A Promise Kept: How Wanda Gág Created Millions of Cats
In 1928, a woman who had made a promise to her dying father created a children’s book so timeless that it would remain in print for nearly a century. That book began with a simple idea—an old couple searching for a cat—and became Millions of Cats, one of the most important works in American children’s literature.
Wanda Gág grew up in New Ulm, Minnesota, the daughter of Bohemian immigrants. Her childhood unfolded inside a colorful, seven-windowed house filled with art, music, and imagination. Her father, Anton Gág, was a photographer and painter who encouraged creativity in all his children and believed that art was essential to life.
When Wanda was still young, her father became ill. As she sat beside his bed, she heard his final words in German:
“Was der Papa nicht thun konnt’, muss die Wanda halt fertig machen.”
“What father could not do, Wanda will have to finish.”
Those words became a lifelong promise.
Wanda carried that promise with her to art school and later to New York City, where she joined the bohemian artist community of Greenwich Village in the 1920s. She rejected the idea of being a “traditional” woman and chose independence instead. When her future husband proposed, she made her expectations clear: she would only marry a man who would run the household during her intense drawing periods and excuse her from scrubbing floors. He agreed, and they married without having children. Wanda’s true devotion was to her art.
She worked as an artist and lithographer, and over time a story began to take shape in her mind—a simple folk-style tale about an old man and an old woman searching for the most beautiful cat in the world. In 1928, that idea became reality when Wanda Gág wrote and illustrated Millions of Cats herself, with the hand lettering done by her brother.
The book was unlike anything that had come before. Wanda pioneered the use of sweeping double-page spreads, allowing illustrations to flow across both pages and carry the story forward. The text was rhythmic and musical, easy to remember and a joy to read aloud:
Cats here, cats there,
Cats and kittens everywhere,
Hundreds of cats,
Thousands of cats,
Millions and billions and trillions of cats.
Millions of Cats was an instant success. In 1929, it received a Newbery Honor Award, a rare recognition for a picture book at the time. Critics praised it as the first modern American picture book, and families embraced it. Parents read it to their children, who grew up and read it to their own children.
Remarkably, the book has never gone out of print—not once in more than 96 years. It remains the oldest American picture book continuously available, surviving changes in publishing, technology, and taste. More than a million copies have been sold, and generations of readers have memorized its famous refrain. In 2024, the book entered the public domain, ensuring it will be freely available for future generations.
Wanda Gág continued to create influential works, including her translation and illustrations of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, as well as The ABC Bunny and Gone Is Gone, a story inspired by her unconventional marriage. She became one of the most influential creators of children’s books in the twentieth century.
Yet everything began with one promise, one simple story, and a search for a single cat among millions. Wanda Gág kept her promise to her father. She finished what he could not—and created something that will never truly end, because great stories are passed down forever, like a beloved cat finding a new lap in every generation.
