Margaret Wise Brown
Page 38
9. MWB, The Important Book, illustrated by Leonard Weisgard (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1949).
10. Helen G. Trager, “Story of a Unique Publishing House,” Publishers’ Weekly (24 April 1948): 1796–1802.
11. MWB, undated memo headed “The Important Book,” HarperCollins.
12. Adelaide Dana Parker, telephone interview with author, 23 June 1985.
13. MWB to William R. Scott, 23 May 1948. Quoted in Slobodkina, Notes, 2: 491.
14. Ursula Nordstrom to MWB, 10 August 1948, HarperCollins.
15. Michael Strange, unpublished diary, 21 April 1948, 29 April 1948, Rockefeller.
16. MWB to Ursula Nordstrom, 13 August 1948, HarperCollins.
17. Ursula Nordstrom to MWB (telegram), 24 August 1948, HarperCollins.
18. J. P. Miller, interview with author, New York, N.Y., 20 January 1984.
19. Slobodkina, Notes, 2: 487. Underlying the debate over the exclusion of facial features from some types picture book art was the idea that less detailed images might prove a greater stimulus to the younger child’s imagination. The same theory lay behind the widespread use at progressive schools of largely featureless blond wood unit blocks as play materials. See The Block Book, ed. Elisabeth S. Hirsch (Washington, D.C.: National Association for the Education of Young Children, revised ed., 1984).
20. Ibid., 488.
21. Clement Hurd, 14 July 1982.
22. S. J. Johnson, review of The Runaway Bunny, Library Journal (15 April 1942): 368.
23. MWB to Clement Hurd, undated, collection of Hurd family.
24. Clement Hurd, 14 July 1982.
25. MWB, Wait Till the Moon Is Full, illustrated by Garth Williams (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1948).
26. MWB, unbound diary notes, undated (February 1949), Rockefeller.
27. Judith Thorne Stanton, interview with author, New York, N.Y., 22 December 1982.
28. Clement Hurd, “Remembering Margaret Wise Brown,” 557.
29. Clement Hurd to Ursula Nordstrom, 26 February 1949, HarperCollins.
30. Ibid.
31. Clement Hurd to Ursula Nordstrom (postcard), 25 April 1949, HarperCollins.
32. Ursula Nordstrom to Clement Hurd, 27 April 1949, HarperCollins.
33. Esphyr Slobodkina, 10 January 1983; Billy Brown, interview with author, Vinalhaven, Maine, 12 September 1983.
34. Ethel M. Scott to MWB, 23 November 1949, Scott files, HarperCollins. (This is the version of the letter actually sent. An undated preliminary draft is in the same file.)
35. MWB to Ethel M. Scott, 13 December 1949, Scott files, HarperCollins.
36. Morris L. Ernst to Michael Halperin, 23 January 1950, HarperCollins; Morris L. Ernst to Frank S. MacGregor, 23 January 1950, HarperCollins.
37. Ted Scott Peckham, 16 December 1984.
38. Ibid.
39. MWB to Michael Strange, 26 January 1950, Rockefeller.
40. MWB to Michael Strange, 1 February 1950, Rockefeller.
41. MWB to Michael Strange, undated (early February 1950), Rockefeller.
42. Michael Strange to MWB, 11 February 1950, Rockefeller.
43. MWB to Ursula Nordstrom, undated (March 1950), HarperCollins.
44. Ursula Nordstrom to MWB, 28 March 1950, HarperCollins.
45. Virginia Mathews, 18 July 1984.
46. MWB, “Brief Summary of the Theme,” typed synopsis of The Dark Wood of the Golden Birds prepared as a proposal for a ballet adaptation, Westerly.
47. MWB to Evelyn F. Burkey, undated (1950), Authors League.
48. MWB to John G. McCullough, dated August 1950, Scott files, HarperCollins.
49. MWB, Hollins Alumnae Magazine (Fall 1950): 27.
50. The Book of Knowledge (1951), 77.
51. Shaw, diary, 27 July 1950, Smithsonian.
52. MWB to Irene (a publicist for Golden Books, last name not recorded), 1 October 1950, Westerly.
53. Mrs. Hoffman Nickerson, interview with author, Locust Valley, N.Y., 9 October 1982.
CHAPTER EIGHT“The Fidget Wheels of Time”
1. Obituaries appeared on 6 November 1950 in the New York Times, the Boston Herald, and the New York Herald Tribune, among many other papers.
