Picture books and Margaret Wise Brown

"A book should try to accomplish something more than just to repeat a child's own experiences. One would hope rather to make a child laugh or feel clear and happy-headed as he follows a simple rhythm to its logical end, to jolt him with the unexpected and comfort him with the familiar; and perhaps to lift him for a few minutes from his own problems of shoe laces that won't tie and busy parents and mysterious clock time into the world of a bug or a bear or a bee or a boy living in the timeless world of story." Margaret Wise Brown

This was 1935 and it was brand new stuff for picture books. Before Margaret Wise Brown, the picture book had been dominated by fairytales and fables. Margaret Wise Brown's focus on a child's every day life dignified children's own lives and was a game changer--it changed children's literature and the picture book for ever.

And it was fed by her work as a teacher at the progressive Bank Street Experimental School in New York City, where she listened to children and heard their stories and how they spoke.

It's what makes her voice so distinctive. I love her titles: The Noisy Book, The Important Book, Another Important Book. They're still fresh today. How radical they must have been then.

She was a pioneer. She fought for keeping big words in her books, refusing to dum down the language. She fought to get authors and illustrators proper royalties and fought to get the illustrator the same royalties as writer. (Before they had only received a flat fee.) 

What would you spend your first royalty check on? She spent hers on a cart full of flowers. How wonderful. Then she invited all her friends over for a party to help her enjoy them. What style! 

what's it about--the story or the writer?

Margaret Wise Brown loved reading as a child and remembered all the stories she read but none of the authors. 

"It didn't seem important that anyone wrote them. And it still does seem important. I wish I didn't have ever to sign my long name on the cover of a book and I wish I could write a story that would seem absolutely true to the child who hears it and to myself."

It's as if the story is timeless. It just is. You as the writer were lucky enough to find it. You were available and it came through you. You were that person on whom nothing was lost. But it's all about the story and not about you, the writer. The writer is simply the servant to the story. If it at any point the story becomes the servant of the writer--if it becomes about you then you can be certain of one thing: you're in the way--and the story can't get through. And it won't be as good.

In the end the job of the writer is to be available, then get out of the way and let it go.

Margaret Wise Brown's two classics THE RUNAWAY BUNNY (1942) and GOODNIGHT MOON (1947) (both illustrated by Clement Hurd) are not only still in print--they are still bestsellers.

See the full gallery on Posterous

She led an adventurous life: dating the prince of spain, hosting parties in her Upper East Side apartment, generally being a stunning New York Socialite. 

 Here's what The Writers' Almanac wrote:

"Brown never had children herself, but she worked with young children as a teacher in a progressive education program at the Bank Street Experimental School. She was also a New York socialite — tall and strong, with blond hair and bright green eyes. She dated the prince of Spain and loved to host parties in her Upper East Side apartment. She spent her first royalty check buying an entire cart's worth of flowers, and often took the proceeds from a book and purchased a ticket to France or a new car.

"She died suddenly at the age of 42, energetic and adventurous up to the end. She was on a book tour in Europe when she was stricken with appendicitis and had an emergency appendectomy. She seemed to be recovering well, and she decided to show her doctor how good she felt — so she kicked up her leg in the can-can. It caused an embolism, and she died immediately."

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hermes handbags, handbag shops + handbag friends

I believe that Hermes may well be copying me.

Really. 

They are.

Look.

Here's a page from Sue Heap and my HANDBAG FRIENDS:

and here--from a recent exhibition in London, "Leather Forever"--is this picture: "Kelly Neon" sculpture by Alexandra Plat in the "variations on Kelly and Birkin" room.

Need I say more?

Yes I do.

Because you see when the former King of England, the Duke of Windsor, went shopping in Paris, looking for a gift for Wallace, the vendeuse suggested gloves. The duke said, "My wife already has a wheelbarrow of gloves!" So Hermes made just that--a leather wheelbarrow to store her accessories. (This was 1947.)

Here again is a page from our book:

Look closely. What exactly are those princesses carrying their accessories in??? None other than... A wheelbarrow! (You may be saying ah yes, but your story was written way later, way after 1947 so how could they be copying you? And you are right when you are saying that--but written down doesn't mean it didn't happen way before that date. Which of course it did because it is a fairystory and those kinds of stories don't ever date. In fact they are timeless.)

I rest my case. 

You see, children's books are influential--clearly they are upstream from fashion. Indeed so far upstream are they, that they are upstream even from Hermes.

And now since that is such a large fact to take in, we may need to take a breather. So what better way to close this handbag bulletin than with a song--and a Handbag Song at that:

Perfectionism versus getting things DONE

via 
Joshua Rothaas

Knowledge, method & the one essential thing:

A E Housman was a poet and classical scholar and he said this (which has to be one of my most favorite professorial pieces of advice) (and because he was a poet and a classical scholar--indeed, counted by some as one of the greatest scholars of all time--it is extra weighty and wise and worth taking to heart, I feel):

"Knowledge is good, method is good, but one thing beyond all other is necessary; and that is to have a head, not a pumpkin, on your shoulders and brains, not pudding, in your head."

You can't disagree with that. And I for one--I am going to do my best to follow it. (Although trying to follow it on a day when you wake up with a pumpkin for a head and pudding for brains is tricksy. Nevertheless.)

Housman published two books of poetry in his lifetime. One of them was the 63-poem cycle A SHROPSHIRE LAD (1896) which has these beautiful lines:

Loveliest of trees, the cherry now

Is hung with bloom along the bough,

And stands about the woodland ride

Wearing white for Eastertide."

--A E Housman (1859-1936)

Ahoy! (or how to answer a phone)

If Alexander Graham Bell had had his way, we'd be answering our iPhones like sailors, and shouting, "AHOY!"

If only it had caught on.

Thomas Edison, his competitor, preferred Hello.

Thomas Edison on the phone, August 31, 1914

Apparently there was this How To section in early telephone books and it recommended "Hello" (except it called it "a hearty 'hulloa' ") which is why Hello caught on and not AHOY. But then again, that same how to section recommended "That is all!" rather than goodbye and look how far that got.

Of course in The Simpsons, Mr Burns is usually heard answering the phone with"Ahoy-hoy" which is another interesting fact.

And speaking of interesting facts, I just discovered: English is the only language where the proper greeting for the phone has now become the proper one for a face-face greeting.

OK you'll be relieved to know...

THAT IS ALL!

 

To be creative 1st create an Oasis of Quiet

What Cleese says is so practical and true. It's all about how to be playful."Creativity is not a talent. It is a way of operating."

We need:
--quiet space, undisturbed (locality: secluded)
--for a specific period of time (duration: limited)

what are your tips and tricks for inspiring creativity?

We have to work to get play back into our lives.