CCBC-Net Archives
a FAVORITE??? letter?
- Contemporary messages sorted: [ by date ] [ by subject ] [ by author ]
From: Linda Mundt <lemundt>
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 1998 14:35:20 -0500
hello friends,
like many of you, i bristle at the notion of a favorite letter. i sit in my chair giggling over parts of many of them, but like megan, i laughed the longest and hardest over the badger bathrobe with three sleeves and, like megan, shared it with someone who has no interest or experience with children's literature. (can such people exist?)
i am particularly struck by a couple of things, the first being the early concern for racism. the common wisdom today among publishers is that the public doesn't give two hoots about depiction of native americans or african americans. and yes, that is a generalization and unfair to publishers and not as true today as it was even ten years ago...but i still think of pat mora and her ceaseless petitioning of publishers on behalf of latino authors, a cause that is not fully realized given that there are (or soon to be) more latino children than african american. but i digress.
i loved the letter challenging the laura ingalls wilder reference to "there were no people. only indians lived there." (pp. 53T) and another letter complaining about the paucity of negroes in HARPER publications, (pp. 1689).
what surprised me most is the references to the joseph mccarthy raids on first amendment rights. given that our beloved wisconsin senator found himself most fondly attacking media people, i'm surprised that there was such open expression of distaste for him and his lot (pp.77y) in and amongst publishing people. perhaps UN was way too busy to be political and never considered joining the communist party and so she felt free to express herself on paper. i truly don't know, but i was surprised to see the references and to learn that she was writing to numerous senators about her disdain for their pursuits. (yeah ursula!)
what other information do we have about UN's involvement with the mccarthy era and congressional attacks on publishers of children's literature?
linda mundt NOT related to the south dakota senator with that name NOT sympathetic to the mccarthy cause though i did attend high school with marilyn quayle (whose family widely distributed john birch society literature thoughout indianapolis....)
Received on Tue 18 Aug 1998 02:35:20 PM CDT
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 1998 14:35:20 -0500
hello friends,
like many of you, i bristle at the notion of a favorite letter. i sit in my chair giggling over parts of many of them, but like megan, i laughed the longest and hardest over the badger bathrobe with three sleeves and, like megan, shared it with someone who has no interest or experience with children's literature. (can such people exist?)
i am particularly struck by a couple of things, the first being the early concern for racism. the common wisdom today among publishers is that the public doesn't give two hoots about depiction of native americans or african americans. and yes, that is a generalization and unfair to publishers and not as true today as it was even ten years ago...but i still think of pat mora and her ceaseless petitioning of publishers on behalf of latino authors, a cause that is not fully realized given that there are (or soon to be) more latino children than african american. but i digress.
i loved the letter challenging the laura ingalls wilder reference to "there were no people. only indians lived there." (pp. 53T) and another letter complaining about the paucity of negroes in HARPER publications, (pp. 1689).
what surprised me most is the references to the joseph mccarthy raids on first amendment rights. given that our beloved wisconsin senator found himself most fondly attacking media people, i'm surprised that there was such open expression of distaste for him and his lot (pp.77y) in and amongst publishing people. perhaps UN was way too busy to be political and never considered joining the communist party and so she felt free to express herself on paper. i truly don't know, but i was surprised to see the references and to learn that she was writing to numerous senators about her disdain for their pursuits. (yeah ursula!)
what other information do we have about UN's involvement with the mccarthy era and congressional attacks on publishers of children's literature?
linda mundt NOT related to the south dakota senator with that name NOT sympathetic to the mccarthy cause though i did attend high school with marilyn quayle (whose family widely distributed john birch society literature thoughout indianapolis....)
Received on Tue 18 Aug 1998 02:35:20 PM CDT
