CCBC-Net Archives
[CCBC-Net] MINDERS OF MAKE-BELIEVE
- Contemporary messages sorted: [ by date ] [ by subject ] [ by author ]
From: leonardsma at aol.com <leonardsma>
Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2008 17:00:40 -0400
I'm glad you asked. Elizabeth Riley is one of those who is no longer alive. She started at T.Y. Crowell in 1938, founded the company's children's book division, and during the post-war years launched the "Let's Read and Find Out" series of science books for young readers. That series was extremely popular and probably inspired more than a few children of the time to choose a career in science. It's not quite as well known to people with an interest in children's book history as say the I Can Read series published by Harper starting at about the same time because, I think, nonfiction books generally haven't had quite the same cache and recognition as storybooks. But that series, which was edited by Franklyn Branley (of the Hayden Planetarium in NYC), was hugely important. "Miss Riley," as people still refer to her, was an amazing woman. She published her first book about rocketry years BEFORE Sputnik. And well before Ezra Jack Keats and The Snowy Day, she made a point of inte
grating the casts of characters in the illustrations of Crowell books.
I spoke with Margret Rey when she was 90 at her home in Cambridge, MA, where she had a card table set up with all the Curious George product prototypes that people would send her for her consideration. She had always been known as a tough negotiator, and was still very keen on protecting the integrity of the Reys' best known character. I loved a good debate and I remember it took us a while even to agree on which outlet to plug in my tape recorder. She had a tart sense of humor and the same blunt manner that Ursula Nordstrom, in letters to her years before, had teased her about. She told me that she had once asked the couple's editor at Houghton Mifflin why they couldn't receive their royalties daily rather than twice a year, as was (and is) the norm. Before the time when most authors and illustrators had representation by agents, she was an example of a wife and collaborator who did conbributed further by also serving as her husband's business manager. (Another example of th
is is Katharine White, who produced a massive correspondence to Ursula Nordstrom and others at Harper about EB White's contracts.)
I had interviewed Ursula Nordstrom for my biography of Margaret Wise Brown. By then she was living in a retirement home in Connecticut. The plan was for me to take a bus up to a nearby strip mall and be met by her and a friend. Standing next to Ursula on the sidewalk was a teenager with a boom box turned up very high. I stepped down from the bus, locked eyes with the woman I saw much be Ursula, and took in an earful of the music. The first thing she said to me was: "Want to dance?"
Leonard S. Marcus
54 Willow Street, #2A
Brooklyn, New York 11201
tel 718 596-1897
e-mail leonardsma at aol.com
web www.leonardmarcus.com
-----Original Message-----
From: fran manushkin <franm at nyc.rr.com>
To: CCBC Net <ccbc-net at ccbc.ad.education.wisc.edu>
Sent: Mon, 21 Jul 2008 3:36 pm
Subject: [CCBC-Net] MINDERS OF MAKE-BELIEVE
Leonard, I'd be interested to hear any anecdotes you may have about the people you interviewed--maybe some info that's not in your book. You seem to have talked to everyone still (alive!), and perhaps a few not, your book is so complete. Fran _______________________________________________ CCBC-Net mailing list CCBC-Net at ccbc.education.wisc.edu Visit this link to read archives or to unsubscribe... http://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/mailman/listinfo/ccbc-net
Received on Mon 21 Jul 2008 04:00:40 PM CDT
Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2008 17:00:40 -0400
I'm glad you asked. Elizabeth Riley is one of those who is no longer alive. She started at T.Y. Crowell in 1938, founded the company's children's book division, and during the post-war years launched the "Let's Read and Find Out" series of science books for young readers. That series was extremely popular and probably inspired more than a few children of the time to choose a career in science. It's not quite as well known to people with an interest in children's book history as say the I Can Read series published by Harper starting at about the same time because, I think, nonfiction books generally haven't had quite the same cache and recognition as storybooks. But that series, which was edited by Franklyn Branley (of the Hayden Planetarium in NYC), was hugely important. "Miss Riley," as people still refer to her, was an amazing woman. She published her first book about rocketry years BEFORE Sputnik. And well before Ezra Jack Keats and The Snowy Day, she made a point of inte
grating the casts of characters in the illustrations of Crowell books.
I spoke with Margret Rey when she was 90 at her home in Cambridge, MA, where she had a card table set up with all the Curious George product prototypes that people would send her for her consideration. She had always been known as a tough negotiator, and was still very keen on protecting the integrity of the Reys' best known character. I loved a good debate and I remember it took us a while even to agree on which outlet to plug in my tape recorder. She had a tart sense of humor and the same blunt manner that Ursula Nordstrom, in letters to her years before, had teased her about. She told me that she had once asked the couple's editor at Houghton Mifflin why they couldn't receive their royalties daily rather than twice a year, as was (and is) the norm. Before the time when most authors and illustrators had representation by agents, she was an example of a wife and collaborator who did conbributed further by also serving as her husband's business manager. (Another example of th
is is Katharine White, who produced a massive correspondence to Ursula Nordstrom and others at Harper about EB White's contracts.)
I had interviewed Ursula Nordstrom for my biography of Margaret Wise Brown. By then she was living in a retirement home in Connecticut. The plan was for me to take a bus up to a nearby strip mall and be met by her and a friend. Standing next to Ursula on the sidewalk was a teenager with a boom box turned up very high. I stepped down from the bus, locked eyes with the woman I saw much be Ursula, and took in an earful of the music. The first thing she said to me was: "Want to dance?"
Leonard S. Marcus
54 Willow Street, #2A
Brooklyn, New York 11201
tel 718 596-1897
e-mail leonardsma at aol.com
web www.leonardmarcus.com
-----Original Message-----
From: fran manushkin <franm at nyc.rr.com>
To: CCBC Net <ccbc-net at ccbc.ad.education.wisc.edu>
Sent: Mon, 21 Jul 2008 3:36 pm
Subject: [CCBC-Net] MINDERS OF MAKE-BELIEVE
Leonard, I'd be interested to hear any anecdotes you may have about the people you interviewed--maybe some info that's not in your book. You seem to have talked to everyone still (alive!), and perhaps a few not, your book is so complete. Fran _______________________________________________ CCBC-Net mailing list CCBC-Net at ccbc.education.wisc.edu Visit this link to read archives or to unsubscribe... http://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/mailman/listinfo/ccbc-net
Received on Mon 21 Jul 2008 04:00:40 PM CDT
