Synopses & Reviews
An animated first-time history of the visionaries editors, authors, librarians, booksellers, and others whose passion for books has transformed American childhood and American culture.
What should children read? As the preeminent children's literature authority, Leonard S. Marcus, shows incisively, that's the three-hundred-year-old question that sparked the creation of a rambunctious children's book publishing scene in Colonial times. And it's the urgent issue that went on to fuel the transformation of twentieth-century children's book publishing from a genteel backwater to big business.
Marcus delivers a provocative look at the fierce turf wars fought among pioneering editors, progressive educators, and librarians most of them women throughout the twentieth century. His story of the emergence and growth of the major publishing houses and of the distinctive literature for the young they shaped gains extraordinary depth (and occasional dish) through the author's path-finding research and in-depth interviews with dozens of editors, artists, and other key publishing figures whose careers go back to the 1930s, including Maurice Sendak, Ursula Nordstrom, Margaret K. McElderry, and Margret Rey.
From The New England Primer to The Cat in the Hat to Cormier's The Chocolate War, Marcus offers a richly informed, witty appraisal of the pivotal books that transformed children's book publishing, and brings alive the revealing synergy between books like these and the national mood of their times.
Review
"[A] tour de force of research (there are 47 pages of appended notes), insightful reportage, and critical evaluation....[I]n a word, indispensable." Booklist (Starred Review)
Review
"There is an overwhelming amount of information in this book but its inspired chronological organization saves the day. This readable and entertaining survey deserves a place on the bookshelves of all who work in the children's book field." School Library Journal
Review
"A well-documented, thorough history." Kirkus Reviews
Synopsis
Marcus offers this animated history of the visionaries editors, illustrators, and others whose books have transformed American childhood and American culture.
About the Author
Leonard S. Marcus is the children's book industry's most respected historian and critic. His many books include Margaret Wise Brown: Awakened by the Moon and Dear Genius: The Letters of Ursula Nordstrom. He is a frequent contributor to the New York Times Book Review, Washington Post Book World, Parenting magazine, the Horn Book, and Publishers Weekly.
Table of Contents
Foreword ix 1. Providence and purpose in Colonial America and the young republic 1 2. Wonder in the wake of war: publishing for children from the gilded age to the dawn of the new century 32 3. Innocence lost and found: the 1920s 71 4. Sisters in crisis and in conflict: the 1930s 110 5. World war and mass market: the 1940s 142 6. Fun and fear: the 1950s 183 7. Shaken and stirred: the 1960s 218 8. Change and more change: the 1970s 249 9. Suits and wizards at the millenniums gate 280 Acknowledgments 319 Notes 322 Index 370