Elizabite: The Story of the Book - Part IV



The Carnivorous Plant (~1939)
McCain Library and Archives
University of Southern Mississippi

          Ursula Nordstrom wasted no time in signing a contract with Hans Rey for Elizabite: The Adventures of a Carnivorous Plant and by the first of August, Rey was busy preparing his manuscript.  One character in the book that had not been changed from the Portuguese version to the British version was the maid. In both of these versions she was depicted as a tall, attractive brunette wearing a blue dress and apron—a character who could have been easily mistaken for the botanist’s wife.

         The maid in the Harper edition was strikingly different, redrawn as a heavy-set, thick-lipped black servant wearing a blue bandana and buffoonish red and white striped hose. There are no clues as to why Rey made

Color separation for Elizabite (1942)
McCain Library and Archives
University of Southern Mississippi

 this change. Perhaps he sought to redraw the maid to mirror the stereotyped images of African Americans commonly published in books, newspapers, and the mainstream magazines of the day—images that reflected the Jim Crow humor many Americans were accustomed to seeing.  Perhaps he had observed domestic servants in New York who dressed in a similar fashion.  In any case, both Rey and his editor Ursula Nordstrom felt the characterization to be appropriate.          

          Criteria for evaluating books "by and about the Negro suitable for children" had been developed as early as 1938 by Augusta Baker, a librarian at the 135th Street branch of the New York Public Library. However, only a handful of books by mainstream trade publishers before 1940 met the standards outlined by Baker. 

Charlemae Hill Rollins
McCain Library and Archives
University of Southern Mississippi

In 1941, Charlemae Hill Rollins, head of the children’s room at the South Side Branch of the Chicago Public Library, wrote We Build Together: A Reader’s Guide to Negro Life and Literature for Elementary and High School Use, published by the National Council of Teachers of English. Rollins maintained that the continued use of stereotyped images in children books was due to authors and editors who were “either unaware of the danger or writing to satisfy a popular demand for humorous books, which amuse white children, but present the Negro in a false light, thus ridiculing him.” This criticism could have certainly been made of Elizabite. However, it was received by reviewers and most librarians at the time as “sheer nonsense” (Kirkus Review) and “a bright spot of hilarity in a darkened world” (New York Times)

            Little more than two years later, Hans Rey would encounter a man who would raise his awareness of racist images and the hurt they can cause. Their friendship would ultimately change both their lives and impact the world of children’s literature as well.

            “Elizabite: The Story of the Book” is based on “From Elizabite to Spotty: The Reys, Race and Consciousness Raising,” an essay published in the Children’s Literature Association Quarterly, Vol. 35, #4, Winter 2012.

Elizabite: The Story of the Book - Part III

McCain Library and Archives
University of Southern Mississippi

            In June 1941, Hans Rey was finishing the illustrations for Margaret Wise Brown’s The Polite Penguin, his first contract for Harper and Brothers. Anxious to retain Rey on her list, Ursula Nordstrom, director of the Department of Books for Boys and Girls at Harper, proposed the following in a letter dated July 16, 1941: “Now about the picture book to be written and illustrated by you. I am so enthusiastic over your work that we are eager to give you a contract even though the story for us is yet unwritten.”

            Rey responded the next day: “I am giving it some thought

McCain Library and Archives
University of Southern Mississippi

and some of my night's sleep, and I hope I can put something before you soon." Significant changes were made to the 1938 version of The Carnivorous Plant to transform it into the manuscript Rey showed Nordstrom on July 29, 1941. First, text was added. The British Bobbies were redrawn as New York City policemen, and the main character was given a name, although readers had to wait until the very last page to discover it was "Elizabite," which was printed on the sign affixed to her zoo enclosure. 

            “Elizabite: The Story of the Book” is based on “From Elizabite to Spotty: The Reys, Race and Consciousness Raising,” an essay published in the Children’s Literature Association Quarterly, Vol. 35, #4, Winter 2012.

