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August 4th: Today in the History of Children’s Books

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⚰️ 1875 – Death: Hans Christian Andersen

Hans Chris­t­ian Ander­sen (1805–1875), a Dan­ish chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture writer and poet, is con­sid­ered the founder of mod­ern fairy tales. The high­est inter­na­tion­al award for chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture, the Hans Chris­t­ian Ander­sen Award (HCAA), is named after him. Ander­sen broke away from the lim­i­ta­tions of pre­vi­ous folk tales, which were mere­ly oral col­lec­tions and pure­ly didac­tic, pio­neer­ing a mod­ern genre of pure fairy tales that inte­grat­ed poet­ic lyri­cism, social real­ism, and pro­found philo­soph­i­cal insights.

  • Canon: A time­less and immor­tal lit­er­ary mas­ter­piece Hans Chris­t­ian Ander­sen’s Fairy Tales (Ander­sen’s Fairy TalesIt is list­ed in “1001 Chil­dren’s Books” and has been trans­lat­ed into more than 150 lan­guages.
  • Rep­re­sen­ta­tive works and high­lights:
  • The Emper­or’s New Clothes (Kejserens nye Klæder— Through the sto­ry of two con artists sewing clothes for the emper­or that “only a wise man can see,” the film reveals the hypocrisy and blind obe­di­ence of adult soci­ety. Ulti­mate­ly, it is the inno­cent child who shouts out the truth that “he is not wear­ing any clothes at all,” which pro­found­ly demon­strates the pow­er of inno­cence.
  • The Daugh­ter of the Sea (Den lille Havfrue— This is a clas­sic tragedy and epic of ulti­mate good, telling the sto­ry of a lit­tle mer­maid who, in pur­suit of an immor­tal soul and love for a human, will­ing­ly endures excru­ci­at­ing pain to trans­form her fish­tail into legs, and ulti­mate­ly gives up harm­ing the prince when he mar­ries anoth­er, turn­ing into sea foam and becom­ing part of the sky’s daugh­ter.
  • The Ugly Duck­ling (Den grimme Ælling— This is a fable about a duck­ling that suf­fers from ostracism and ridicule from its far­m­mates because of its large size and dull feath­ers. After expe­ri­enc­ing the hard­ships of win­ter and wan­der­ing, it even­tu­al­ly trans­forms into a noble swan.
  • Oth­er famous works include “The Lit­tle Match Girl” (Den Lille Pige med Svovl­stikkerne), The Stead­fast Tin Sol­dier (Den stand­haftige Tin­sol­dat)wait.

| Deceased | Hans Chris­t­ian Ander­sen | Hans Chris­t­ian Ander­sen (Wikipedia) |

⚰️ 1992 – Death: Elizabeth Marie Pope

Amer­i­can chil­dren’s his­tor­i­cal and fan­ta­sy nov­el­ist and Shake­speare­an schol­ar (1917–1992). Her works are known for their rig­or­ous his­tor­i­cal research, ele­gant lit­er­ary style, and exquis­ite blend of Tudor pol­i­tics and folk fan­ta­sy.

  • Top Award and Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Works:
  • Dan­ger­ous Guardian (The Per­ilous Gard(1974) — Award­ed 1975 New­bery Hon­orThe sto­ry takes place in 1558, on the eve of Eliz­a­beth I’s acces­sion to the throne. A young woman named Kate is impli­cat­ed and exiled to the remote “Guardian of Dan­ger” cas­tle. There, she inad­ver­tent­ly dis­cov­ers a dark under­ground world hid­den deep beneath the cas­tle, ruled by ancient fairies (Fairy Logs). With calm rea­son and a spir­it of sac­ri­fice, she res­cues a young noble­man from the fairies’ sac­ri­fi­cial rit­u­al.

| Died | Eliz­a­beth Marie Pope | Eliz­a­beth Marie Pope (Wikipedia) |

🎂 1900 – Born: George Him

Jerzy Him (1900–1982), a Pol­ish-born British graph­ic artist, gallery and book illus­tra­tor, was known for his high­ly styl­ized mod­ern design lines, rich col­or com­po­si­tions, and humor­ous anthro­po­mor­phic fig­ures.

