{{short description|American publisher of pop-up books}} {{Infobox person | name = Waldo Henley Hunt | image =Waldo Hunt.jpg | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = November 28, 1920 | birth_place = Chicago, Illinois, US | death_date = November 6, 2009 | death_place = Porterville, California, US | other_names = | known_for =Publisher of pop-up books | education = | employer = | occupation = | title = | height = | term = | predecessor = | successor = | party = | boards = | spouse = | partner = | children = | parents = | relatives = | signature = | website = | footnotes = }}

'''Waldo Henley Hunt''' (November 28, 1920 &ndash; November 6, 2009)<ref name=NYTObit>{{cite news|title=Waldo Hunt, King of the Pop-Up Book, Dies at 88|first=Margalit|last=Fox|date=November 26, 2009|accessdate=November 26, 2009|newspaper=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/26/arts/26hunt.html}}</ref> was a prolific producer of pop-up books, having nearly singlehandedly revived the genre in the post-war era.

==Biography== His company, Intervisual Books (also known as Intervisual Communications), created pop-up books of all varieties&mdash;from ''The Human Body'' to ''Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets''. ''Haunted House'' by Jan Pieńkowski, a pop-up book created by Hunt, won the 1980 Kate Greenaway Medal for illustration of children's books.

Born in Chicago, Hunt grew up in San Mateo, California.<ref name=LAT/> He terminated his college career at Stanford University early to serve in World War II. After his Army stint, Hunt began a career in advertising, starting his own agency.<ref name=NYTObit/>

He exited the advertising business to found a graphic design firm. At the new firm, Graphics International, he developed an interest in pop-up design, initially focused on pop-up advertisements for magazines.<ref name=NYTObit/> Ib Penick was a business partner and paper engineer at Graphics International.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Breslin|first1=Meg|title=Ib Penick, 67, Designer Of Modern Pop-up Books|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1998/04/24/ib-penick-67-designer-of-modern-pop-up-books/|access-date=13 December 2016|work=tribunedigital-chicagotribune|date=April 24, 1998}}</ref>

In a 2002 interview with the ''Los Angeles Times'', Hunt said, "I knew I'd found the magic key. No one was doing pop-ups in this country. No one could afford to make them here. They had to be done by hand, and labor was too expensive."<ref name=LAT/>

In 1965, Hunt published a book called ''Bennett Cerf's Pop-Up Riddles'', which was sold as a product promotion for $1.00 and two Maxwell House coffee labels.<ref name=WSJ>{{cite news|title=The 'King of the Pop-Ups' Made Books Spring to Life|first=Stephen|last=Miller|newspaper=The Wall Street Journal|date=November 24, 2009|accessdate=November 29, 2009|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB125902884513660749}}</ref> Cerf was the president of Random House at the time, and by 1967, Hunt had 30 pop-up books in production for Random House.<ref name=LAT/>

In the late 1960s, Hallmark bought Graphics International, and Hunt next founded Intervisual Books to produce pop-up and movable books. Hunt became known as the "King of the Pop-Ups,"<ref name=WSJ/> and was considered by many to be "the father of the modern pop-up book industry" for his work in pioneering pop-up interactive books.<ref name=PW/> His companies dominated the pop-up book business from the 1960s until the late 1990s.<ref name=PW>{{cite news|title=Obituary: Waldo Hunt |publisher=Publishers Weekly |date=November 19, 2009 |accessdate=November 29, 2009 |url=http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6707909.html |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20091122160513/http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6707909.html |archivedate=November 22, 2009 }}</ref> By 1996, Intervisual Books had published 1,000 movable books<ref name=LAT/> and pop-up advertisements.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Barmash |first=Isadore |date=1986-09-08 |title=ADVERTISING; Preparing A 'Pop-Up' For Time |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1986/09/08/business/advertising-preparing-a-pop-up-for-time.html |access-date=2025-01-04 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Among his books, Hunt's personal favorites included best-sellers, ''The Human Body'' by David Pelham, ''Haunted House'' by Jan Pieńkowski with paper engineering by Tor Lokvig, and ''How Many Bugs in a Box?'' by David A. Carter.<ref name=LAT/> In its obituary of Hunt, ''The New York Times'' wrote that Hunt was "almost single-handedly responsible" for the revival of the pop-up book in the United States and noted:<blockquote>"On the flat, foursquare pages of a printed book, Waldo H. Hunt could part the Red Sea. He could make hearts beat, lungs fill and bones rattle. He could make dinosaurs rear up, ships set sail and bats quiver in belfries."<ref name=NYTObit/></blockquote>

Cynthia Burlingham, director of the UCLA Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts at the Hammer Museum, said of Hunt, "He was such an important publisher of pop-up books who really advanced them technically. The pop-up designers who worked for him were amazing creative engineers."<ref name=LAT/>

In addition to producing pop-up works, he was a significant collector of pop-up and other movable books, amassing 4,000 antique and contemporary titles.<ref name=LAT/> Hunt's extensive collection was the basis for a 2002 exhibit, ''Pop Up! 500 Years of Movable Books'', at the Los Angeles Central Library.<ref name=NYTObit/>

Hunt lived for 30 years in Encino, Los Angeles, California.<ref name=LAT/> He retired in 2002 and moved to Springville, California.<ref name=LAT>{{cite news|first=Valerie J.|last=Nelson|title=Waldo Hunt dies at 88; entrepreneur revived the pop-up book as art form|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|date=November 22, 2009|url=http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-waldo-hunt22-2009nov22,0,4609543.story|accessdate=November 29, 2009}}</ref> He died from congestive heart failure at age 88.

==Awards== In 2000, the Movable Book Society honored Hunt with the MBS Lifetime Achievement Award.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Movable Stationery newsletter|journal=Movable Stationery|date=November 2000|volume=8|issue=4|page=19|url=http://library.si.edu/digital-library/book/movable-stationery}}</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hunt, Waldo}} Category:1920 births Category:2009 deaths Category:American publishers (people) Category:People from Porterville, California Category:Pop-up book Category:Pop-up book artists Category:People from Encino, Los Angeles Category:Mass media people from San Mateo, California