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[CCBC-Net] Minders of Make Believe
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From: Connie Rockman <connie.rock>
Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2008 10:58:17 -0400
On Jul 21, 2008, at 11:41 PM, Norma Jean Sawicki wrote:
> One of the pleasures in reading Minders is that
> it is a story but a story based on fact...not gossip or innuendo.
>
So true! Leonard Marcus has given us all a remarkable gift by gathering this information into one book, a book that should be required reading for anyone involved with children's literature, past, present, or future. To set the history of children's publishing and children's librarianship side by side within the context of social history - and to do it with wit and sparkle as well as impeccable research - what an accomplishment! Even the footnotes make for fascinating reading (did you all catch the fact that the man who designed May Massee's office at Viking also designed the Oval Office in the White House in 1933 - don't miss those footnotes!)
My question to you, Leonard (and I'm sure this has been addressed elsewhere in other contexts) is about the research method itself. So much of your research on the early days of children's publishing is based on letters. "Dear Genius," of course, and the wonderful correspondences that you cite in "Minders" of Bechtel, Massee, and others. How did your research change as you got into the later years of the 20th century? What is taking the place of the elegant correspondence of those earlier years? The Internet provides us with an amazing array of virtual libraries and digitized records, but is something being lost in the shorthand and ephemeral nature of email? Will public blogs take the place of private diaries? Is email as intimate as a letter penned and mailed and intended for one person's eyes only? How will the methods of communication today affect the research methods of tomorrow?
Connie Rockman
PS - And for anyone interested - this is my 'take' on the L'Engle thread: Can we all agree that, in spite of standards and criteria of selection, our individual response to a work of literature is, ultimately, a subjective one. And in our field, that response is complicated by the fact that the "Minders" - whether they be editors, librarians, booksellers, or parents - are no longer at the age of first-response, that visceral place where certain books take a direct route to your soul.
I had my own response to A Wrinkle in Time when I read it as an adult, but my daughter, who read it when she was 12, still (now at age 40) talks about the effect that book first had on her - the feeling that she was Meg, and that Meg's character flaws were hers, and when those very traits made it possible for Meg to overcome evil, perhaps there was hope for the angry, worried, confused 12-year-old sharing the journey with her. Never mind any allegories or overtones that adults might read into the story - that bonding of a reader with a character with whom he/she can share a bit of spiritual/emotional growth, that's why we read. That experience happens for all of us with different books, and different types of books, and who are the "Minders" to question the response, once the book is out there in the world.
Received on Tue 22 Jul 2008 09:58:17 AM CDT
Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2008 10:58:17 -0400
On Jul 21, 2008, at 11:41 PM, Norma Jean Sawicki wrote:
> One of the pleasures in reading Minders is that
> it is a story but a story based on fact...not gossip or innuendo.
>
So true! Leonard Marcus has given us all a remarkable gift by gathering this information into one book, a book that should be required reading for anyone involved with children's literature, past, present, or future. To set the history of children's publishing and children's librarianship side by side within the context of social history - and to do it with wit and sparkle as well as impeccable research - what an accomplishment! Even the footnotes make for fascinating reading (did you all catch the fact that the man who designed May Massee's office at Viking also designed the Oval Office in the White House in 1933 - don't miss those footnotes!)
My question to you, Leonard (and I'm sure this has been addressed elsewhere in other contexts) is about the research method itself. So much of your research on the early days of children's publishing is based on letters. "Dear Genius," of course, and the wonderful correspondences that you cite in "Minders" of Bechtel, Massee, and others. How did your research change as you got into the later years of the 20th century? What is taking the place of the elegant correspondence of those earlier years? The Internet provides us with an amazing array of virtual libraries and digitized records, but is something being lost in the shorthand and ephemeral nature of email? Will public blogs take the place of private diaries? Is email as intimate as a letter penned and mailed and intended for one person's eyes only? How will the methods of communication today affect the research methods of tomorrow?
Connie Rockman
PS - And for anyone interested - this is my 'take' on the L'Engle thread: Can we all agree that, in spite of standards and criteria of selection, our individual response to a work of literature is, ultimately, a subjective one. And in our field, that response is complicated by the fact that the "Minders" - whether they be editors, librarians, booksellers, or parents - are no longer at the age of first-response, that visceral place where certain books take a direct route to your soul.
I had my own response to A Wrinkle in Time when I read it as an adult, but my daughter, who read it when she was 12, still (now at age 40) talks about the effect that book first had on her - the feeling that she was Meg, and that Meg's character flaws were hers, and when those very traits made it possible for Meg to overcome evil, perhaps there was hope for the angry, worried, confused 12-year-old sharing the journey with her. Never mind any allegories or overtones that adults might read into the story - that bonding of a reader with a character with whom he/she can share a bit of spiritual/emotional growth, that's why we read. That experience happens for all of us with different books, and different types of books, and who are the "Minders" to question the response, once the book is out there in the world.
Received on Tue 22 Jul 2008 09:58:17 AM CDT