  • Rep­re­sen­ta­tive works and con­tent:
  • The Lit­tle Red Train Has a Name Now! (The Lit­tle Red Engine Gets a Name(1942, by Diana Ross) — Includ­ed in “1001 Chil­dren’s Books”. This clas­sic mid-20th-cen­tu­ry British indus­tri­al and trans­porta­tion pic­ture book tells the inspir­ing sto­ry of a lit­tle red steam loco­mo­tive that nor­mal­ly only trans­ports hay and house­wives on coun­try roads. When the main loco­mo­tive breaks down, it is giv­en a spe­cial mis­sion: to suc­cess­ful­ly deliv­er the King of Eng­land’s spe­cial train to its des­ti­na­tion and thus earn its own name.

| Birth | George Him | George Him (Wikipedia) |

🎂 1943 – Born: Dean Hughes

Amer­i­can chil­dren’s his­tor­i­cal and sports fic­tion writer (1943).

  • Rep­re­sen­ta­tive works and con­tent:
  • Sol­dier Boy (Sol­dier Boys(2001) — A renowned chil­dren’s his­tor­i­cal fic­tion about World War II, inter­wo­ven with two par­al­lel sto­ry­lines. The sto­ry fol­lows Spencer, a 15-year-old Amer­i­can boy eager to prove his courage, and Dieter, a 16-year-old Ger­man boy deeply influ­enced by Nazi pro­pa­gan­da and filled with patri­ot­ic fer­vor, as they enlist. The two sto­ry­lines bru­tal­ly con­verge on the icy bat­tle­fields of the Bat­tle of the Bulge, pro­found­ly reveal­ing the dev­as­ta­tion war inflicts on young lives and the awak­en­ing of human­i­ty.

| Birth | Dean Hugh­es | Dean Hugh­es (Wikipedia) |

🎂 1929 – Born: Rosemarie Wildermuth

Ger­man chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture edi­tor, anthol­o­gy edi­tor, and trans­la­tor (1929–1995).

  • Top Award and Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Works:
  • Com­pil­ing a col­lec­tion of his­tor­i­cal doc­u­ments for chil­dren Heute – und die 30 Jahre davor: Erzäh­lun­gen, Gedichte und Kom­mentare zu unser­er Zeit. (Deutsch­land seit 1949)(From “Today and the Past 30 Years: Essays, Poems and Crit­i­cism of Our Time”), award­ed Spe­cial Prize of the 1979 Ger­man Youth Lit­er­a­ture Prize (DJLP)This book sys­tem­at­i­cal­ly orga­nizes the social changes and lit­er­ary mem­o­ries of post­war Ger­many over the next 30 years, mak­ing an impor­tant con­tri­bu­tion to chil­dren’s his­to­ry and civic edu­ca­tion.

| Birth | Rose­marie Wil­der­muth | Rose­marie Wil­der­muth (Wikipedia) |

⚰️ 2021 — Passed away: Doris Orgel

Doris Ful­da (1929–2021), an Aus­tri­an-Amer­i­can chil­dren’s nov­el­ist and trans­la­tor, was born in Vien­na and went into exile through­out the Unit­ed States due to per­se­cu­tion dur­ing World War II. Her works often focus on chil­dren’s inner fears, imag­i­na­tions, and iden­ti­ty.

  • Rep­re­sen­ta­tive works and con­tent:
  • Sarah’s Room (Sarah’s Room(1963, illus­trat­ed by Mau­rice Sendak) — This film tells the sto­ry of a lit­tle girl named Nik­ki who longs for her old­er sis­ter Sarah’s clean room, which is off-lim­its to out­siders. She enters the room in her dreams and imag­i­na­tion, expe­ri­enc­ing a heart­warm­ing sto­ry about grow­ing up and sib­ling rela­tion­ships.

| Passed Away | Doris Orgel | Doris Orgel (Wikipedia) |

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