Melville's Bookcase

This past spring I walked into the Rosenbach Museum & Library for the first time. The Rosenbach houses many works of literature, including illustrator-author Maurice Sendak’s papers. Others attending a workshop were arriving at the same time and I wandered through the crowd to an impressive bookcase. When the workshop began, it was announced that Maurice Sendak (1928-2012) had died earlier that week. Since I had been on the road, I hadn’t heard the news. The rest of the day took on a feeling of serendipity as I walked through the Sendak exhibit and talked to a curator about the books in the museum’s library.

Later in the day, I learned that the bookcase in the entry had been Herman Melville’s bookcase and a favorite of Maurice Sendak. I stood by the bookcase, just feet from Maurice Sendak’s only mural, and studied the old volumes.

 

Today I was reminded of the book, Dear Genius, and looked up the letter from Ursula Nordstrom to Sendak in 1961. Apparently Sendak had mentioned that he felt Melville had “a lot of furniture” in his books, meaning facts. And, at the time, Sendak felt that his world was “furniture-less.” Nordstrom, the great editor, replied in a prophetic and supportive way.
 

August 21, 1961

To Maurice Sendak 

. . . I loved your long letter and hope it clarified some things for you to write it. Sure, Tolstoy and Melville have a lot of furniture in their books . . .
 

You wrote “my world is furniture-less. It is all feeling” . . . You also wrote “Knowledge is the driving force that puts creative passion to work”—a true statement, and also very well put. But it would include self knowledge for some as well as knowledge of facts for others . . . 
 

You wrote "It would be wonderful to want to believe in God. The aimlessness of living is too insane." That is the creative artist—a penalty of the creative artist—wanting to make order out of chaos. The rest of us plain people just accept disorder (if we even recognize it) and get a bang out of our five beautiful senses, if we're lucky. Well, not making any sense but will send this anyhow . . . . 

From Ursula Nordstrom
 

I remember standing in front of Melville’s bookcase again and again that day last spring. Sendak spent a lifetime finding lost, abandoned furniture to place in the rooms of his illustrations. Self-knowledge and making order out of chaos seems to me to have been the passionate story revealed through his art. He made the world more understandable and orderly, sometimes for children, sometimes for adults. Melville’s bookcase is at home among Sendak’s stories and illustrations.

 

Letter excerpt (page 145) from:

DEAR GENIUS: THE LETTERS OF URSULA NORDSTROM collected and edited by Leonard S. Marcus (HarperCollins, 1998).

Selected books:

NUTSHELL LIBRARY, story and pictures by Maurice Sendak (Harper & Row, 1962). 

WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE, story and pictures by Maurice Sendak (Harper & Row, 1963). 

IN THE NIGHT KITCHEN, story and pictures by Maurice Sendak (Harper & Row, 1970). 

OUTSIDE OVER THERE, story and pictures by Maurice Sendak (Harper & Row, 1981). 

BRUNDIBAR, retold by Tony Kushner, pictures by Maurice Sendak (Hyperion, 2003). 

HIGGLETY PIGGLETY POP! OR THERE MUST BE MORE TO LIFE, story and pictures by Maurice Sendak (Harper & Row, 1967). 

THE SIGN ON ROSIE’S DOOR, story and pictures by Maurice Sendak (Harper & Row, 1960).

LITTLE CORNER ACTIVITY:

1.    Read The Sign on Rosie’s Door.

2.    Find markers or crayons and construction paper plus string and tape.

3.    Help children make a sign for a door at home using words and/or drawings.

4.    Assist children in making a group sign for a school door.

5.    Encourage dress-up and putting together a musical show.

6.    Invite an audience to enter the door with the sign to see the musical show.

 

Random Acts of Publicity

The Annual Random Acts of Publicity event is the first week in September. I’m reading a couple of books by new authors and two by well-published authors to mention for RAP. I’ll make a comment about what I feel is a strong point or two for each book. Not exactly a review, but definitely talking points to start a conversation about the books. That is the theme for the 2012 Random Acts of Publicity: “Conversations about Books.” My reading list reveals a theme of loss from four very different perspectives.

Darcy Pattison's Random Acts of Publicity

ONE FOR THE MURPHYS by Lynda Mullaly Hunt (Nancy Paulsen Books, 2012). 

One For The Murphys is Lynda Mullaly Hunt’s first novel. The main character, Carley, is twelve years old and finds herself unexpectedly placed with a foster family. All of the story’s characters are carefully revealed through strong, honest dialogue. Carley meets and resolves challenges in her own unique way. She touches the reader and leaves one wondering and feeling her loss. 

A BALL FOR DAISY by Chris Raschka (Schwartz & Wade Books, 2011).

