Lida (1899–1955)

Lida was the pen name of Ludmila Durdíková, born in Prague, Czechoslovakia. She was a teacher at the Institute for Disabled Children in Prague, one of Europe’s leading establishments in the field, and worked with educator František Bakulà. She became part of the generation of writers and artists who emigrated from Central and Eastern Europe and Russia to France for personal, artistic, or political reasons, and spent the rest of their lives there. She's considered one of the leading authors of children's picture books in France during the 1930s. Her two long stories about childhood disability, blindness, and other physical and motor disabilities were inspired by her experiences as a teacher. She also produced a famous cycle of illustrated books known as The Novel of the Animals, which were published under the Père Castor imprint. Illustrated in an avant-garde style, the books contained short stories about animals as metaphors for a range of traditional and non-traditional family structures.