March 1998
Conversation with Leonard S. Marcus,
author of Dear Genius
Interview by Etta Wilson
Last summer we happened to meet historian, biographer, and critic Leonard Marcus and heard
about his forthcoming book of selected letters of Ursula Nordstrom, longtime editorial director of children's
books at HarperCollins. After being completely engrossed by the book (review), we had to talk with
Marcus. The following is taken from our phone conversation with him.
BookPage: Tell us how you decided to edit and compile a book of Nordstrom's letters.
Leonard Marcus: It grew out of work on my biography of Margaret Wise Brown, Awakened by the Moon. As I talked with different people in connection with that book -- Garth Williams, Clement Hurd, and others -- so many of them mentioned receiving letters from Ursula that they prized. As I began to read some of her letters myself, I was struck by her wit and her love for both authors and for children's books.
BP: How many letters were there for you to read and how long did it take?
LM: Nearly 100,000 in all! Harper had kept her carbon copies in filing cabinets in a small room. For more than two years, I sat reading these richly entertaining letters -- I felt like I'd discovered King Tut's tomb -- and finally selected 300 for Dear Genius. In addition to these 100,000, Ursula would go home from the office and write more, some of which are preserved and some not.
BP: Why do you think she wrote so voluminously?
LM: The key to her approach in both her letter writing and in the books she selected to publish was emotional honesty. She thought quickly and typed very rapidly, though not always accurately! She wanted people to feel that she was responding exactly as she felt. Of course, she began her career [Nordstrom became director of children's books in 1940] at a time when letter writing was an everyday mode of communication. Many of her own letters are masterful works of art. Both her parents had been actors, and she was a richly entertaining person -- on a par with James Thurber, I think. Letter writing was her stage.
BP: Did you sense any distinctions in her relationships with different authors?
LM: Oh, yes. E.B. White came to her as an adult author, and she was rather deferential in writing to him. She did suggest that he change the title of the next-to-last chapter in Charlotte's Web, which he did, but that was about all. And I think she was a little scared of the very glamorous Margaret Wise Brown, who wrote prolifically and published with several houses. Ursula just tried to hold on. On the whole, she was attracted to talented people with prickly personalities. She loved a good battle of wits. Yet her letters to John Steptoe are very touching. Stevie was published when he had just turned 19, and Ursula offered him encouragement and responded to his fears. She even got to know his mother.
BP: Who do you think will want to read Dear Genius?
LM: Of course, anyone working with children's books. Ursula was an ardent champion for making children's books as good as those for adults, and if you look at what happened in the field during her 33 years as editor, you can see a significant change in the quality of books for children. She published Goodnight Moon, The Giving Tree, Charlotte's Web, The Carrot Seed, Where the Wild Things Are, and William's Doll, and she started the I Can Read series. She was also a fascinating woman and a larger-than-life character -- an American original. And as the editor of so many groundbreaking books, she was a shaper of American culture.
Dear Genius, The Letters of Ursula Nordstrom, collected and edited by Leonard S. Marcus
HarperCollins, $22.95, ISBN 0060236256
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