Elizabite: The Story of the Book - Part II

McCain Library and Archives
University of Southern Mississippi

           After the Reys married in August 1935, Margret and Hans took a belated honeymoon trip to Europe in 1936. Their “honeymoon” lasted four years and during their stay in Paris, the couple began their publishing career. On a visit to friends in London, Hans met with editors at Chatto & Windus, who agreed to publish Zebrology, another of Rey’s wordless books. This success prompted him to revise a Planta Carnivora: Romance Botanico em 26 Capitulos, in order to make it more appealing for a British audience.  

McCain Library and Archives
University of Southern Mississippi

            Using the same format of three pictures to a page, Rey redrew the book replacing the few Portuguese words with English. A professor, called to examine the strange plant, is given a proper English pinstripe coat, and the small brown dachshund is replaced by a black Scottish terrier. Lastly, Rey added British Bobbies to the story to serve as guards when the plant is escorted to the zoo.

            In spite of his best efforts, The Carnivorous Plant was never published. A rejection letter dated September 18, 1938, from I. M. Parsons stated that while the story had “great charm,” the timing for its publication was not convenient, given that Chatto & Windus was publishing two of Rey’s other works in the next twelve months. With that news the bound watercolor manuscripts were forgotten until a letter from Ursula Nordstrom, their editor at Harper & Brothers in New York, arrived at the Rey apartment in July 1941.

            “Elizabite: The Story of the Book” is based on “From Elizabite to Spotty: The Reys, Race and Consciousness Raising,” an essay published in the Children’s Literature Association Quarterly, Vol. 35, #4, Winter 2012.

The Park Book - Part One

The Park Book by Charlotte Zolotow, illus. by H. A. Rey,
Harper & Brothers, 1944

The Park Book, published in 1944, was a collaboration between neighbors. Charlotte Zolotow and her husband Maurice lived just a few blocks from Hans and Margret Rey’s Washington Square South apartment at 15 Washington Place. At the time Zolotow was employed as Ursula Nordstrom’s editorial assistant in the Department of Books for Boys and Girls at Harper & Brothers.

42 Washington Sq. South is depicted by the blue marker on the left.
Charlotte Zolotow's apartment was located at 15 Washington Place.
The red marker notes Ursula Nordstrom's apartment at 44 W. 10th.

1945 New York City Directory

     One day Zolotow wrote a memo to her boss, proposing an idea for a book about the park, and suggested that, perhaps, they could get Margaret Wise Brown to write it. Nordstrom’s reaction was less than favorable. As Leonard Marcus writes in Dear Genius, the legendary editor was known to use a variety of means “to coax authors toward perfection” (xxviii). In this case, she used a dare. According to Zolotow’s account, “After what seemed to be great irritation, Ursula asked her to expand on the memo. ‘Just what,’ she asked Charlotte, slightly combatively, ‘do you think is so special about the park?’ Charlotte elaborated on the memo, in writing... and was totally unprepared for Ursula's sudden appearance at her desk. 'Congratulations,' said Ursula to Charlotte. 'You've just sold your first children's book.'"

            Nordstrom paired Zolotow’s prose with Hans Rey’s art, himself a park devotee. Using a four-color palette, Rey’s illustrations captured Zolotow’s “observations of a bustling Washington Square and the changing activities and moods of the park from early morning until late at night” (Something About the Author, Vol. 138, p. 233). Saturday Review of Literature described their collaboration as “A gay picture book with a friendly rhythmic text that tells of a day in a city park that looks very much like Washington Square.”

            Part of the action includes Rey sketching by the fountain, as seen on the end pages, and in the playground with a young admirer looking on. A more formal Rey, dressed in a brown suit, sits reading his afternoon paper by the fountain. Not to be forgotten are Charcoal and Margret. I’ll leave it to you to spy them. Hint: Look on the end pages.