St. Nicholas has been called the best children's magazine ever published, particularly during the tenure of its founding editor, Mary Mapes Dodge. From 1873 to 1905, Dodge worked to create what she called a ""pleasure ground"" for children--a magazine that would have great impact on several generations of children. The list of authors who wrote for her includes Louisa May Alcott, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Rudyard Kipling, Theodore Roosevelt, and Mark Twain. The quality of the magazine's illustration was equally high. The magazine was also the launching pad for a new generation of authors and artists, such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, E.B. White, Jack London, and Eudora Welty.
This anthology of critical writing on St. Nicholas includes some of the most influential articles already published and newly commissioned essays on a variety of subjects, including the impact of the St. Nicholas league, the utopian thrust of the magazine's fiction, and the story of the long and productive literary partnership between Dodgeand Alcott. Essays also analyze Dodge's relationship with her readers, her editorial practice, the illustrations, American family life as seen by young British readers, war and military life, advertising, and the middle-class preoccupation with ""change of fortune"" tales. The work places St. Nicholas in American cultural history, and analyzes how it both influenced and was influenced over thirty years. Essential documentary material presently unpublished or inaccessible and illustrations from the magazine are also included.
Edited by:
Susan R. Gannon,
Suzanne Rahn,
Ruth Anne Thompson
Imprint: McFarland & Co Inc
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions:
Height: 229mm,
Width: 152mm,
Spine: 16mm
Weight: 422g
ISBN: 9780786417582
ISBN 10: 0786417587
Pages: 306
Publication Date: 15 July 2004
Recommended Age: From 18 years
Audience:
General/trade
,
ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Table of Contents Introduction: What Was St. Nicholas Magazine? PART I. THE MAKING OF ST. NICHOLAS, 1873–1905 1. Children's Magazines (Mary Mapes Dodge) 2. In Memory of Mary Mapes Dodge (William Fayal Clarke) 3. Fair Ideals and Heavy Responsibilities: The Editing of St. Nicholas Magazine (Susan R. Gannon) 4. Illustrating St. Nicholas and the Influence of Mary Mapes Dodge (Michael S. Joseph) 5. “Here’s to Our Magazine!” Promoting St. Nicholas (Susan R. Gannon) PART II. “JACKS AND JILLS”: ST NICHOLAS AND ITS AUDIENCE 6. St. Nicholas and Its Friends: The Magazine-Child Relationship (Suzanne Rahn) 7. Young Eyewitnesses to History (Suzanne Rahn) 8. In the Century's First Springtime: Albert Bigelow Paine and the St. Nicholas League (Suzanne Rahn) 9. Onward and Upward with the Arts: The St. Nicholas League (E. B. White) 10. A Debut in the League (Suzanne Rahn) 11. The St. Nicholas Advertising Competition: Training the Magazine Reader (Ellen Gruber Garvey) 12. “Work Well Done”: Louisa May Alcott and Mary Mapes Dodge (Daniel Shealy) PART III. ST. NICHOLAS AND ITS WORLDS:CULTURAL MESSAGES 13. The Utopia of St. Nicholas: The Present as Prologue (Fred Erisman) 14. Two Narrative Formulas (R. Gordon Kelly) 15. Money: The Change of Fortune Story in St. Nicholas (Anne MacLeod) 16. St. Nicholas and the City Beautiful, 1893-1894 (Greta Little) 17. “When Did Youth Ever Neglect to Bow Before Glory?” St. Nicholas and War (Marilynn Strasser Olson) 18. Young England Looks at America (Gillian Avery) Bibliography Index
Susan R. Gannon is professor emeritus of English and Communications at Pace University in Pleasantville, New York. She lives in Somers, New York. Suzanne Rahn is associate professor at Pacific Lutheran University, and lives in Seattle, Washington. Ruth Anne Thompson is professor emeritus of English at Pace University. She lives in Madison, Connecticut.
Reviews for St. Nicholas and Mary Mapes Dodge: The Legacy of a Children's Magazine Editor, 1873-1905
“recommended”—Choice; “fills a significant gap in scholarship...thoughtful scholarship...fascinating details”—Children’s Literature Association Quarterly; “good bibliography and index, this book belongs on the shelves of anyone interested in children’s literature”—Dime Novel Round-Up.
