Kurt Maschler Award

The Kurt Maschler Award (1982 to 1999) was a British literary award which annually recognised one "work of imagination for children, in which text and illustration are integrated so that each enhances and balances the other." Winning authors and illustrators received £1000 and a bronze figurine called the "Emil". The Award was founded by Kurt Maschler, best known as the publisher of Emil and the Detectives by Erich Kästner (1929). By the time of its discontinuation after the 1999 publications, it was administered by BookTrust and Tom Maschler, a British publisher and the son of the founder. At that time, it was announced in December of the publication year.

Winners

Seven of the 18 winning works were written and illustrated by one person, including two by Anthony Browne. As an illustrator, Browne won three awards (but five Emils overall), and Helen Oxenbury won two. Each won for work on an edition of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (1865). Browne and Carroll were the only authors of two winning works.

+ Winners of the Kurt Maschler Award Year Author Illustrator Title Publisher 1982 Angela Carter (ed. and translator) Michael Foreman Sleeping Beauty and other favourite fairy tales V. Gollancz 1983 Anthony Browne Browne Gorilla Julia MacRae 1984 John Burningham Burningham Granpa J. Cape 1985 Ted Hughes (1968) Andrew Davidson The Iron Man Faber 1986 Allan Ahlberg Janet Ahlberg The Jolly Postman Heinemann 1987 Charles Causley Charles Keeping Jack the Treacle Eater Macmillan 1988 Lewis Carroll (1865) Anthony Browne Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Julia MacRae 1989 Martin Waddell Barbara Firth The Park in the Dark Walker 1990 Quentin Blake Blake All Join In J. Cape 1991 Colin McNaughton McNaughton Have You Seen who's just moved in next door to us? Walker 1992 Raymond Briggs Briggs The Man Julia MacRae 1993 Karen Wallace Mike Bostock Think of an Eel Walker 1994 Trish Cooke Helen Oxenbury So Much Walker 1995 Kathy Henderson Patrick Benson The Little Boat Walker 1996 Babette Cole Cole Drop Dead J. Cape 1997 William Mayne Jonathan Heale Lady Muck Heinemann 1998 Anthony Browne Browne Voices in the Park Doubleday 1999 Lewis Carroll (1865) Helen Oxenbury Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Walker

The first two Kurt Maschler Award winners and the final winner also received the annual Kate Greenaway Medal from the CILIP, which recognises the year's best children's book illustration by a British subject. Among these, the 1983 winner, Gorilla, illustrated by Anthony Browne, and the 1999 winner, Helen Oxenbury's edition of Alice in Wonderland, were named two of the top ten Greenaway-winning works (1955–2005) during that Medal's 50-year celebration in 2007. Three other Maschler winners were highly commended runners-up for the Greenaway Medal, a distinction awarded roughly annually at the time: Browne's edition of Alice, Oxenbury for So Much, and Patrick Benson for The Little Boat.

Kurt Maschler Award

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