HvS | Links to Letters 1943-1971

1943 – To ERM, O.S.S., London
1944 – To ERM, O.S.S., London (MIA, Death of HvS's brother Willem), Hunger Winter
1944 – To Bertha Mahoney, The Horn Book
1945 – To ERM, United Nations, Provisional ICAO Jul-Aug
1946 – To ERM, ICAO
1954-55 – To Joan Dowling and Others – Marlins' Pilgrimage, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy
1971 – To Brigid, Letters on The Borrowed House 1  Evil 2 Epiphany 3

HvS | Best Illustrators of Children's Books, 1944

Kate Seredy's cover for Eva R.
Gaggin's book about a Swiss-
herdsman doll and a pet goose.

I just ran across an article in the May-June 1944 issue of The Horn Book by Hilda van Stockum, "Through an Illustrator's Eyes".

It is a remarkable survey of the relationship between the artist and author–in HvS's case, an internal dialogue–and the ways in which the illustrations help the story.

The timing of the article was also tragic. It appeared as HvS's brother Willem was piloting six missions in a Halifax bomber over occupied France during the ten days surrounding D-Day. As a mathematician, he knew well the tiny probability of his surviving so many missions during that period. On June 10, 1944 he and his six fellow crew members were shot down over Laval, France along with another Halifax, two of the ten planes on that mission.

But back to the article. Here is an early paragraph, which gives a flavor of HvS's message:

The author does need the illustrator. It is a terrible bore to have to write long descriptions, especially when you know everyone skips them anyway. It is much easier to jot down in the margin, "Picture of such and such," and have done with it. This is true of all literature, although nowadays it is respectable for publishers to pretend that only children like pictures (p. 177).

HvS has a good vantage point from which to survey the field, because she has been a writer with another illustrator, an illustrator with another writer and an author-illustrator of books for a variety of age groups.

She praises the engravings (by James Mahoney and others) in the Household Edition of Charles Dickens' novels:

• They tell the story you're reading, not some other story the artist prefers.
• One even suspects the illustrator read the book.
• The people in the pictures are the same as in the book, with some details added...
• The pictures are placed where you expect them.
• At satisfying climaxes, the illustrator takes care of situations the author has to leave in a hurry. The illustrator must rise to the occasion and put the baby to bed, warm the soup, sweep the floor and show that the rest of the world is going on as usual (p. 178).

She much prefers the illustrations that Reginald Birch for the first edition of Little Lord Fauntleroy (one of her favorite books) to the ones he did for the second edition. "Gone is the sober little lad with the wistful eyes. Instead we see a wriggly girl masquerading in trousers and looking self-consciously from under the frothy wig" (p. 179).

She gives special praise to the following contemporary illustrators:

• Fritz Eichenberg's pictures for Ermengarde Eberle's Wide Fields. "There is no showy quality about his work; it is all direct and simple and thoroughly sincere (p. 181).
• Kate Seredy's adaptation of her style to Eva R. Gaggin's An Ear for Uncle Emil. "The pictures sing" (p. 181). Sylvia Plath had this 1939 book in her library and was inspired to copy at least one of the pictures in the book in July 1944. The timing of her copying of the illustration suggests that she read HvS's article in The Horn Book. Sadly, An Ear for Uncle Emil is out of print, despite its two distinguished fans.
• Feodor Rojankovsky's fresh impressions of a child's view of bus tickets and bottle caps in The Tall Mother Goose, making them as beautiful as flowers (p. 182). It reminds me of Albert Camus, L'automne est un deuxième printemps où chaque feuille est une fleur.

Author-illustrators do not, HvS says, tend to rise to the pitch which two people can achieve together, but neither does it sink to as low a level of disharmony. She singles out Marguerite de Angeli not for the quality of her artwork but for its youthful quality. Her "constant trembling on the verge of an anatomical error" creates a child-like atmosphere. The example she gives is for Tom Robinson's story, In and Out (p. 183).

This article is an education, allowing one to appreciate the finer points of the teamwork between author and illustrator.

HvS | Nov. 1–10th Anniversary of Her Death

Spike, 1909-1994 (L) and Hilda van Stockum
Marlin, 1908-2006. Photo taken in NJ in 1971.

Nov. 1–Hilda van Stockum died this day, All Saints Day, in 2006. This is the 10th anniversary of her death, and it was celebrated with the issue of a new (2016) edition of her 1975 book The Borrowed House, originally published by Farrar Straus.

The family HvS Remembrances post has recently been updated

Here are some of HvS's many obituaries and appreciations:

USA
New York Times, Nov. 4, 2006, New York Sun, Nov. 3, 2006, Children's Literature Network, Bethlehem Books, Publishers Weekly, Horn Book, Ana Braga-Henebry's Journal, Love2Learn Mom, Top Ten Sources - Children's Media, Hiram Library, Karen Edmisten Blog, Mailgate.
CANADA Toronto Globe and Mail, Nov. 2, 2006, National Post, Nov. 9, 2006.
IRELAND Irish Times, Nov. 18, 2006.
UK Books for Keeps, Jan. 2007, Berkhamsted Gazette, Nov. 8, 2006, World People's Blog, Achockoblog (Achuka).  

