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From: LeonardSMa at aol.com <LeonardSMa>
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1998 16:15:59 EDT
UN had her eye on the future when she asked Crockett Johnson, in her Nov. 2, 1944 letter to redraw the faces in a few of the drawings for The Carrot Seed. She believed that a book that rang true in every detail would usually be recognized for what it was, and that it would go on through repeated library re-purchases, to reach generations of kids. She resisted books of primarily topical interest and message books (however worthy the message) on the assumption that such books would soon wear thin. Maybe it was her Great Depression mentality--she built to last, with as little waste as possible. In the case of a potentially controversial book such as Harriet the Spy--a book that was ahead of its time and which therefore already belonged, in a sense, to the future--the problem was to establish the book's presence, to get it launched by somehow persuading critics and others to keep an open mind about a story laced with references to cocktails (horrors!), therapy, and devious behavior. UN didn't makde a systematic study children's literature, but she was very widely read, at both the "high" and "low" (pulp) ends of what kids read and had read in her time. I'm sure she kept a secret stash of Stratemeyer-type series books, and potboilers, in her room at boarding school! She certainly was aware of Catcher in the Rye as a precursor to Harriet, and her friendship with Maurice Sendak, who did become a scholar/collector early on in his career, must have deepened her sense of history. In some of the long, retrospective letters UN wrote toward the end of her life, she shows an awareness of the extent to which Harriet, The Long Secret, The Runaway Bunny, Where the Wild Things Are, and I'll Get There. It Had Been Be Worth the Trip, among others, represented milestones in children's literature. UN lived just long enough to see children's books become a subject for study in college English departments, such as that of the University of Connecticut at Storrs, led by Francelia Butler. I was thinking the other day what a shame it was that she never received an honorary degree. One from Bryn Mawr would have been an especially nice touch. Leonard Marcus (LeonardSMa at aol.com)
Received on Thu 20 Aug 1998 03:15:59 PM CDT
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1998 16:15:59 EDT
UN had her eye on the future when she asked Crockett Johnson, in her Nov. 2, 1944 letter to redraw the faces in a few of the drawings for The Carrot Seed. She believed that a book that rang true in every detail would usually be recognized for what it was, and that it would go on through repeated library re-purchases, to reach generations of kids. She resisted books of primarily topical interest and message books (however worthy the message) on the assumption that such books would soon wear thin. Maybe it was her Great Depression mentality--she built to last, with as little waste as possible. In the case of a potentially controversial book such as Harriet the Spy--a book that was ahead of its time and which therefore already belonged, in a sense, to the future--the problem was to establish the book's presence, to get it launched by somehow persuading critics and others to keep an open mind about a story laced with references to cocktails (horrors!), therapy, and devious behavior. UN didn't makde a systematic study children's literature, but she was very widely read, at both the "high" and "low" (pulp) ends of what kids read and had read in her time. I'm sure she kept a secret stash of Stratemeyer-type series books, and potboilers, in her room at boarding school! She certainly was aware of Catcher in the Rye as a precursor to Harriet, and her friendship with Maurice Sendak, who did become a scholar/collector early on in his career, must have deepened her sense of history. In some of the long, retrospective letters UN wrote toward the end of her life, she shows an awareness of the extent to which Harriet, The Long Secret, The Runaway Bunny, Where the Wild Things Are, and I'll Get There. It Had Been Be Worth the Trip, among others, represented milestones in children's literature. UN lived just long enough to see children's books become a subject for study in college English departments, such as that of the University of Connecticut at Storrs, led by Francelia Butler. I was thinking the other day what a shame it was that she never received an honorary degree. One from Bryn Mawr would have been an especially nice touch. Leonard Marcus (LeonardSMa at aol.com)
Received on Thu 20 Aug 1998 03:15:59 PM CDT
