11 Facts About Richard Erdoes

Richard Erdoes was an American artist, photographer, illustrator and author.

Richard Erdoes was a student at the Berlin Academy of Art in 1933, when Adolf Hitler came to power.

Richard Erdoes was involved in a small underground paper where he published anti-Hitler political cartoons which attracted the attention of the Nazi regime.

Richard Erdoes fled Germany with a price on his head.

Richard Erdoes wrote and illustrated children's books and worked as a caricaturist for Tag and Stunde, anti-Nazi newspapers.

In New York City, Richard Erdoes enjoyed a long career as a commercial artist, and was known for his highly detailed, whimsical drawings.

Richard Erdoes was fascinated by Native American culture, outraged at the conditions on the reservation and deeply moved by the Civil Rights Movement that was raging at the time.

Richard Erdoes wrote histories, collections of Native American stories and myths, and wrote about such voices of the Native American Renaissance as Leonard and Mary Crow Dog and John Fire Lame Deer.

The Richard Erdoes' New York City apartment was a well known hub of the American Indian Movement in the early 1970s and he became involved in the legal defense of several AIM members.

In 1975 the family moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico where Richard Erdoes continued to write and remained active in the movement for Native American civil rights.

Richard Erdoes's papers are preserved at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University.