ursula 1000
Not sure this can stand as an official review since I already returned the book to the library a few weeks ago and have forgotten the better details.
But I DID thoroughly enjoy Dear Genius: The Letters of Ursula Nordstrom. Even if I'm not sure I'm SMART enough for the book I do feel like I deserve a little certificate or rite of passage memento from the Children's Book Writers and Illustrators Coven In The Sky.
Slogging through over 400 pages of one-way letter correspondence isn't a racy night out. But Ursula, the grand dame of children's book editors, deserves everyone's attention. She's funny, articulate, and IN CHARGE. I love how she sticks up for her authors and illustrators, their books, and the children who read them. She seems like she might take over a room, but not seeing it in the flesh lessens her intensity, I'm afraid. I can only guess if she was a loud talker or spoke with her hands.
Most striking were the letters that hoped to soothe the trouble makers among her elite stable of talent and the letters that tried to suss out new stories or art from her uber-geniuses.
Do today's editors really treat their authors and illustrators like this? I have no idea. Maybe this style of editing is unique to Ursula and the people she mentored and THEIR disciples. But if this editorial style still exists, I'm going to try and find it.
The letters begin in 1937 with one to Laura Ingalls Wilder and end in 1980 with one to Barbara Dicks(correct me if I'm wrong!). Ursula died a few years later after a long battle with cancer. She spent most of adult life with her partner, Mary Griffith, and seemingly ALL of her life with the Harper's Children's Book Department.
I hoped reading this would shed a little light on illustrator gods like Maurice Sendak and Crockett Johnson. But it shed more light on little known personal traits of other creators and Ursula: the hilarious character of Shel Silverstein, the tender ego of Louise Fitzhugh, and what comprises a good editor, friend, and human.
The nicest part of the book--at least the copy I got from the library--is that somebody put gold star stickers on the inside of the back cover sort of like the trail end of some pixie dust. I think Ursula would like that.
Leonard Marcus is my kind of guy, too, having read the Margaret Wise Brown book and Ways of Telling a few years ago. Very much recommend those titles, too. Margaret died very very young of an embolism on my birthday some fifty years ago and I always wonder what else she would have come up with. Louise Fitzhugh, author of Harriet the Spy ALSO died young. I'm not sure why I'm bringing up only the morbid bits here, but I WILL be thirty in a few weeks.
Haven't read Storied City yet, but it is more of a guide book. I'll be sure to get in time for my NY trip in February!
Jaime
Comments
Jaime,
You are 20 years too young to be worrying about these sorts of things. 30 is great!
If you tell me when the big day is, I will bring you a cupcake.
And regarding how editors today relate to their authors? Sometimes it's Ursula Nordstrom and sometimes it's WalMart.
Maybe we could get editors and art directors to choose Ursula or non-Ursula editing style and have them wear crimson "U"s on their lapels if the former, and Grim Reaper outfits if the latter?