48. All Your Children's Books Are Belong To Us (Gays), Part 2

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Welcome back to History is Gay, with part 2 of our three-part exploration of classic queer children's literature authors, with guest host Aubree Calvin! In this second installment, we give more background on the history of queer children's literature and dive a bit deeper into our favorite Queer Kid Lit fairy grandmother Ursula Nordstrom before moving into our main coverage focusing on two additional authors, beloved James Marshall, author of George and Martha and the Miss Nelson series, as well as the iconically curmudgeonly Maurice Sendak, known best for Where the Wild Things Are. 

Part three will be coming your way soon with even more queer children's authors to explore :)

Aubree, or Bree to her friends and enemies alike, is a black, queer trans woman on the edge of turning 40. A southerner for most of her life, Aubree has family roots across the south. She loves studying politics, history, and learning about all aspects of queer culture. Aubree started her podcast, Southern Queeries, because she’s tired of society ignoring the south's diverse communities. Professionally, Aubree is a community college government professor and part time writer. When not talking, teaching, or writing, Aubree’s spending her free time with her wonderful wife and daughter.

Locate Aubree upon the internet:

A Closer Look at the Queer Authors Behind Your Favorite Childhood Books

Take a gander at the folks we’ve covered in this episode.

Ursula Nordstrom (1910 - 1988)

We just scraped the surface of Ursula’s importance to the legacy of the authors in this series the last episode, but we wanted to focus a bit more on her in this one!

Born Feb 2, 1910, in Manhattan, Ursula Nordstorm was INTEGRAL to fostering the era of classic children’s literature that many of us grew up with, recruitng, discovering, and mentoring several authors as the editor and publisher at Harper & Row. And fun fact, she was a lesbian!

She was so incredibly passionate about the world of children’s literature, and even balked at an offer to move into adult literature, scandalized at the very suggestion. She felt strongly about making “Good books for bad children”, rather than didactic books speaking to a nonexistent angel child model.

“Is there a real world where young people always respect their always respectable parents?”

-Ursula Nordstrom

She also authored one book in her tenure, called The Secret Language, about two girls at a boarding school who create a secret language to talk to each other. It is very gay. A collection of her correspondence and letters was published in 1998, called Dear Genius: The Letters of Ursula Nordstrom.

James Marshall (1942 - 1992)

Most well known for his Greg and Martha books about a pair of platonic hippo friends, James Marshall’s cozy illustrations and charming storylines endure today! He also frequently collaborated with Harry Allard, most notably on the Miss Nelson series, about sweet teacher Miss Nelson and her nasty alter ego Miss Viola Swamp.

On the cover, you can also see some of the heavy Texas influence Marshall included in much of his work, reflecting on his childhood growing up there!

self portrait!

A fun little documentary on Marshall:

Maurice Sendak (1928 - 2012)

The iconic Maurice Sendak was born June 10, 1928 in Brooklyn, NY, good friend to James Marshall, mentee of Ursula Nordstrom, and the man who brought us Where the Wild Things Are and In the Night Kitchen, among many other classics. Sendak’s work frequently depicted complicated, chaotic children and spoke to some of the darker elements of childhood and growing up, but with wit and charm all the same.

Sendak’s In the Night Kitchen is one of his most challenged books, causing scandal at its publication because of its depiction of Mickey, its precocious 3-year old protagonist, losing his pajamas and cavorting around the rest of the book naked. So scandalous that some librarians even took to actually painting diapers on little Mickey! We’re having a flashback to the Sistine Chapel and Danny the Panty Painter…

In addition to his writing and illustration, Sendak was heavily involved in theatre, often providing set, costume, and production design for theatre adaptations of his work as well as many operas! Here are some of his contributions:

Sendak with a wild thing costume

And then the sketch design!

sendak with a self-portrait of himself he created for a production of the nutcracker

set design for where the wild things are

set design for the magic flute

 

If you want to learn more, check out our full list of sources and further reading below!

Online Articles & Resources:

James Marshall

Maurice Sendak

Books & Print Articles

Until next time, stay queer and stay curious!

47. All Your Children's Books Are Belong To Us (Gays), Part 1

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This episode marks the return of History is Gay after hiatus, and we're excited to be back in your podfeeds diving into the fascinating world of classic children's literature through the lens of queer authors. Leigh is joined by wonderful guest co-host, Aubree Calvin, to explore the lives and works of several groundbreaking authors, revealing how their sexualities and personal experiences shaped the books we cherished as children.

In this first of a multi-part episode, we're focusing on four beloved authors whose works were some of our favorites: Tomie dePaola, most notable for our favorite Italian grandma Strega Nona, Margaret Wise Brown, the bisexual poet behind beloved picture books Goodnight Moon and The Runaway Bunny, Ann M. Martin, who introduced us to our friends in The Baby-Sitters Club, and Arnold Lobel, the man behind the cozy shared lives of Frog and Toad.  

This conversation doesn't end here; stay tuned as we will continue to explore more queer authors and their impact on the world of children's literature in the next episode, coming soon!

Aubree, or Bree to her friends and enemies alike, is a black, queer trans woman on the edge of turning 40. A southerner for most of her life, Aubree has family roots across the south. She loves studying politics, history, and learning about all aspects of queer culture. Aubree started her podcast, Southern Queeries, because she’s tired of society ignoring the south's diverse communities. Professionally, Aubree is a community college government professor and part time writer. When not talking, teaching, or writing, Aubree’s spending her free time with her wonderful wife and daughter.

