What’s in a Name?

A new exhibit opened this week in the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center.  Drawn primarily from the University of Connecticut Memorabilia Collection housed in Archives & Special Collections, the exhibition highlights the variety of avenues by which the University of Connecticut has represented and identified since is establishment in 1881.  Past logos, letterhead and mascots are represented on pins, buttons, patches, clothing, documents and other materials.  Check out the Husky Hoops game or work on the UConn football puzzle.  A film series of recently digitized historic film is to be scheduled for lunch time viewing on selected Fridays throughout the summer (schedule to be announced soon).  The exhibit is open Monday through Friday from 8:30 – 4:30 in the Dodd Center Gallery through September 26, 2014. 

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Articles providing some background about the institution’s colors (and shades of colors), mascot, and memories are available online (http://www.advance.uconn.edu/uconnhistory/) and in the binder located in the Gallery.

An End and a new Beginning

Graduation marks the culmination of years of study, struggle, achievement, disappointment and celebration.  It is the end of the college years and the beginning of something exciting, new and different.  This weekend the University of Connecticut will honor thousands of students for their accomplishments in multiple ceremonies filled with tradition.

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Congratulations to the 2014 graduates of the University of Connecticut as you follow in the steps of those who have gone before.

Best wishes in your next adventure from the staff of Archives & Special Collections.

A Mouse in the Hamper: Margaret Waring Buck Papers

buckMouseOn the first page of her sketch pad, Margaret Waring Buck provides a simple explanation for the drawings that follow, “Caught wild mouse in clothes hamper in upstairs bedroom closet. Sketched it then let it go.” The ensuing series of sketches picture the mouse in a variety of moods and positions – cleaning itself, climbing the sides of the hamper, and avoiding daylight, which appeared a minor annoyance. “Active when first caught,” Buck observes, “Only annoyed by light in eyes.”

Born in New York City in 1905, Buck was a graduate of the Art Students League in New York, an art school that has been continuously operating since 1875. A resident of Mystic, CT, until her death in 1997, she wrote and illustrated books about nature for children and published the bulk of her work during the 1950s through the late 1970s.

Included in the Margaret Waring Buck Papers, housed in Archives & Special Collections, are many nature sketches like the ones of the mouse, which Buck drew from observation. When I first began looking through Buck’s published work I assumed that as a naturalist she drew at least some of her illustrations of animals from real life. Her sketches, however, shed light on just how closely Buck’s encounters with nature informed her work. Accompanying the mouse sketches are drawings of two baby opossums that visited Buck’s back porch over the course of several months. Another beautiful series of watercolor sketches feature a detailed day-by-day description of a caterpillar, caught and kept by Buck in a plastic terrarium, transforming into a butterfly. Such intimate encounters were a routine part of life for someone who was naturally curious about the intricacies of life in the natural world.

Buck sketched the mouse in December 1966. While most of the sketches are unaccompanied by notes, some include observations on the mouse’s behavior and appearance. Below a drawing that emphasizes the mouse’s long, tail, doe eyes, and whiskers, she notes, “Tail white under, whiskers long, used as antennae.”

More mouse sketches, drawn over the course of the next two months indicate that the mouse – or one of his friends – became a repeat visitor to the hamper. Buck included the precise date and time of her encounters with animals next to her drawings of them. The following timeline offers some insight into her ongoing interest in the mouse: “Jan 23 – got out; Jan 31 – caught again – in collar[?] in hamper” and then finally, “Jan 31 – Goodbye, off to woods.”

Of course, this was not her last run-in with mice. A post-script, written two years later, indicates that Buck’s clothes hamper remained a popular temporary home for the small creatures during the winter seasons. She continued using these encounters as opportunities to sketch and observe them.

Rebecca D’Angelo is a senior undergraduate student in History and Anthropology. She is a writing intern and student curator in Archives and Special Collections at the Dodd Research Center, University of Connecticut.

Sandra Horning’s Blog Post #3

Blog entry #3 – Meet William Gray

Looking through more than twenty boxes of the James Marshall Collection has made me feel close to this man I will never have the good fortune to meet. Marshall published about eighty books, many with both his illustrations and text. It is hard to imagine how much he would have produced if he had not died at the early age of 50. In fact, many days I have left the Dodd Center feeling a great sense of loss at his death. Through a friend, I was able to meet Marshall’s longtime partner, William Gray. I met William at the home he and James shared for much of Marshall’s career. For my final blog entry, I’ve included a few of William’s answers to the questions he generously and kindly provided. My thanks go out to William Gray for sharing his time and memories of James Marshall.

