The MADELINE official website sums up Bemelman thus, "Ludwig Bemelmans was born on April 27, 1898 and died on October 1, 1962. He was an essayist, humorist, novelist, artist and an author of books for children.He was born in the Austrian Tyrol and moved to the United States in 1914. When he arrived in the United States he worked in the hotel industry. But when the United States entered World War I, Bemelmans enlisted in the United States Army. He became a United States citizen in 1918, and after the war he returned to the hotel business.

Although Bemelmans had a huge interest in art, and took art lessons when he was young, he never intended to be a writer. In fact, he became a restaurateur and an accomplished artist before penning any books.

It wasn't until 1934 that he turned to writing!

It was at the suggestion of May Massee, a children's book editor for Viking Press, that Bemelmans wrote his first children's book, Hansi. Hansi was the first of Bemelmans' fifteen children's books. It was very well received by most reviewers. But it was Madeline, which brought Bemelmans his greatest success.

From the time of his marriage to Madeline Freund in 1935 (they had one daughter, Barbara...whom the Madeline character is modeled after) until his death in New York of pancreatic cancer, Bemelmans wrote approximately one or two books a year.

Besides children's books, Bemelmans wrote adult books and was a contributor to Vogue, Town and Country, The New Yorker, Fortune, Harper's Bazaar, McCall's, Holiday, and StageTown and Country, and Horizon.

Bemelmans also did many cover illustrations for The New Yorker, he designed a set for a Broadway show and did several projects in Hollywood. And he painted murals at New York's Carlyle Hotel ... "