Reissued in 2016.

NETHERLANDS (in Dutch) Het Parool (Amsterdam, WWII Underground Resistance Newspaper), Nov. 9, 2006, Leesplein. 
GERMANY (in German) German-Language Wikipedia.  
KENYA Daily Nation, Nairobi, Nov. 14, 2006, p. 38. 
NEW ZEALAND Dorothy Neal White Newsletter. 

Related Posts: HvS English-Language Wikipedia Entry . HvS Dutch-Language Wikipedia Entry . Her brother Willem . European Pilgrimage 1954-55 . New Purple House Press Edition of The Borrowed House . Remembrances by Her Family (Updated to 2016)

HvS ART | Books HvS Illustrated (8 books posted)

1936. Ninke van Hichtum, Afke's Ten. J. B. Lippincott Co.  Ninke van Hichtum, a popular Dutch writer, was the pen name of S. M. D. Troelstra Bokma de Boer. The translator from the Dutch was Marie Kiersted Pidgeon, who taught at the Benjamin Franklin High School in New York City.

1937. Rudolf Voorhoeve, Tilio, A Boy of Papua. J. B. Lippincott, Philadelphia and London. This is an interesting book for several reasons: (1) It is the only book that Hilda van Stockum both translated and illustrated - usually a publisher divides this work because translators usually can't draw and illustrators usually can't translate.  (2) My sister Brigid has vivid memories of the book.

(3) When HvS was two months old, she went with her parents to Java, not far from Papua and likewise under Dutch colonial administration, because her father was a naval captain sent to suppress rebels against Dutch rule.
(4) After World War II the Dutch ceded control of most of Indonesia to Sukarno, the one-name head of state, who was succeeded by another one-namer, Suharto. But the Dutch stayed in Netherlands New Guinea until 1962, the year after which the Indonesian government started taking over. (It was that year that a team of anthropologists went to New Guinea to explore the region, and Michael Rockefeller lost his life on a solo sortie.)
(5) Especially since 1969, the Indonesian Government has had nothing but trouble with West Papua. The militant Free Papua Movement has engaged in guerrilla skirmishes against the Indonesian military and police, and has kidnapped non-Papuan Indonesian settlers and foreigners. West Papuans have sought independence or federation with Papua New Guinea. Many West Papuans have been killed by the Indonesian military. The Indonesian government has been compared to a police state in West Papua. The Indonesian Government restricts foreign access to West Papuan provinces because of this conflict. (Thanks to Brigid and Sheila for helping with this entry!)


1944. Catherine Cate Coblentz, The Bells of Leyden Sing. Longmans, Green & Co., New York and Toronto. This was the year that HvS' brother Willem was killed by the Germans occupying France. He was the pilot of a Halifax bomber, flying as a Dutch citizen for the RAF out of Melbourne, Yorkshire. He flew six missions before and after D-Day. That year, Cate Coblentz visited the Marlin family at their home in Washington, D.C. and wrote it all up in a wonderful article for the Horn Book.

1945. Delia Goetz, The Burro of Barnegat Road. Harcourt, Brace and Company, New York.  A farm in Connecticut.






1946. Mary Mapes Dodge, Hans Brinker or: The Silver Skates. World Publishing Company, Cleveland and New York. Rainbow Classics. Introduction by May Lamberton Becker. The book was originally published in 1865.




1946. Louisa May Alcott, Little Women. World Publishing Company, Cleveland and New York. Rainbow Classics. Introduction by May Lamberton Becker.





1948. The Book of Bible Stores. World Publishing Company, Cleveland and New York. Rainbow Classics. Introduction by May Lamberton Becker.






1950. Louisa May Alcott, Little Men. World Publishing Company, Cleveland and New York. Rainbow Classics. Introduction by May Lamberton Becker.

HvS and Her Granddaughter
Christine Marlin Schintgen.

2001. Christine Marlin, Pamela Walks the Dog. Bethlehem Books. It is probably safe to say this is the last book that HvS illustrated that was published during her lifetime, which sadly ended in 2006. It was written by her granddaughter, Christine Marlin (now using her married name Schintgen), and is pegged at children aged 3 and up. HvS's book illustrating career therefore spanned 67 years from A Day on Skates to Pamela Walks the Dog, unless we can identify an earlier book than 1934. There was an Irish reader she reportedly illustrated in 1932, but I have not been able to track it down. She also illustrated a book on windmills for Jan den Tex, which many years later led to the Winged Watchman.