 

James Marshall giving a presentation (James Marshall Papers Collection File photograph, n.d.)

James Marshall giving a presentation (James Marshall Papers Collection File photograph, n.d.).  All rights reserved.  No reproduction of any kind allowed.

 

As I mentioned in my first blog, James Marshall wrote many of his books under the pseudonym Edward Marshall. William explained that Marshall wanted to work with more than one publisher. In order to not compete with his own picture books, the pseudonym was used and he wrote in a different genre, beginning readers. “They really suited his talent. I wouldn’t say they were easy to do just because they were easy to read.  It was something that just came more naturally to him, the smaller format.”

To clarify that the comments in the margins of the dummies and manuscripts are Marshall’s, I asked about the handwriting and if William knew if anyone else wrote comments on Marshall’s work. William replied that, “He [Marshall] used a Schaefer fountain pen with those plastic capsules to draw with and to write with. He had pretty distinctive handwriting, but no one came near his work.”

I went on to ask specifically about the Harry Allard and Jeffery Allen manuscripts I discussed in my second blog post. William told me that Allard and Allen were both friends of Marshall before each collaborated on books with him. “They would mail a manuscript to him [Marshall]. He would tear it apart limb from limb and then put it back together according to what he thought was best.”

I noted that almost all of Marshall’s changes went to print and William agreed,“Oh, they made every change he suggested. He ran the show….Jim appreciated their inventiveness. I mean Harry came up with The Stupids and with Miss Nelson. But as for shaping a story, that was always Jim’s work.

William and I talked about Marshall’s ability to critique his own work. “Jim was extremely critical of his own work and any work,” William told me. “Nothing was perfect. Even if it was a masterpiece he would find something to criticize, always. He would very seldom say, ‘I guess this is pretty good.’ He had critical faculties that kicked in and that is what kept him going.”

 This comment came back to me when I went through Maurice Sendak’s bequest of additional James Marshall material. Sendak and Marshall were good friends, and Sendak owned several of Marshall’s book dummies and original artwork, most of which are now with the Marshall Collection. Among these Sendak materials is a book that Marshall created for Sendak’s birthday. The book is extraordinary, with wonderful characters wishing Maurice a happy birthday. Marshall also includes a short story from his future publication Rats on the Roof.  At the end of the story, Marshall is once again critical of his endings, drawing two rats with speech bubbles. The first rat says, “Rather Chekhovian, don’t you feel?” The second rat replies, “He never could come up with decent endings.

  

A page from the Birthday Book for Maurice Sendak from James Marshall (Maurice Sendak Collection of James Marshall Box 2012.0152.2). All rights reserved. No reproduction of any kind allowed.

A page from the Birthday Book for Maurice Sendak from James Marshall (Maurice Sendak Collection of James Marshall Box 2012.0152.2). All rights reserved. No reproduction of any kind allowed.


I asked William if there was a work that Marshall was most proud of or that achieved what Marshall wanted? William replied,  “I can tell you I really, really appreciate the Fox books. I think his talent went into that in a way that really expressed himself and certainly delights me.”  William went on to say that Marshall “was kind of stuck in the George and Martha books pretty much in the framework of a relation between two people, but with the Fox books there would be all kinds of plots and subplots. None of those characters is two dimensional.  In just a few sentence you know exactly who they are. I even have people say, ‘Oh, well obviously he used me for Carmen.’”

This led me to ask if Marshall was most like Fox.  William said, “I think so… There is a lot of Jim in Fox.” William and I continued on to discuss the brilliant endings and humor in the Fox stories, and the way the humor was not spelled out. William said that was intentional. In fact, it was“his [Marshall’s] number one rule. Never condescend to children. Don’t do it ever.”

Most of Marshall’s sketchbooks and drafts are marked with a place and date. It became clear that he worked constantly, even while traveling. There are often to-do lists in the midst of his sketches. In one list from a trip to Cape Cod on March 10, Marshall is “working on a dummy for Yummers II, driving to Boston, going to lunch, meeting with someone from Houghton Mifflin, doing something at Nickelodeon, driving back to the Cape, picking up lamb shanks, and working in bed on Roberta Molesworthy (an iffy book).”

A page from Marshall's sketches. (James Marshall Papers. Box 8:Folder 170). All rights reserved. No reproduction of any kind allowed.

