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Dear Genius
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From: Dr. Ruth I. Gordon <Druthgo>
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1998 19:36:30 -0700
Dear CCBC'ers: I think I'm just in under the wire about Leonard Marcus brilliant editing and selection of Ursula Nordstrom's letters. I've been picking over the book for about ten months (Bill Morris was kind enough to provide bound galley copy). I read it as I read a dictionary: look up one item and find myself chasing several others. Agreed--as I am sure we all are--that Marcus' work is absolutely prime. Agreed, as I am sure we all are, that U.N. was a great editor and TRAINER of great editors. Having been edited by two of U.N.'s "trainees" and having edited books myself, I know the influence she has had on many. She gave us a gift--and Marcus allowed us to peek into that gift--of, to use an quite old fashioned word,
"cozzening", encouraging, and assisting "her" authors and the people with whom she worked at Harper's.
Others have indicated favorite letters. My own is a sentence on p. 157, in a letter she wrote to Sendak in January 1963. She writes him: "We have never published junk just to cash in on quick sales, and we certainly don't propose to do so now." How very sad she would be (as would be people she trained as editors) to know that the week I finished reading the bound book, an adaptation of Burnett's "The Secret Garden" arrived in this place--with really wretched "art" by a fellow Californian, Mary Collier, and a reduction of the original story to a few sentences. The title page states that "The Secret Garden" [is? was?] "Adapted from the original novel by FRANCES HODGSON BURNETT". This might give a less careful reader than thee and me the notion that Burnett did the adaptation (and severe surgery). Small print on t.p., indicates that some hired butcher named Alix Reed did the adaptation of the text. Alas, I do not believe in burning books, but....
I wonder what (a) Nordstrom might say and (b) what has happened to Harper's and too many other houses that they allow this sort of crappola to be put forth under their house names. Shame, shame, shame. And Harper's is only one of the many houses that allows the effluvia of bottom lines to control their once-good names.
Obviously I write this in some anger--and feel distressed for the good and tough ghost of U.N. and her "children"-?itors who succeeded her when I see such ....I cannot possibly use the word I want here...stuff that is direct from colonic refuse.
None of the above, of course, should in any way take away from the great work Marcus did with "Dear Genius." The book should be required reading for anyone involved in books for children--and that also means Mr. Murdoch might read it as should other billionaires who now control publishing.
Hmmmmph.
Grandma
(who has been edited and who edits)
================="You may not be able to change the world, but at least you can embarrass the guilty." Jessica Mitford (191796)
Received on Mon 31 Aug 1998 09:36:30 PM CDT
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1998 19:36:30 -0700
Dear CCBC'ers: I think I'm just in under the wire about Leonard Marcus brilliant editing and selection of Ursula Nordstrom's letters. I've been picking over the book for about ten months (Bill Morris was kind enough to provide bound galley copy). I read it as I read a dictionary: look up one item and find myself chasing several others. Agreed--as I am sure we all are--that Marcus' work is absolutely prime. Agreed, as I am sure we all are, that U.N. was a great editor and TRAINER of great editors. Having been edited by two of U.N.'s "trainees" and having edited books myself, I know the influence she has had on many. She gave us a gift--and Marcus allowed us to peek into that gift--of, to use an quite old fashioned word,
"cozzening", encouraging, and assisting "her" authors and the people with whom she worked at Harper's.
Others have indicated favorite letters. My own is a sentence on p. 157, in a letter she wrote to Sendak in January 1963. She writes him: "We have never published junk just to cash in on quick sales, and we certainly don't propose to do so now." How very sad she would be (as would be people she trained as editors) to know that the week I finished reading the bound book, an adaptation of Burnett's "The Secret Garden" arrived in this place--with really wretched "art" by a fellow Californian, Mary Collier, and a reduction of the original story to a few sentences. The title page states that "The Secret Garden" [is? was?] "Adapted from the original novel by FRANCES HODGSON BURNETT". This might give a less careful reader than thee and me the notion that Burnett did the adaptation (and severe surgery). Small print on t.p., indicates that some hired butcher named Alix Reed did the adaptation of the text. Alas, I do not believe in burning books, but....
I wonder what (a) Nordstrom might say and (b) what has happened to Harper's and too many other houses that they allow this sort of crappola to be put forth under their house names. Shame, shame, shame. And Harper's is only one of the many houses that allows the effluvia of bottom lines to control their once-good names.
Obviously I write this in some anger--and feel distressed for the good and tough ghost of U.N. and her "children"-?itors who succeeded her when I see such ....I cannot possibly use the word I want here...stuff that is direct from colonic refuse.
None of the above, of course, should in any way take away from the great work Marcus did with "Dear Genius." The book should be required reading for anyone involved in books for children--and that also means Mr. Murdoch might read it as should other billionaires who now control publishing.
Hmmmmph.
Grandma
(who has been edited and who edits)
================="You may not be able to change the world, but at least you can embarrass the guilty." Jessica Mitford (191796)
Received on Mon 31 Aug 1998 09:36:30 PM CDT
