The ending, as the kitten turns into the most beautiful cat in the world through loving care, is shown primarily through Gag’s soft, round illustrations, lively with humor. The cats fight over who is the prettiest, and when they are done, only one very ugly kitten is left. When he brings these hundreds of cats back home, he and the old woman have to choose just one. Of course, when the old man tries to choose among them, he ends up liking them all, for each one is as pretty as the next. Hundreds of cats, Thousands of cats, Millions and billions and trillions of cats.” So the old man trudges over hills and valleys until “he came to a hill which was quite covered with cats.” And with this, Gág introduces the silly, lyrical lines that have delighted children for more than sixty years: “Cats here, cats there, Cats and kittens everywhere. The simple story, with its roots grounded in folklore, tells of a lonely old man and a lonely old woman who just want a kitten to love. Evans says, “When we had in the office the marvelous manuscript of Millions of Cats, I hugged myself, as children all over the country have been doing ever since.” Out of that meeting came the classic favorite: Millions of Cats (1928). She knew the art of Wanda Gág- Gág’s pictures, she recollects, were “beautiful, and very simple, and full of the wonder of common things.” So Evans made an appointment to meet her at the Weyhe Gallery in New York, where Gag was having a one-woman show. Ernestine Evans, editor for a new publisher, was determined to make children’s books using the best fine-art artists in America. American author and illustrator, 1893-1946.
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