A page from Marshall’s sketches. (James Marshall Papers. Box 8:Folder 170). All rights reserved. No reproduction of any kind allowed.

 

The year isn’t dated,  but Yummers Too was published in 1986. If Marshall was working on a dummy for this book, I can guess the date would be around 1984. Williams said that Marshall always worked. “Everything was integrated into his work.” He didn’t like to fly and preferred to work on trains. “He’d take a train to Texas or California. He loved to work on the train.”

 

 

 

 

In addition to sketchbooks, William said Marshall also kept extensive diaries. William has kept these diaries, but I did find one trip diary in the collection. The year isn’t dated, however, I can guess from what he was working on that it is probably from around 1990. The diary is all text and details his trip to New Orleans, including what he read each day: “finished a book on Janet Flanner…masterful novel by Nina Berberova, The Accompanist… Editon Wharton.”

A page from Marshall's trip diary to New Orleans. (James Marshall Papers. Box 21:Folder 299). All rights reserved. No reproduction of any kind allowed.

A page from Marshall’s trip diary to New Orleans. (James Marshall Papers. Box 21:Folder 299). All rights reserved. No reproduction of any kind allowed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Marshall was also a voracious reader. William showed me the special shelves Marshall had built around his room to hold some of his books.

A list of books from the Marshall Collection. (James Marshall Papers. Box 21:folder 303). All rights reserved. No reproduction of any kind allowed.

A list of books from the Marshall Collection. (James Marshall Papers. Box 21:folder 303). All rights reserved. No reproduction of any kind allowed.

William said he liked “Moliere and Chekhov…and a lot of the British women novelists like Elizabeth Taylor and Jean Rhys.” I found a piece of paper with a list of books in the collection. I am assuming these were books Marshall had read or books he purchased to read.

The page was numbered 67.

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve learned much in going through the Marshall papers and in talking with William Gray. James Marshall was incredibly talented in his ability to do both quality text and illustrations. He worked very hard to achieve the high quality. Going forward, it will be impossible for me to view my own work without giving it a more critical look: What would James Marshall say? He would most likely say “it could be better” and he would probably be right. Achieving the highest quality takes not only talent, but the sweat, tears, and labor of hard work. On that note, with all that I have gleaned from seeing Marshall’s process, it is time that I get back to the hard work of improving my own manuscripts. Thank you James Marshall, and thank you to the Dodd Research Center and the providers of the James Marshall Fellowship.

Remembering a Professor of Revolutionary Imagination

It is with much sadness that we learn of the passing of Fred Ho, a composer, musician, writer, activist and self-described “professor of revolutionary imagination.”  The Fred Ho Papers are held in Archives & Special Collections, a relationship built by Dr. Roger Buckley, professor of history and founding Director of the Asian American Studies Institute. The finding aid to the papers, prepared by the Asian American Studies Institute, describes Mr. Ho:

Fred Ho, the Asian American musician, composer, writer, and activist combines music and politics to fight discrimination and redefine American identity. He has developed a “new American multicultural music” which recognizes the diverse cultural contributions to twentieth century American music. His revolutionary compositions challenge the status quo by providing an artistically provocative vision for the future. Ho’s intent in composing music is not only to recognize different forms, but to convey anti-oppression messages that provide an alternate framework upon which American identity is defined.

A commitment to multiculturalism and diversity has not always been an integral part of Ho’s character. His coming of age as an Asian American was marked by feelings of denial, anger, and confusion about his Chinese identity. As a result, Ho has dealt with racial discrimination in different ways throughout his life, first by assimilating, then by confronting it through activism and music. Now a prominent musician, Ho works to raise social consciousness by transforming his experience into positive action.

Filmmaker Steven de Castro shares his view of the endless creativity of Fred Ho.

Mr. Ho’s obituary appears in the New York Times, April 12, 2014.  Rest in peace.

Teale Lecture Tonight: “Climate, Weather, Oceans, and Biodiversity: Science in Policy and Politics”

Dr. Jane Lubchenco, Former Administrator of NOAA and Valley Professor of Marine Biology, Oregon State University, will give a talk entitled “Climate, Weather, Oceans, and Biodiversity: Science in Policy and Politics” for the University of Connecticut’s Edwin Way Teale Lecture Series on Nature and the Environment. The talk will take place on Thursday, April 10, 4 pm at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center, Konover Auditorium, at UConn. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Dr. Jane Lubchenco’s research interests include community ecology, conservation biology, biodiversity, global change, and sustainability. She was the first woman to be appointed Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), serving in the position from 2009 to 2013. As NOAA Administrator, Dr. Lubchenco made restoring fisheries to sustainability and profitability, healthy oceans and coasts, ensuring continuity of the nation’s weather and other environmental satellites, developing a “Weather-Ready Nation,” promoting climate science, and strengthening science at NOAA top priorities.