2. Barrymore and Frank, Too Much, Too Soon, 258–59.
3. MWB to Alvin Tresselt, undated (probably October 1952), collection of Alvin Tresselt.
4. The phrase “orange juice and crust” is from a letter from MWB to Michael Strange, undated (probably November 1947), Rockefeller.
5. Lucille Ogle, 8 September 1982.
6. The contents of Nordstrom’s letter to MWB, which is not in the Harper files, may be inferred from MWB’s response dated 16 March 1951, HarperCollins.
7. MWB to Ursula Nordstrom, 16 March 1951, HarperCollins.
8. MWB to Ursula Nordstrom, undated (marked as received 28 March 1951), HarperCollins.
9. Lucy Sprague Mitchell to MWB, 29 March 1951, Westerly.
10. MWB to Clement and Edith Thacher Hurd, undated (May 1951), Kerlan.
11. The Book of Knowledge (1952), 166.
12. Bliven, “Child’s Best Seller,” 64.
13. Burl Ives to MWB, 8 August 1951, Westerly.
14. MWB to Louise Seaman Bechtel, undated (dated by Louise Seaman Bechtel 28 July 1951), Bechtel Papers, Vassar College Library (collection hereafter cited as Vassar).
15. Ibid.
16. MWB to Clement Hurd, undated (July 1951), Kerlan.
17. Edith Thacher Hurd, interview with author, Vinalhaven, Maine, 12 September 1983.
18. MWB to Vincent Astor, 12 December 1951, MWB file, Weil, Gotshal and Manges, New York.
19. MWB to Harriet F. Pilpel, undated (probably December 1951), MWB file, Weil, Gotshal and Manges, New York.
20. Ursula Nordstrom to Louise Seaman Bechtel, 17 November 1952, Vassar.
21. MWB to Clement Hurd, undated (late fall 1951), Kerlan.
22. Sue Dickinson, “Former Virginia College Student Leads in Children’s Book Writing,” Richmond News Leader, 1 April 1952.
23. MWB, Mister Dog. Regrettably, recent editions of Mister Dog have been abridged.
24. James Stillman Rockefeller, Jr., to author, undated (postmarked 25 October 1984).
25. Ibid.
26. “The Early Milkman” draft manuscript and correspondence are in the Kerlan Collection.
27. Dorothy A. Bennett, 23 April 1984.
28. MWB to Georges Duplaix, 16 May 1952, MWB file, Weil, Gotshal and Manges.
29. MWB to Lucille Ogle (telegram), 15 May 1952, MWB file, Weil, Gotshal and Manges. (Leon Shimkin and Albert R. Leventhal were publishing associates of Duplaix.)
30. Harriet F. Pilpel to MWB, 3 June 1952, MWB file, Weil, Gotshal and Manges.
31. MWB to Harriet F. Pilpel, 19 May 1952, MWB file, Weil, Gotshal and Manges.
32. MWB to Margaret Lesser, undated (June 1952), Golden MacDonald file, Doubleday Books for Young Readers, New York.
33. MWB to William R. Scott, undated (June 1952), Scott files, HarperCollins.
34. William R. Scott to MWB, 1 July 1952, Scott files, HarperCollins.
35. MWB to Ursula Nordstrom, 23 May 1952, HarperCollins.
36. MWB to Alvin Tresselt, undated (summer 1952), collection of Alvin Tresselt.
37. MWB, “To My Executors,” memo, 28 August 1952, MWB file, Weil, Gotshal and Manges.
38. Herbert A. Wolff, Jr., to United States Coast Guard, 29 August 1952, MWB file, Weil, Gotshal and Manges.
39. R. R. Curry to Greenbaum, Wolff and Ernst, 3 September 1952, MWB file, Weil, Gotshal and Manges.
40. Shaw, diary, 18 September 1952, Smithsonian.
41. MWB to Dorothy Wagstaff Ripley, undated (September 1952), collection of Dorothy Wagstaff Ripley.
42. Luther Greene, interview with author, New York, N.Y., 10 March 1984.
43. MWB to Ursula Nordstrom, 9 November 1952. A copy of this letter was sent by Nordstrom to Louise Seaman Bechtel and is in the Bechtel Papers, Vassar.