Locate Aubree upon the internet:

A Closer Look at the Queer Authors Behind Your Favorite Childhood Books

Take a gander at the first four authors we’ve covered in this episode.

Tomie dePaola (1934 — 2020)

Born September 15, 1934 in Meriden, CT, Tomie dePaola infused his Italian and Irish heritage into his stories with warmth, belonging, and encouraging kids to not be afraid to be themselves.

Tomie with some of his beloved characters

He is perhaps most well known for his Strega Nona series, but he also wrote a book called Oliver Button is a Sissy, the first children’s book to come closest to using the word “gay”.

In Oliver Button is a Sissy, the main character Oliver is a sensitive, artsy boy who is bullied for being a “sissy” and falls in love with tap dance. His peers change their tune however when he dazzles at a dance performance, and “Oliver Button is a Sissy” graffitti becomes “Oliver Button is a Star”.

dePaola drew heavily from his own life experiences for this story, externalizing his own history of being bullied for being a “sissy” child.

In 2001, Tomie starred in his own Jim Henson TV show, Jim Henson’s Telling Stories with Tomie dePaola, telling stories with muppet friends!

There’s a playlist on YouTube of several episodes that you can check out here. It’s delightful!

Margaret Wise Brown (1910 — 1952)

Referred to as the “laureate of nursery”, Margaret Wise Brown was born May 23, 1910 in Brooklyn, NY, and the Goodnight Moon and Runaway Bunny author had a several-years long relationship with socialite, suffragette, and erotic poet Blanche Oelrichs, also known as Michael Strange!

young Margaret Wise Brown with her sister Roberta and their pet rabbits!

Margaret with her terrier, Crispin’s Crispian (Photo by Consuelo Kanaga Brooklyn Museum )

While Margaret would go on to write over 200 books in her lifetime, she is arguably most well known for classics The Runaway Bunny and Goodnight Moon, the later of which was banned in NY libraries until 1972, all because of the personal vendetta from one particular librarian, Anne Caroll Moore against the book, who was very influential in the public libraries community.

Margaret with Crispin's crispian at her cobble court cottage writing studio in the late 1940s

The view from Margaret's beloved home, Only House, on Vinalhaven, Maine

Margaret’s Loves

One of Margaret Wise Brown’s longest relationships was with Blanche Oelrichs, better known by her pen name and later all-time public persona, Michael Strange. We couldn’t find any photos of the two of them together, but here’s a look at Michael, as well as a photo of Margaret with James Stillman Rockefeller Jr, with whom she was together and engaged in the last year of her life.

Margaret later in life with her fiancee, James stillman "Pebble" Rockefeller, jr. 

Margaret's tombstone, on which she requested not to be memorialized as a children's book author, but as a "Writer of songs and nonsense"

Ann M. Martin (1955 — )

Born August 12, 1955, Ann M. Martin is best known for bringing the world The Baby-Sitters Club, but these days she lives in upstate New York and writes independent novels and lives a quiet life with her dogs and a rotating cast of foster kittens!

Ann with doggy friend

Ann at the 2019 National book Awards

The Baby-Sitters Club, first debuting in 1986, put Ann M. Martin on the map and connected with multiple generations of young girls, and especially resonated with queer readers who saw themselves in a group of pre-teen girls who prioritized friendship and an entreprenureal spirit. Plus it didn’t hurt that one of the characters, Kristy, was a huge tomboy!

Ann with the actors from the short-lived 2020 BSC netflix series

Ann Martin (right) with former partner and co-author of Doll People books, Laura godwin (left). She came out publicly in 2016 via a mention of godwin being her former partner in a vulture article.

Arnold Lobel (1933 — 1987)

Born May 22, 1933 in Los Angeles but raised in Schenectady, NY by his German-Jewish grandparents, Arnold Lobel fell in love with illustrating and children’s books at a young age. He illustrated close to 100 books during his career, and his most well-known work is the Frog and Toad series, which he wrote and illustrated together.

Frog and Toad tells stories about two best friends and neighbors, Frog and Toad, who represented two different sides of Arnold Lobel, and according to his daughter, were the beginning of him coming to terms with his sexuality and coming out to himself.

Lobel came out to his wife, Anita Kempler, and his children, in 1974, but continued to work with her for many years. In the early 80s, he met his partner Howard Weiner, who cared for him at the end of his life after suffering from AIDS.

 

If you want to learn more, check out our full list of sources and further reading below!

Online Articles & Resources:

Tomie dePaola

Arnold Lobel

Margaret Wise Brown

Ann M. Martin

Books & Print Articles:

  • Kander, Jessica. “Reading Queer Subtexts in Children’s Literature”, Eastern Michigan University: Digital Commons @EMU, 2011. 

  • Becker R., Margot, et al. Ann M. Martin: The Story of the Author of the Baby-Sitters Club. Scholastic, Incorporated, 1993.

  • Fleischmann, T. “If you are to be an owl”, Fourth Genre: Explorations in Nonfiction, vol. 13, no. 1 (spring 2011), pp. 77-82

  • Gary, Amy. In the Great Green Room: The Brilliant and Bold Life of Margaret Wise Brown. Flatiron Books, 2017.

Until next time, stay queer and stay curious!