Margaret K. McElderry and the professional matriarchy of children's books - Imagination and Scholarship: The Contributions of Women to American Youth Services and Literature

Library Trends, Spring, 1996 by Betsy Hearne

Abstract

A matriarchy defined as "a form of social organization in which the mother is recognized as the head of the family or tribe, descent and kinship being traced through the mother; government, rule, or domination by women" (Webster's New World Dictionary, 1995). Focusing on renowned editor Margaret K. McElderry, this article develops the idea of children's book publishing as a field dominated by strong, often subversive, matriarchal leaders who have advanced the status, and enhanced the quality, of juvenile literature through an intricate female kinship structure. The birth and development of a relatively new genre has required binding ties in the face of a powerful patriarchal business society that viewed children's literature as unimportant and unworthy of major investment or recognition. The values, codes, and consolidation of the profession are passed on in stories that serve the function of, and bear many resemblances to, family narrative. Quotes without citations are taken from two interviews, the first with Susan Cooper on May 5, 1995, and the second with Margaret K. McElderry on June 22, 1995.

Introduction

In both the oral and printed traditions of western culture, women have been the principal storytellers during children's early stages of development and often during their later stages as well. Although men have achieved classic status as collectors of stories in the oral tradition, a close look at the work of pioneers such as the Grimm brothers and Andrew Lang reveals how much each relied on female sources - the Grimm brothers on various friends and relatives from whom they collected tales, and Andrew Lang on his wife and a bevy of assistants who translated and adapted selections to which he gave an editorial glaze for "his" fairy tale series (The Blue Fairy Book, The Red Fairy Book, The Green Fairy Book, and so on). In the popular imagination, these works became the Lang series or the Grimm tales, and the women became invisible.

The Delivery of Children's Book Publishing

As the printed tradition of children's literature grew in the twentieth century, a publishing industry dominated by men relied almost entirely on women to develop books for children. With very few exceptions, publishing and consuming juvenile literature has been a matriarchy of cultural activity that has received little recognition outside a small professional circle. The first and greatest editors of children's books were women, as were the children's librarians from whose ranks many of those editors were drawn. In fact, the close association between children's book editors and children's librarians has approached, over the years, a kind of collaboration fostered by kindred ideals and economic priorities.

Many of these women have been accorded a secondary place in literary and educational history, partly because children's literature was assigned a secondary place, partly because of institutionalized sexism, and partly because the women themselves have often been - outside of their professional commitment - self-effacing, a trait that may also reflect traditional female roles. Yet women such as Louise Seaman Bechtel (Macmillan), May Massee (Viking), Ursula Nordstrom (Harper), and Margaret K. McElderry (Margaret K. McElderry Books) are legendary among children's literature specialists not as creators or critics but as midwives who deliver creations to critics young and old. Historically, of course, midwives have never been accorded much attention unless the baby dies (in which case they might get the attention of being stoned or burned at the stake). Because children's literature is healthy and thriving, we have, ironically, too often neglected the midwives delivering it. Their capacity to nurture creativity without abandoning critical objectivity and economic reality - all the while keeping a low profile in service of their authors and artists -has accounted for the maturation of children's literature in the United States since Macmillan established the first juvenile trade department in 1918. These women had a strong sense of community; their training ground often involved apprenticeship with an inspiring elder who passed on ideals and introductions to a professional network.

Rites of Professional Passage

In Margaret K. McElderry's case, by the time she accepted her first editing position as head of the juvenile department at Harcourt, Brace and Company in November 1945, she had already studied with two pioneers in children's librarianship (storyteller Elizabeth Nesbitt and children's literature historian Elva Smith) at the first institution to train children's librarians, the Carnegie Library School in Pittsburgh. She had worked for nine years tinder the direction of three other eminent pioneers in the field, Anne Carroll Moore, Mary Gould Davis, and Frances Clarke Sayers of the New York Public Library (Moore was the first director of children's services; Davis, head of the storytelling department; and Savers, the successor to Moore). Within three years of becoming an editor, McElderry had been featured in a Publishers' Weekly article (Fuller, 1948, pp. 1887-90) as a leading children's book editor but was still maintaining an active involvement in the ALA Children's Library - Association primarily a women's network - through her work on the Book Production Committee (McElderry, 1948, pp. 58-60).