The Edwin Way Teale Lecture Series brings leading scholars and scientists to the University of Connecticut to present public lectures on nature and the environment. The lectures are open to the public and do not require registration. For additional information please call 860.486.4460 or visit http://doddcenter.uconn.edu/asc/events/teale/teale.htm.

Exhibition Highlights from “For Young Naturalists: Ocean Ecology in Children’s Literature”

exhibitpic1The idea to create “For Young Naturalists” was a product of two major influences: my desire to curate an exhibition (which I’ve always wanted to do) and my desire to explore the NCLC Collections. I’ve always been aware that Archives and Special Collections is home to over 40,000 children’s books and serials, but until this semester I had never viewed any of them.

Though I originally intended to focus on ocean ecology in children’s literature as a way to complement themes covered in the final two Edwin Way Teale Lectures of the semester, my exhibit quickly took on a new interpretive life. Children’s books are powerful tools for teaching children and young adults age-appropriate information about a variety of topics.  As I browsed the books, I tried to determine how each book conveyed information, simply entertained, or communicated a broader message to their readers.  I then considered artistic choices made by the authors and illustrators, and how relationships between humans and the ocean, and amongst ocean creatures, were depicted.

I discovered that the ethic of each book reflects the beliefs and attitudes of the time period in which they were produced. The earliest examples from the nineteenth century, including The Ocean and its Inhabitants: With their Uses to Man (1844), describe the process of extracting oil from whale blubber, and the common usage of this oil. This provided a stark contrast to later examples, such as Whales Way (1972), which anthropomorphizes humpbacks and vilifies the humans who hunt them.

I also discovered that time affects content in another way: as our knowledge of ecological relationships becomes more complex, so do our stories. In My Grandpa and the Sea (1990) the main character’s grandfather begins to farm sea moss as his traditional fishing methods can no longer compete with more efficient technology. Ocean Sunlight: How Tiny Plants Feed the Sea (2012) describes, in simplified terms, why phytoplankton are crucial to all ocean life.

“For Young Naturalists,” on display through this Thursday, includes children’s books exhibit02and associated artwork from the late 19th century through the present, though the majority of the materials included date from the late 1960s – to the early 1990s.  Three of my favorite items in the exhibit are outlined below.

Along the Seashore, Written & Illustrated by Margaret Waring Buck (1964)

Margaret Waring Buck dedicated Along the Seashore (1964) to “beginner naturalists;” I chose to use a modified version of this descriptor as the title for this exhibition. Along the Seashore is only one of several examples of Margaret Waring Buck’s work in Archives & Special Collections. As an author and illustrator who lived along the Connecticut shoreline, Buck focused primarily on illustrating books about nature for children. Her papers, which include original artwork for her other nature-themed books also include sketchbooks filled with nature drawings based on observation. Along the Seashore is a unique encyclopedia for seashore discovery. Covering plants to water birds, it provides children with the common names and basic facts about species they might find along the seashore, complimented by realistic sketches. I love the neatness of Buck’s artwork and the dignity she confers on her juvenile readers by entrusting them with complex knowledge about ocean creatures.

The Year of the Seal by Victor B Scheffer, Illustrated by Leonard Everett Fischer (1970)

This book, intended for young adult and adult readers, but appropriate for younger audiences, follows the development of a baby Alaskan fur seal during the first year of its life. The book is similar to another written by Victor B. Scheffer, a biologist, and illustrated by Fischer, titled The Year of the Whale, which follows the development of a baby sperm whale calf during the first year of its life. Though Year of the Seal is informational, it is also poetic. Commenting on man’s attempts to describe the ocean writes, Scheffer writes in an aside, “The ocean rolls on, untouched by words. It rolls to the turning of the earth, and the heat and pull of the sun, and the drag of the moon, and the influences of all the solid and gaseous matter of the universe.” Original illustrations for both The Year of the Seal and The Year of the Whale, as well as a third book included in the exhibit (The Journey of the Gray Whales by Gladys Conklin, 1974) are housed in Fischer’s papers at Archives & Special Collections.

