_CaTKZA
(Kirkus reviews)

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/158096.Doris_Orgel
(reader reviews)

http://digital.cjh.org/R/NKRLS81T19ARH9HF7576A9MB5SF3L2PQ5576247BRNC5IR5LQ2-00564?func=dbin-jump-full&object%5Fid=1247289&local%5Fbase=GEN01&pds_handle=GUEST
(link to interview?)

https://www.univie.ac.at/biografiA/daten/text/bio/orgel.htm
(bio in German)


Stories she's retold include:

Clemens Brentano, Schoolmaster Whackwell's Wonderful Sons: A Fairy
Tale, illustrated by Maurice Sendak, Random House (New York, NY),
1962.

Richard Wagner, The Story of Lohengrin, the Knight of the Swan,
illustrated by Herbert Danska, Putnam (New York, NY), 1966.

E. T. A. Hoffman, The Child from Far Away, illustrated by Michael
Eagle, Addison-Wesley (Boston, MA), 1971.

Rudolf E. Raspe, Baron Munchausen: Fifteen Truly Tall Tales,
illustrated by Willi Baum, Addison-Wesley (Boston, MA), 1971.

Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Godfather Cat and Mousie, illustrated by Ann
Schweninger, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1986.

Ariadne, Awake!, illustrated by Barry Moser, Viking (New York, NY),
1994.

The Bremen Town Musicians and Other Animal Tales from Grimm,
illustrated by Bert Kitchen, Roaring Brook Press (Brookfield, CT), in
press.

Clemens Brentano's The Tale of Gockel, Hinkel, and Gackeliah,
illustrated by Maurice Sendak, 1961.


Lenona.