This Caldecott Medal Award winner is the work of illustrator/author Chris Raschka, who has published over 40 books. I’m mentioning the book in this list because of the universal theme of loss is touching and the feeling comes only through story and wordless illustrations. The illustrations must be seen and studied. One illustration to look for is where the reader finally sees Daisy’s young companion. Oh, and Daisy is a dog. 

MISSING MAY by Cynthia Rylant (Orchard Books, 1992).

Missing May won the 1993 Newbery Award. Cynthia Rylant is a well-known author, so why is this book on the list? It is a story that sticks with you, hauntingly simple and deeply touching. Isn’t that how all great books leave you? The story is about loss. It is so worth rereading at whatever age you are.

ILLEGAL by Bettina Restrepo (Katherine Tegan Books, 2011).

Illegal is a debut novel written by Bettina Restrepo. Teenage Nora and her mother follow Nora’s father from Mexico to Texas after they don’t hear from him. The trip as illegals to Houston and their life there are difficult. Nora desperately feels the loss of her home and family. She grabbles with growing up. Many vibrant characters shape her journey. The reader must consider how Nora's journey will affect her.

Poetry Q & A With David L. Harrison

Learning about poetry informs all of my writing. I’ve asked poet David L. Harrison to answer three questions for writers entering the world of poetry for children. Thank you for the thoughtful answers and resources, David.


What are a few of the key elements that mark the good poetry being written for children today?

What a puzzle that is! Two poems side by side could conceivably have the same number of words, equal lengths of line, identical rhyme schemes and metric patterns. They might have the same number of stanzas, be on the same subject, even be written by the same poet. Yet one poem turns out brilliantly and the other fails. Jean Karl, a highly respected children’s editor, used to say that picture books were like soap bubbles. They either floated or they didn’t. You couldn’t fix one; you simply went on to another. I think the same can be said of a poem. No matter how hard you try to perfect them, some pop with disappointment while others seem to float on their own with little conscious effort by the poet.

 Nevertheless, the poet remains aware of the basic elements of poetry. What is the point of what’s being said? It isn’t enough to begin laying out rhymes or painting imagery willy-nilly. If meter is to be used, it must be applied evenly and consistently throughout the established pattern. The techniques are there and the poet learns how to use them. But they are tools in a tool box. The vision, the plan, the architect’s sketches, come from the poet and cannot be found among the tools.

What guides your choices when writing lyrical lines?

Lyrics sing. Or they aren’t lyrics. Lyrical lines hum in my head as I write. I smile, sometimes, at how good they sound. I frown, often, at a rough edge that stops me in mid-hum to wonder what I could possibly have been thinking when I wrote the line that way. When I walk down the hall from my office to the kitchen for a cup of coffee, I nearly always whistle. It’s an old habit that probably irritates others, but I can’t seem to stop. I almost never whistle the same tune. Some are old chestnuts from high school days; some are from musicals; some move as quickly as the cadence of my steps on productive mornings; some drag like funeral dirges on slow beginnings.

In other words, lyrical lines fit the mood, the time, the place, the tone of the poem. If my writing is excited by a child running through it, my lines will be peppy and short. If I’m inspired by the doves in our maple tree, my lyrical lines will coo gently and take their time revealing their meaning. My sense of purpose guides my selection of words and how they form the lines of my message.

Which children’s literature poets do you read today for inspiration?

First, a reader prospecting for good poetry should know that poetry is hard to sell in large printings and most publishers won’t deal with it. The amount of space allocated to poetry in a typical store is minimal and often represents collections by the best known names in our business. There’s certainly nothing wrong with reading the works of the most recognized writers of children’s poetry except that the menu, when limited only to the works of a dozen people or so, is limited to a small ensemble of voices out of the full choir out there singing their hearts out.

Anthologies give us an excellent opportunity to read samples of poems by poets whose names might be less widely known. The internet is providing wonderful opportunities to meet many poets simply by looking at their blogs and websites.

Renee La Tulippe is building a fine online collection of poems on video.

No Water River

Janet Wong and Sylvia Vardell are creating a growing number of e-book anthologies.

Poetry Tag Time

Falling Down the Page and other good collections of poems have been edited by Georgia Heard.

Falling Down the Page

J. Patrick Lewis, our current Poet Laureate of Children’s Literature, introduces 200 poems about animals by poets all over the world for National Geographic.

Book of Animal Poetry

Lee Bennett Hopkins has set a record with 113 anthologies on a wide variety of subjects that feature numerous poets.

Sara Holbrook has recorded some of her excellent work.

YouTube

Thank you very much for inviting me to your blog!

David

Cowboys (Wordsong, 2012) is David L. Harrison’s latest book. Readers of all ages will find the poems about cowboys engaging and fun to read aloud. The illustrations by Dan Burr are filled with the movement of horses, cattle, and personable characters. Connecting the Dots is David’s blog. And I see that David posted a wonderful poem and comment yesterday at Poetry At Play.
Connecting the Dots
Poetry At Play