An Ocean World, Written & Illustrated by Peter Sis (1992)

Sparse in text, Peter Sis’s beautiful watercolor illustrations follow the journey of a whale, recently released into the ocean, in his attempt to find a friend. Though the book is less realistic, it is highly imaginative, depicting the young whale in a variety of petersiswhalewebsituations – coming face to face with a submarine, finding love with another whale – that are comical, jarring, relatable, and insightful. The image on the left, featured on the poster for the exhibit, depicts the moment when the whale is first released into the ocean. Though it depicts humans performing a “helping” act, the dark colors in the background and the inherent ambiguity of the image when viewed out of context (Is the whale being removed from the water? Or put back into it?) accurately suggest a complex relationship between man and whale.

Rebecca D’Angelo is a senior undergraduate student in History and Anthropology. She is student curator of the exhibition Archives and Special Collections at the Dodd Research Center, University of Connecticut.

Railroad photographs now online

New Haven Railroad parlor car 2153, ca. 1900

We’ve blogged previously about our efforts to develop the Connecticut Digital Archive; you’ll recall that many of the Nuremberg Trial documents in the Thomas J. Dodd Papers are now online.  We’re putting more content online now and one of our latest set of photographs is the New Haven Railroad Glass Negatives Collection.

To see the photographs when you visit the Connecticut Digital Archive, click on “Browse Digital Collections” and then on “New Haven Railroad Glass Negatives Collection.”  There are 148 photographs of New Haven Railroad cars — baggage, parlor, dining, sleeping and coaches — from the early 1900s.  Many of the exterior views of the cars are accompanied by an interior view, like the photograph above of parlor car 2153.

Another way to view this particular set of photographs is from the finding aid to the collection.  Go to the finding aid and scroll down to the descriptions of the individual photographs.  You’ll find a link to the image in the digital archive.  You really can’t get any cooler than that.

This is just the beginning of our delivering our resources to you online.  Stay tuned for more!

Hypocrite Lecteur: The Soldier’s Return

Mrs. Belcour.  Come, come, cheer up; endeavour to forget that Manly ever lived.

Belinda.  Never, madam ! The only consolation I can afford myself is, that he fell fighting those battles which must for ever remain imprinted on my heart.

Mrs. Belcour.  Yes: he with your gallant father fell by their noble general’s side on Egypt’s shores ; with him they conquered, and with him they fell. (Hook 7)

SoldiersReturnTitleWhen you are reading a British comedy from 1805—and the comedy is titled The Soldier’s Return, and you have just learned that poor Belinda our protagonist is about to be “married to-night” (4), to a certain Lord Broomville, and believes that now “all my ideas of future happiness are crushed—destroyed” (7)—and then read the above exchange, learning that Belinda’s intended is believed to be dead, you can immediately conclude that the man’s resurrection is imminent.

I mean, come on. A dead lover and an unhappy arranged marriage to an older man? In the world of comedy, the dead man can’t resurrect fast enough in such a situation. You just need to pay attention, and wait and watch for his return. And sure enough: in Theodore Hook’s The Soldier’s Return, the soldier returns after only about three scenes, and, of course, to his own distress, “I have found Belinda, the object of my hopes and anxiety, on the eve of marriage with a lord Broomville” (11).

Thus we have all of the things you need for a standard comedy, with the true lovers separated by forces outside of their control, who ultimately, of course, reunite through a series of implausible events. It’s predictable, yes, but ultimately it’s really all about how we get there to this end, and this play does so in the most amusing and unpredictable methods possible. Theodore Hook, our playwright, has a sharp wit, and the play excels at the mockery of the British upper crust, with aristocrats saddled with ridiculous names like Lord Broomville; with young foppish men dressed so absurdly in “the present slang fashion” (10) that the lower class can “take a fellow of the royal society for a groom” (10); and with supposedly cultured people who “positively abominate” (20) the opera, yet “every body goes, and ’tis the every body that makes it delightful” (2).