44. MWB to Edith Thac
her Hurd (postcard), undated (October 1952), Kerlan.
45. MWB, codicil to last will and testament, 30 October 1952, MWB file, Weil, Gotshal and Manges.
46. Garth Williams, 1 March 1983.
47. James Stillman Rockefeller, Jr., to author, undated (postmarked 25 October 1984).
48. Nordstrom makes reference to this letter to MWB in a letter to Louise Seaman Bechtel, 17 November 1952, Vassar.
49. MWB to Ursula Nordstrom, 9 November 1952. Nordstrom’s copy for Bechtel is in the Bechtel Papers, Vassar.
50. MWB to Leonard Weisgard, undated (November 1952), Rockefeller.
51. MWB to Judith Thorne Stanton, undated (postmarked 12 November 1952), collection of Judith Thorne Stanton.
52. Elizabeth Lamb, interview with author, East Hampton, N.Y., 10 April 1984.
53. Shaw, diary, 14 November 1952, Smithsonian
54. Garth Williams, 1 March 1983.
55. The simple stone marker bears the following inscription:
Margaret Wise Brown Born
New York May 23, 1910
Died Nice, France Nov. 13, 1952
Beloved owner of THE ONLY HOUSE
Writer of Songs and nonsense
Dear Margaret,
You gave us all so much––
A chance to love
A place to rest
A window into living.
The lower portion of the stone is inscribed with an excerpt from The Little Island.
56. James S. Rockefeller, Jr., Man and His Island (New York: Norton, 1957), 20.
57. Lucy Sprague Mitchell, “Margaret Wise Brown: 1910–1952,” 69 Bank Street(1953): 19.
58. Shaw, diary, 102–3, Smithsonian.
59. Judith Thorne Stanton, 22 December 1982.
60. Garth Williams, 1 March 1983.
61. Dust jacket note, The Duck, by MWB, illustrated by Ylla (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1953).
62. Anne Carroll Moore, “The Three Owls’ Notebook,” Horn Book (June 1953): 192.
63. Information concerning MWB’s earnings and expenses for the last five years of her life is from the MWB file, Weil, Gotshal and Manges.
64. MWB, handwritten last will and testament, 22 December 1949, HarperCollins.
65. Sue Dickinson, Richmond News Leader, 1 April 1952.
66. MWB, Four Fur Feet, illustrated by Remy Charlip (New York: Scott, 1961).
67. These manuscripts are to be found in the MWB Collection, Westerly.
68. MWB, “The Monkey Man and his Monkey: A Television Program,” typed memo, undated, Westerly.
69. MWB, “The Unquiet Heart,” unpublished poem, undated, Westerly. The title is taken from Tennyson’s “In Memoriam. A. H. H.,” canto v:
I sometimes hold it half a sin
To put in words the grief I feel;
For words, like Nature, half reveal
And half conceal the Soul within.
But, for the unquiet heart and brain
A use in measured language lies;
The sad mechanic exercise,
Like dull narcotics, numbing pain
70. Louise Seaman Bechtel’s talk was reprinted in revised form as “Margaret Wise Brown: Laureate of the Nursery,” Horn Book (June 1958).
