Diaries etc.

[osprey_archer]

It turns out that, no, the local museum does not have any diaries written by girls between 1890 and 1910. But it does have a simply splendid collection of girls' diaries from the thirties and forties!

Curses, curses, curses! Why couldn't I have asked this question a year ago when I could have changed the focus of my project? An untapped and presumably voluminous primary source!

Oh well. I don't think there was any particularly exciting girls' lit being published in the thirties and forties. No, wait, Caddie Woodlawn - who was rather more important to me than Anne of Green Gables - and Blue Willow, which I love...

Oh, curses.

(I still wouldn't call the thirties and forties any kind of turning point in children's literature. Right? Right?)

***

Also, through the magic of interlibrary loan the library has gotten me The House Without Windows. But it - like its author before it - has disappeared.

Comments

[goldjadeocean.livejournal.com]

If I recall correctly, the thirties and forties were really the era when children's lit was really commodified and formulized--lots of Nancy Drew and so on, right?

House Without Windows

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

You mean they said they'd send it to you and then told you it was missing? Or they said they'd send it to you, but it disappeared in transit? Or you had it one day, but it's gone the next?

Re: House Without Windows

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

The library told me they had it, and I went to pick it up and the girl at the circ desk couldn't find it! I think maybe it realized it was somewhere new and went off to explore.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

True. :( So I could have done a project on it. But then I would have had to read piles of Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys.

(At one time I did consider doing a project about the Babysitter's Club books and what their popularity said about American girlhood in the 1990s. It would have been totally cool. There are too many possible projects in the world.)

Re: House Without Windows

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I went back to the library today, and this time they found it. So tonight I plan to sit in front of the fire and read it. :)

Re: House Without Windows

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I'm on tenterhooks waiting for your opinion!

[visualthinker11.livejournal.com]

Aw, Caddie Woodlawn! I've never read Blue Willow though--is it at all similar?

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Not in any particulars, but Janey (the heroine) has some similarities to Caddie - if you like Caddie you might like Blue Willow too.

I should write a review of it.

[visualthinker11.livejournal.com]

That would be pretty awesome if you did! : )

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Done!