Eric Carle Eric Carle Eric Carle (born June 25, 1929) is an American designer, illustrator, and writer of children's books. He is most noted for "The Very Hungry Caterpillar", a picture book that has been translated into more than 65 languages and sold more than 46 million copies, which is equivalent to 1.7 copies sold every minute since it was published. Since it was published in 1969 he has illustrated more than 70 books, most of which he also wrote, and more than 145 million copies of his books have been sold around the world. In 2003, the American Library Association awarded
Eric, or, Little by Little book is credited with helping to increase the popularity of the first name "Eric" in English-speaking countries — although not with Eric Arthur Blair (the writer and journalist George Orwell) who disliked his given name because of its association with Farrar's book. In later years, it fell out of favour, in part because of its religious earnestness. For example, in Rudyard Kipling's "Stalky & Co.", published late in 1899, the protagonist Beetle and his friends frequently made fun of "Eric", e.g. E. Nesbit included it in a list of didactic children's books which were "impossible to read." Eric, or, Little