| re: The author of the footnotes, in Green's words: | |
| Posted by: BruceinIthaca 07:43 pm EDT 08/17/22 | |
| In reply to: The author of the footnotes, in Green's words: - Showtunegal 10:48 am EDT 08/17/22 | |
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| Depends. Nordstrom, a pioneer in children's publishing and editing (and, IIRC, he first children's editor to have her own imprint) was a lesbian and she wanted to write a sequel later in life about the two girls, Vicky and Martha, later in life, living adult lives as lesbians. (I don't recall if they were to be coupled and it may be that Nordstrom never got that far with it). Nordstrom said she wanted to show readers that there were many ways of living a happy life--I don't recall whether it was going to be a YA (a fairly new genre in the late 60s) or aimed at an adult audience. as the book was never written, the point is moot, but Green is not all wrong in viewing the novel as having lesbian undertones--even if very crypto (and perhaps only recognizable to adult readers?). In any case, it was Nordstrom's only novel, but she was a great championship of writers like Maurice Sendak, Margaret Wise Brown (both LGBT but not publicly so at the height of their popularity), and Shel Silverstein, who on occasion published druggy and ribald poems in Playboy (and wrote what I consider one of the worst children's book of all times, The Giving Tree, a paean to the selfishness of children toward their self-sacrificing parents) A selection of her letters was published some years ago, called "Dear Genius"--fascinating reading, even if any hint at same-sex issues is indirect. She was a true pioneer and a class act. | |
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