The American edition of the text includes a list of both British and American casts

The American edition of the text includes a list of both British and American casts

Unfortunately, though the play was performed in London in 1805 at Drury Lane, Hook himself seems to have received little press for this play, possibly because of his age. “[The Soldier’s Return was] his first effort” (Barham 14), and “placed the author in the proud position of a successful dramatist—ætat 16” (14), but I could find no contemporary reviews, merely affectionate but nonspecific references to Hook himself, as “that lively young author” (“The Arbitrator” 183). The play received apparently little notice, and his own biographer too gives only backhanded praise, saying “inartificial as was the plot, and extravagant the incidents. . .  the whimsicalities of an Irishman, played by Jack Johnstone, the abundance of puns, good, bad, and indifferent, borrowed and original, the real fun and bustle, carried it along triumphantly” (Barham 14).

In America, it was “performed at the New Theatre, Philadelphia” (1) in 1807, but here too, no one took notice of The Soldier’s Return, though its top-billed actor, a Mr. Rutherford—who played Lord Broomville—seems to have attracted some attention in other roles. One William Wizard calls him “Little RUTHERFORD, the Roscius of the Philadelphia theatre” (Wizard 117), which makes little sense until one sees a different article, which says “this gentleman’s person is much in the way of his theatrical success ; and, indeed, when, one after the other, so many individuals present SoldiersReturnSongthemselves on the boards, all below hero-measure, we cannot but lament it deeply that no expedient can be thought of, for adding to their inches” (“The Theatre” 1). It seems Rutherford was a short man, and, since William Wizard also writes satirically that a great critic “finds fault with every thing—this being what I understand by modern criticism” (Wizard 117), this was a problem.

Young Hook’s play in America was thus presented in an environment of animadversion towards his lead actor, and, actually, towards drama in particular. Theater itself was SeriousInquiryTitlenot well regarded, as an American book here in the archives, A Serious Inquiry into the Nature and Effects of the Stage, by the Rev. John Witherspoon (1812) reveals even in its opening pages. The opening recommends that “Dear Christian Brethren. . . in the name of the Great God our Saviour, whose Disciples you are. . . WITHHOLD ALL SUPPORT FROM THE PLAY-HOUSE” (Miller et al. 5), as “in its origin and history it has been a public nuisance in society, in its present constitution it is criminal, under every form it is useless, and it must necessarily tend to demoralize any people who give it their support” (5).

Nuisance, criminal, and useless? I think not, but still understand better perhaps why this play or any play may not have met great success in America at the time. Our play was merely in an environment not ready to receive it, and that needn’t hurt the play itself now. The play is really a witty romp through the aristocracy and comedy itself, coming to a completely surprising conclusion which lampoons conventional comedic formula: Manly has no choice but to challenge Lord Broomville to a duel over his intended marriage to Belinda (typical), but meeting him in person, finds that “O gracious heaven!—it is, it is——my father—!” (33).

Thus, at the end of this play we are left with a surprise which we were not expecting. The father has been in the way of the marriage all along, but we didn’t even know it, and neither did he! Hook has employed the trope of the parent preventing the marriage, and subverted it, while simultaneously subverting the trope of the duel! For such things, along with the witty exchanges, should it be remembered.

Consider this finally: A fashionable young man, Racket, asks his beloved, Miss Dashaway, “why, am I not the very top of fashion?” (23), to which she responds mockingly “yes true ; because ’tis with men as with liquors, the lightest will always be uppermost” (23). Funny, right? So, yes, perhaps this play itself may have seemed too light, but even being short, written by a sixteen-year-old, and largely forgotten, The Soldier’s Return is a gem that continually and humorously tests our comedic expectations.

Let’s not let it languish all the way at the “very top” of drama.

Daniel Allie is a senior undergraduate student in English. For his blog series Hypocrite Lecteur he will spend the Spring 2014 Semester exploring nineteenth-century literature in a variety of genres from the Rare Books Collection housed in Archives and Special Collections at the Dodd Research Center.

Works Cited

“The Arbitrator.” Beau Monde, or, Literary and fashionable magazine 2.14 (Nov. 1897): 181-185. Web. British Periodicals. 15 March 2014.

Barham, Rev. R.H. Dalton. The Life and Remains of Theodore Edward Hook. London: Richard Bentley, 1849. Web. Google Books. 15 March 2014.

Hook, Theodore Edward. The Soldier’s Return, or, What Can Beauty Do? A comic opera, in two acts. Philadelphia: Mathew Carey, 1807. Print. [Dodd Center call number: A208]

Miller, Samuel, et al. “An Address.” A Serious Inquiry into the Nature and Effects of the Stage, Rev. John Witherspoon. New York: Whiting and Watson, 1812. Print. [Dodd Center call number: A1019]

“The Theatre.” The Town 2 (January 3, 1807): 1. Web. American Periodicals. 15 March 2014.

