I've been reading the book Golden Legacy: How Golden Books Won Children's Hearts, Changed Publishing Forever, and Became an American Icon Along the Way. So far it's provided some enjoyable glimpses into children's book publishing in the early-mid 20th century. When I put it on hold at the library, I had no idea what a huge book it was: coffee-table sized, with lots of photographs and full-color art (including covers and other illustrations from Golden Books down through the years).
My fascination with children's literature extends to a fascination with children's publishing, and I trust Leonard Marcus to get the story right and tell it compellingly. (Among many other things, Marcus was the compiler of the fascinating Letters of Ursula Nordstrom, the famous children's book editor at Harper's.)
In addition to detailing the rise of Golden Books themselves, Marcus spends time discussing other publishers, like Harper's and Simon and Schuster, who were beginning to tap into the market for affordable juvenile literature. One of my favorite anecdotes so far concerns one of the earliest Simon and Schuster juvenile titles, in 1940: a rather "unconvential square 'tactile' book for preschoolers that called for bits of real cloth, sandpaper, and other embellishments to be affixed to its pages, the better for youngsters to have the kind of firsthand sensory experiences then being touted by progressive educators." That book, of course, was Dorothy Kunhardt's Pat the Bunny. And while it makes one smile to think of Pat the Bunny as innovative and ground-breaking...of course it was! I doubt anyone then could possibly imagine the plethora of "touch and feel" books or other interactive type books for toddlers. And the hey-day of board books (those small, square, sturdy cardboard books we all take for granted and let our kids chew on) wouldn't be reached for another few decades.
But my favorite part of the Pat the Bunny success story comes at the end, when Marcus writes about the marketing campaign used to sell this very unusual little book. He writes: "With some effort, the Bevanses found the eleven suppliers needed for the special effects and managed to get Pat the Bunny into stores in time for the 1940 holiday season. When it came time to advertise Kunhardt's fanciful creation, the witty young men and women at Essandess had a field day preparing a widely circulated ad in which they favorably compared the new book for preschoolers with two current adult best-sellers: 'Oliver Wiswell (an historical novel of the American Revolution by Kenneth Roberts) is a wonderful book -- but it won't squeak if you press it. For Whom the Bell Tolls (Ernest Hemingway's latest) is magnificent -- but it hasn't any bunny in it.'" And then Marcus adds, "In the five weeks before Christmas 1940, Pat the Bunny became the year's bestselling children's book."
And that, as they say, is history.
And can you imagine Hemingway writing about bunnies? The parody possibilities here are endless!
2 comments:
Hehe, that ad is great! There's a book at my Grandma's house that one of my aunt's made in high school that's like Pat the Bunny; it has cloth pages, and every page has some different type of material to touch or do something with; one page has a zipper that goes up and down, another has a mirror. I always thought it was pretty cool.
My all-time favorite Golden Book is The Poky Little Puppy. Can't get enough of that one!
Yep! I think Poky might just be their best-seller of all time too (though I'll have to confirm that). It's what the little girl is reading on the cover of Marcus' book, of course. :-)
Post a Comment