71. The Book of Knowledge (1951), 81.
72. Clement Hurd, “Remembering Margaret Wise Brown,” 556.
Index
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Abbot Academy, 69, 77
Addams, Jane, 46, 48
Adler, Alfred, 88
Alpert, Hollis, 132
Altman’s, 35
American Abstract Artists (AAA), 117
American Library Association (ALA), 108, 204
American Manufacturing Company, 7, 8–9
Andersen, Hans Christian, 55
Anderson, Maxwell, Joan of Lorraine, 219
Anti-Semitism, 137, 138
Armistead, George, 32, 39, 152
Art Students League, 41, 42
Astor, Vincent, 260–61
Atlantic Monthly, 10
Authors League, 182, 185, 202, 209, 223, 246
Bachelard, Gaston, 188
Bader, Barbara, 101; American Picturebooks, 1–2
Bak, Robert C., 139, 158
Baker, Augusta, 80–81, 82
Ballet Society, 245
Bank Street school, 2, 40, 42–50, 58–66, 67
Bank Street Writers Laboratory, 88, 110, 134, 169,217, 247; creation of, 79–80; and The Dark Wood of the Golden Birds, 177; manuscripts produced by, 89; meetings of, 85–87; recruit from Harlem for, 80–81, 87
Barrymore, Diana, 132, 173–74, 178, 210, 213, 214; failure of marriage of, 219; Too Much, Too Soon, 173
Barrymore, Ethel, 130–31
Barrymore, John, 91, 130–31, 132, 253, 255; marriage of, to Michael Strange, 98, 125, 130
Bechtel, Louise Seaman, 63, 106, 119, 202, 259, 289; Books in Search of Children, 67; on Clement Hurd, 93
Becker, May Lamberton, 154
Beebe, Lucius, 172
Bemelmans, Ludwig, 1; Madeline, 108
Benét, Rosemary C., 216
Bennett, Dorothy, 228, 267–69
Benton, Thomas Hart, 71
Bergman, Ingrid, 201
Biber, Barbara, 61
Black, Irma, 169
Bliven, Bruce, Jr., 84, 124, 144, 196, 203, 284; and death of MWB, 279, 281; and estate of MWB,283,285; MWB’s friendship with, 73; on New York World’s Fair, 102–4; profile on MWB in Life by, 195, 200–202
Bliven, Bruce, Sr., 70, 73
Bliven, Rosie, 70, 73, 152, 177
Bloch, Lucienne, 179
Bolotowsky, Ilya, 117
Bonino, Louise, 124
Bookman, 56, 117
Book of Knowledge, The, 12, 13, 19; MWB’s essays in, 248–49, 250, 257–59, 289–90
Bookshop for Boys and Girls (Boston), 56–57
Booth, Clare, 98
Bowen, Catherine Drinker, Yankee from Olympus, 180
Bradford, William, Homes in the Wilderness, 112–13
Brenner, Anita, The Boy Who Could Do Anything, 161
Brodovich, Alexey, 116
Brooks, Polly, 148
Brown, Benjamin Gratz, Jr. (brother), 7–16 passim; education of, 15, 24; marriage of, 106; marriage of his sister Roberta, 74; travels of, 21
Brown, B. Gratz (grandfather), 8
Brown, Billy, 193, 237, 259, 260
Brown, Lily (aunt), 8, 9
Brown, Margaretta (aunt), 8, 9
Brown, Margaret Wise: at Bank Street school, 42–50, 54, 58–66, 67, 84, 168; and Bank Street Writers Laboratory, 79–81, 85–90; birth of, 7; characterized, 3–4, 5, 14; childhood of, 6–17, 19–20; death of, 4–5, 279–82; education of, 2, 15, 20, 21, 22–32, 33, 37–38; estate of, 283–84, 285; relationships of, 32, 39,77,98, 114, 136, 147–48, 152, 168, 264–65, 270–79 passim (see also Rockefeller, James Stillman, Jr.; Strange, Michael); surgery of, 275–79; travels of, 20–21, 83–84, 206–8, 232, 233,234,235,240–44,274