Wizard, William. “Theatrics.” Salmagundi; or, the Whim-Whams and Opinions of Launcelot Langstaff, Esq., and Others 6 (March 20, 1807): 117. Web. American Periodicals. 15 March 2014.

New Exhibition: “For Young Naturalists: Ocean Ecology in Children’s Literature”

Explore the diverse ways authors and illustrators use word and image to explain to
children the complex relationships between man and the ocean in a new student-curated
exhibition “For Young Naturalists: Ocean Ecology in Children’s Literature,” on
display from March 27 to April 11 in the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center’s John P.
McDonald Reading Room. Featuring artwork and books drawn from the Northeast
Children’s Literature Collection in Archives and Special Collections, student curator
Rebecca D’Angelo presents children’s books from 1844 to 2012 that illuminate how
subjects such as ocean biodiversity, food security, and conservation have been depicted
and narrated through time.

An Ocean World by Peter Sis (New York : Greenwillow, 1992). Pg. 8.

An Ocean World by Peter Sis (New York : Greenwillow, 1992). Pg. 8.

This exhibition is on view to coincide with the Edwin Way Teale Lectures “What role
will the oceans play in meeting the global demand for food?” by Steven D. Gaines,
Thursday, March 27, and “Climate, Weather, Oceans and Biodiversity: Science in Policy
and Politics” by Jane Lubchenco, Thursday, April 10, 4:00pm in the Dodd Center’s
Konover Auditorium.

Location:  The John P. McDonald Reading Room, Archives and Special Collections at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT

Dates: March 27-April 11, 2014

Exhibition hours: 10:00am to 4:00pm, Monday through Friday

For more information contact:
Melissa Watterworth Batt, Archives and Special Collections, Thomas J. Dodd Research
Center, UConn Libraries, melissa.watterworth@uconn.edu

Dr. Victoria Ford Smith featured in UConn Today

Check out UConn Today’s wonderful feature article about Victoria Ford Smith, professor of children’s literature in UConn’s English Department.  With the engaging title “Children’s literature not as simple as it seems” Dr. Ford Smith describes her background as a specialist in 19th and 20th-century British literature and culture, as well the challenges of teaching students who have grown up in a multimedia world.  Dr. Ford Smith’s first book, Between Generations: The Collaborative Child and Nineteenth-Century Authorship, “examines how children collaborate in the creation of stories” says author Ken Best.  Dr. Ford Smith is also interested in how stories such as Alice in Wonderland can be perceived as simple when in actuality, they are quite complex.

Sandra Horning’s Blog Post #2

 

Blog entry 2 – Every Word Counts!

All writers are familiar with the concept of “every word counts.” For writers of children’s picture books and beginning readers, every word literally counts. Most picture books published today have about 300 words. Many editors won’t even read a picture book manuscript much longer than that. Level 1 beginning readers are even shorter, with about 100 words. Keep in mind that, despite the low word count, a good story needs an arc, a plot, humor, and character development. It might seem like these stories are written quickly, and perhaps the first idea is written in a short period of time, but getting the text ready for publication can take many days, weeks, months, or longer to get right. Each word and every sentence is reviewed and revised many times. Here are some of the questions an author (and an editor) considers with each word and sentence:

 

Is the word necessary?

Is it the right word to convey the meaning you intend? (Does the word have more than one meaning?)

Do the challenging words have contextual clues to allow the reader to infer the definition?

Is the word count within the guidelines?

 

In an early beginning reader, an author needs to follow additional guidelines:

The words need to be simple enough for an emerging reader to pronounce and understand.

Contractions should be spelled out.

The words should be no more than two syllables.

Complex sentences should not be used.

The majority of the words in the text should be repeated, as you can’t introduce too many new or challenging words to an emerging reader.

 

I’ve been heartened to see that even someone as talented, prolific, and well known as James Marshall didn’t get every word right on his first few drafts. In looking through the dummies and drafts of his stories, I’ve enjoyed seeing his notes and eraser marks as he struggled to search for the best word.

For example, a George and Martha story usually has between 100 -150 words, but there is still much humor and character development packed into each simple story.  In one of my favorites, “The Trick” in George and Martha Back in Town, George can’t resist playing tricks on Martha, so Martha plans a trick of her own. Even at the final galley stage of the book, Marshall was still requesting changes to the text. For example, the sentence

“And when she discovered that the house slippers had been nailed to the floor, she was not amused.”

 was changed at the galley stage to:

age from galley, "The Trick" in George and Martha Back in Town (James Marshall Papers Box 8:Folder 161). All rights reserved. No reproduction of any kind allowed.

