Showing posts with label Shelf Awareness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Shelf Awareness. Show all posts

Monday, February 20, 2012

"Good Books for Bad Children"

In honor of President's Day (and to deal with the fact that I don't have an MMGM for you,) I'm sharing an article I read in my beloved Shelf Awareness. [If you don't subscribe to S.A., you really must.] Ursula Nordstrom sounds like my kind of woman!

As an added benefit, I've also discovered a new blog: Brain Pickings (see the link at the end of the article). This looks right up my alley as well!!
The Art of Publishing 'Good Books for Bad Children'
"I was taken out to luncheon and offered, with great ceremony, the opportunity to be an editor in the adult department. The implication, of course, was that since I had learned to publish books for children with considerable success perhaps I was now ready to move along (or up) to the adult field. I almost pushed the luncheon table into the lap of the pompous gentleman opposite me and then explained kindly that publishing children's books was what I did, that I couldn't possibly be interested in books for dead dull finished adults, and thank you very much but I had to get back to my desk to publish some more good books for bad children."

--Ursula Nordstrom, who was head of Harper's department of books for boys and girls from 1940 to 1973 (from the book Dear Genius: The Letters of Ursula Nordstrom, which was showcased by the Brain Pickings blog).