WORKS: Animals, Plants and Machines, 179; Another Here and Now Story Book, 67–69, 75, 76, 77–79, 88, 102, 142; Baby Animals, 153; Big Dog Little Dog, 246; Big Fur Secret, 179; Black and White, 179; “The Bomb Proof Bunnies,” 176; Brer Rabbit Stories, 81–82, 141, 143, 144,. 153; Bumble Bugs and Elephants, 92–94, 95, 102, 168, 249; “The Cardboard Egg,” 287; A Child’s Good Night Book, 161–62, 199, 249; The Color Kittens, 275, 286; The Comical Tragedy or Tragical Comedy of Punch & Judy, 140, 144; The Country Noisy Book, 140,251; The Dark Wood of the Golden Birds, 177, 192–93, 218, 244–46, 288; “The Dead Bird,” 17; “Discovery,” 17–18; The Duck, 282; “The Early Milk man,” 266, 286; “The Earth Will Have Us,” 143; Farm and City, 179; “The Fathers Are Coming Home,” 241; “Fifteen Bathtubs,” 69; The First Story, 180, 217–18; The Fish with the Deep Sea Smile, 76, 82, 142; Five Little Firemen, see Sage, Juniper; Four
Fur Feet, 285–86; The Golden Sleepy Book, 20; Goodnight Moon, 1, 3, 4, 12, 68, 184–85, 187, 188–90, 196, 203, 208, 215–16, 217, 219, 230, 231, 236, 243, 259, 264; “The Green Wind,” 286; “Here Comes the Sun: A Weather Book,” 286; “A Horse of Course,” 287; Horses, see Hay, Timothy; “The House of a Hundred Children,” 286; The House of a Hundred Windows, 180–81, 286, 287; “How Now Owi?. . .” 287; The Important Book, 222, 223–26, 233, 237, 250; “In Ten Years,” 38–39; “The Life of the Dream,” 288; The Little Brass Band, 209, 240; The Little Cowboy, 96; The Little Farmer, 96, 228–29; “Little Fat Cat Book,” 255–56; The Little Fireman, 95–96, 102, 128, 168, 222–23, 229; The Little Fir Tree, 20; The Little Fisherman, 198, 229; Little Frightened Tiger, 270; Little Fur Family, 18, 185, 194–95, 196, 199,201,219,241, 249, 256, 285; “The Little Golden Tugboat Book,” 286; “The Little Iceberg,” 286; Little Indian, 246; The Little Island, 147, 165, 190–91,193, 201, 204, 205, 263; “The Little River,” 286; “The Little Wind,” 286; The Log of Christopher Columbus, 101–2, 270; “Luncheon,” 128–29; The Man in the Manhole and the Fix–It Men, see Sage, Juniper; “The Meeting,” 35; Mister Dog; The Dog Who Belonged to Himself, 263–64, 274–75; “The Monkey Man and His Monkey,” 288; My World, 216, 235–36; “New York: The Melting Pot of Good Cuisine,” 120–21; Night and Day, 154–55; The Noisy Book, 73, 110–12, 119–20,144,151, 168, 210, 224; The Noon Balloon, 172; “North South East West,” 287; “The Number Bears,” 286; “Oh Gentle Jew,” 137–38; “One Eye Open,” 221; Pantaloons, 135; The Polite Penguin, 143, 153; The Poodle and the Sheep, 142–43, 153; “The Potato: A Root,” 286; Quiet Noisy Book, 237; Red Light Green Light, see MacDonald, Golden; “Rich Man, Poor Man, Beggar Man, Thief,” 286; “The Ridiculous Noisy Book,” 226, 237; “Room and a River,” 170; The Runaway Bunny, 19, 149–51, 153–54, 156, 184, 187, 190, 197, 229, 230, 231, 243, 249, 258; “Running/Running to Hounds,” 36; The Sailor Dog, 284–85; “The Scent,” 126–28; The Seashore Noisy Book, 143, 153 SHHhhhh. . .BANG, 148, 151; “Singing Stories,” 287; The Sleepy Little Lion, 217, 265; “The Smelly Noisy Book,” 286; The Streamlined Pig, 106; The Summer Noisy Book, 255; They All Saw It, 179, 217; Three Little Animals, 285; “The Town that Climbs a Hill,” 287; The Train from Timbuctoo, 246; Two Little Miners, 217; Two Little Trains, 246, 247, 258, 263, 288; “The Unquiet Heart,” 288; Wait Till the Moon Is Full, 229–31, 235, 263, 287; “War in the Woods,” 176, 193; Wheel on the Chimney, 285; When the Wind Blew, 31, 75, 84, 99, 249; “The Wild Whistling Swan,” 212; Willie’s Walk to Grandmama, 179; Young Animals, 143; “The Youngest Singing Stories,” 287