Page from galley, “The Trick” in George and Martha Back in Town (James Marshall Papers Box 8:Folder 161). All rights reserved. No reproduction of any kind allowed.

“And when she found her house slippers nailed to the floor, she was not amused.”

The final sentence is much more succinct and flows better, while still maintaining the humor. Every galley page I’ve viewed has author edits similar to this page.

 

 

 

In the picture book The Cut-Ups Carry On, the cut-ups Spud Jenkins and Joe Turner take dance lessons and end up entering a contest with one of them dressed as a girl. In a dummy for the book Marshall describes the scene as Spud and Joe arrive at the studio for the contest:

At the T.V. Studio, Mary Frances and Charles Andrew Frothingham were just finishing up a superb tango.

“Superb” is crossed out and “flashy” is written above it. Then “flashy” is crossed out and “dazzling” is written, which is the final version in print.

At the T.V. Studio, Mary Frances and Charles Andrew Frothingham were just finishing up a dazzling tango.

“Dazzling” is a great choice that combines the essence of both “superb” and “flashy.”

 

Pgs. 28-29, dummy for The Cut-ups Carry On (James Marshall Papers Box 14:Folder 238) All rights reserved. No reproduction of any kind allowed.

Pgs. 28-29, dummy for The Cut-ups Carry On (James Marshall Papers Box 14:Folder 238) All rights reserved. No reproduction of any kind allowed.

                               

In a dummy for The Cut-Ups Crack Up, Marshall describes Spud and Joe as they speed around town in a “borrowed” car.

At the corner of Maple and Elm, they passed by an astonished Mary Frances and Charles Andrews.

In the final version, “passed” was changed to a much better action verb: “sailed.”

At the corner of Maple and Elm, they sailed by an astonished Mary Frances and Charles Andrew.

Again, this is a very simple word change that greatly improves the sentence.

In the dummy for the beginning reader Three Up A Tree, the story begins with the characters looking at a tree house:

Some big kids down the block had made a treehouse.

The final version reads:

Some big kids down the street had built a swell treehouse.

 Three word changes, “block” to “street”,  “made” to “built”, and the addition of “swell” give this sentence a boost. Now the reader can imagine the kids building a treehouse, and adding “swell” shows how much they admire it.

Marshall paid so much attention to words that he even made suggestions on other author’s manuscripts that he was illustrating. His notes and papers make it clear that he shared suggested changes to words and sentences with the authors Harry Allard (of the Miss Nelson and the Stupid series) and Jeffrey Allen (Nosey Mrs. Rat, Bonzini, and the Mary Alice stories).

In Nosey Mrs. Rat the story begins with Mrs. Rat spying on her neighbor in the bath. Allen’s original manuscript read:

“I see that you are using lilac bubble bath,” Shirley Foster said.

“I personally prefer rose.”

Mrs. Davis stepped out of the bath and locked the window.

Marshall’s suggestion for changing the last line was as follows:

Mrs. Davis pulled down the shade.

This sentence was used in the final text. With fewer words Marshall made a funnier sentence and one that also worked better for the humor in the illustration. It is easier and funnier to show a shade being pulled down than to show a window being locked.

 

Pgs. 1-2, manuscript , Nosey Mrs. Rat (James Marshall Papers Box 8:Folder 170). All rights reserved. No reproduction of any kind allowed.

Pgs. 1-2, manuscript , Nosey Mrs. Rat (James Marshall Papers Box 8:Folder 170). All rights reserved. No reproduction of any kind allowed.

 

 

As you can see from the image, Marshall made many suggestions to Nosey Mrs. Rat. Many of them were used, including changing the title and main character from Nosey Shirley Foster to Nosey Mrs. Rat. It is rare for an illustrator to suggest text changes to the author. Most of the authors I know have never had an illustrator suggest changes. It is obvious that Marshall paid just as much attention to words, both his and others’, as he did to his illustrations. Although revising a manuscript over and over again can be tedious, Marshall’s papers and ultimately the success of his books remind me that every revision is worthwhile because every word does count, especially for the youngest readers. That said, I probably could have made this blog post a bit shorter! I will certainly be revising my work again before I send it out.