Jun 14, 2021
"Ursula Nordstrom (1910
- 1988) was publisher and editor-in-chief of juvenile books at
Harper & Row from 1940 to 1973. She is credited with presiding over
a transformation in children's literature in which morality tales
written for adult approval gave way to works that instead appealed
to children's imaginations and emotions." She authored the 1960
children's book The Secret Language, and a
collection of her correspondence, edited by Leonard Marcus,
entitled Dear Genius: the Letters of Ursula
Nordstrom was published in 1998.
Harper's received three Newbery Medals
and two Caldecott Medals during Nordstom's tenure. She edited some
of the milestones of children's literature, including E. B. White's
Stuart Little (1945) and Charlotte's Web (1952),
Margaret Wise Brown's Goodnight Moon (1947), Crockett
Johnson's Harold and the Purple Crayon (1955), and Syd
Hoff's Danny and the Dinosaur (1958). Other authors she
edited included Laura Ingalls Wilder, Ruth Krauss, and Charlotte
Zolotow.
I talk to Leonard
Marcus about everything Ursula.
Photo
credit: Sonya Sones.