Meggendorfer was born in Munich and studied with Strähuber, Anschütz, and W. van Dietz. He is famous as a creator of illustrated children's books with movable parts: by the time of his death he had illustrated over 100 books, some of which were also published in the U.S. (For an illustrated list of some of these, see http://www.lib.virginia.edu/exhibits/popup/meggen.html; for additional titles, see http://www.alephbet.com/meggendo.html, which advertises his books at prices ranging from Please call or email for current pricing information to Please call or email for current pricing information.) Though best known for his mechanical toy-books for children, with rotating wheels, slat-transformations, or pop-up pictures, Meggendorfer was a master illustrator who also worked on magazines, pictorial almanacs, and non-moveable picture-books. In 1886 he founded the Meggendorfer Blatter (The Meggendorfer Journal) and published his writings and often satirical illustrations there. The Munich Municipal Museum has a collection of his drawings.

Select Bibliography: Waldo Hunt and Maurice Sendak, The Genius of Lothar Meggendorfer (London: Jonathan Cape, 1985); Lothar Meggendorfer, A Doll's House: A Reproduction of the Antique 1890c. Pop-up Book (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1979); David Pelham, The Genius of Lothar Meggendorfer: A Movable Toy Book illustrations by Jim Deesing after Lothar Meggendorfer, paper engineering by Tor Lokvig: Illustrates the work of the 19th century artist considered to be the greatest innovator in the field of moving picture books (NY: Random House Inc., 1985).