Hilda van Stockum at 105 - A Long Publishing Life

It is the 105th birthday today of my mother, Hilda van Stockum. She would be 105 years old tomorrow, but she died in 2006 at 98. My siblings have written some appreciations of her life that I will post on the birthday calendar.

Meanwhile, I have been going the publishing agreements she left behind, and I made a table for them below. The first book contract that I find is for "A Day on Skates" with Harper & Brothers, in 1933. The last one was with Bethlehem Books in 1999 - a span of 66 years. That is an amazing career. 

A couple of stories about the table that follows. Hilda van Stockum married my father E. R. Marlin in 1932. It was the Depression so they needed money! My father was in New York City looking for work and he visited publishers on his wife's behalf. Viking's May Massee was out the day he called on them (she had just started with Viking, starting their juvenile division, after ten years at Doubleday), so it wasn't an oversight on her part that she didn't jump at the first book. Harper & Bros. had published a book of poems by Edna St. Vincent Millay, so Dad tried them and they bought the book. Millay wrote a nice preface.  The book succeeded in getting rave reviews in many publications, including the New Yorker, the NY Times and the Herald Tribune. May Massee wooed Hilda and took 13 of Hilda's books between 1937 and 1965.

Massee retired from Viking around 1960. Hilda's most popular book, "The Winged Watchman," was published next by Farrar Straus, which also published "The Borrowed House" - both about the Occupation of Holland in World War II.    

Memoranda of Agreements between Hilda van Stockum (or Estate) and Publishers

Year, Month	Book	Publisher, Editor
1933 November	A Day on Skates in Holland	Harper & Bros., Raymond
1937 October	The O’Sullivans (Cottage at Bantry)	Viking, Beal
1939 February	Francie on the Run	Viking, Massee
1939 November	Pegeen	Viking, Massee
1940 April	Kersti and St. Nicholas	Viking, Massee
1942 June	Andries	Viking, Massee
1943 July	Gerrit and the Organ	Viking, Massee
1945 Feb 1947 March	The Mitchells - Canadian Summer	Viking, Massee
1948 June	The Angels’ Alphabet	Viking, Massee
1949 December	Patsy and the Pup	Viking, Massee
1956 June	King Oberon’s Forest	Viking, Massee
1959 July	Friendly Gables	Viking, Massee
1961 May - 1974	Holland Story (Winged Watchman)	Farrar Straus& Cudahy, Cudahy
1961 July	Little Old Bear, Jeremy Bear	Constable, Grover
1962 May	Little Old Bear	Viking, Duff
1965 October	Mogo’s Flute	Viking, Duff
1973 February	Jacko Round and Round (Rufus)	Longman Young Books
1997 March	Reprint of Winged Watchman	Bethlehem, Sharpe
1997 March	Reprint of 3 Irish books	Bethlehem, Sharpe
1997 March	Reprint of 3 Mitchells Books	Bethlehem, Sharpe
1997 March	Reprint of A Day on Skates	Bethlehem, Sharpe
1997 March	Reprint of The Angel’s Alphabet	Bethlehem, Sharpe
1997 October	New Edition of Mugo’s [sic] Flute	Focus Publications
1998 March	Andries	Bethlehem, Sharpe
1999 August	Pamela Walks the Dog	Bethlehem, Sharpe
2009 January	Translation of A Day on Skates	Fukuinkan Shoten

I can't get over the fact that my mom's book "The Winged Watchman" has sold 50,000 copies in 15 years being marketed only to a relatively small group - U.S. and Canadian Christian home schoolers. It gets a 4.1 rating on the graded-on-a-curve Goodreads.com site, with 317 reviewers. It is ranked there in the top dozen books for children about World War II. (If you know the book, please add yourself to the rankers at http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/17000.Best_Children_s_Books_about_World_War_II_1939_1945!)