Jo Spier (1900-1978), whose full name is Jozeph Eduard Adolf Spier, was born in Zutphen, Holland, and educated at the Royal Academy in Amsterdam and the Academie Cormon in Paris. He illustrated many books for European publishers and worked for the Amsterdam Telegraaf, a daily newspaper, until he was mobilized as a reserve officer on the Dutch general staff in 1939. Following the German occupation of Holland in 1940, he was imprisoned several times, the last being in 1942 because a cartoon of his, appearing in the Telegraaf five years before, showed a caricature of Hitler.
After traveling throughout the Far East, with stopovers in Bali, Indonesia and New Guinea, Mr. Spier came to the United States with his family in 1951, and made his home with his three children in Port Washington, Long Island. His oldest son, Peter, was also an accomplished and popular illustrator.
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