WW2 | 55K Sales of "Winged Watchman" in Reprint

Hilda van Stockum's book about a Dutch miller's family in wartime Holland was originally published by Farrar Straus & Cudahy (later Farrar Straus & Giroux).

It passed 55,000 in sales in the first quarter of 2016. It is sold by Bethlehem Books.

This is a very high sales figure for a book that was allowed to go out of print. At $15 per book, that amounts to $825,000 in revenue. The book generates about $40,000 in sales per year. 

So by 2020 it will have generated about $1 million in reprint.

A companion book that van Stockum wrote to The Winged Watchman is about a Nazi-occupied house in Amsterdam. It is called The Borrowed House. 

A new edition is about to be released by Purple House Press in Cynthiana, Kentucky, which was founded by Jill Morgan.

The new edition will have a foreword about HvS's life by me and an endnote by Christine Schintgen with information about HvS's writing.

HvS BIRTHDAY | Feb. 9 - Will Celebrate 107th in England

Hilda van Stockum as Art Student

On February 9 I will be in England and will celebrate with family members the birthday in 1908 of our mother Hilda van Stockum.

She was born this date in Rotterdam, Netherlands, the eldest child and only daughter of Dutch Navy Captain Bram van Stockum and Olga Boissevain.

Just two months after she was born she was taken around the world to Java, sleeping in a hammock with her parents. Her father was tasked with carrying Dutch troops and training Navy gunmen how to shoot.

Years later she met an American, Ervin Ross Marlin, when she was attending the Royal Hibernian Academy of Art in Dublin, Ireland. Her brother Willem van Stockum was his roommate at Trinity College, Dublin. She became Mrs. Marlin at a Dublin wedding in 1932.

She followed her husband to New York City and then Washington, DC, where he joined the FDR Administration based on a competitive exam that took the top 300 people out of thousands of people who took the test. He worked for eight years in several Federal agencies and during World War II he was sent by the OSS under Bill Donovan to Ireland. After the war he worked for the UN for 20 years.

HvS wrote and illustrated her first book for children in 1934, A Day on Skates, published by Harper & Brothers. It had a foreword by her aunt Edna St. Vincent Millay and won a Newbery Honor Roll award.

During the next four decades she averaged one book per year - written or illustrated or both, plus several translations from German or Dutch. After her first book, most of her books were edited by May Massee, who moved to Viking Press in 1932 and remained her faithful editor for 25 years. Her other main publishers were Constable, Lippincott (she illustrated four of the Rainbow Classics including Hans Brinker, Little Women and Little Men) and Farrar Straus.

Since 1994 about 15 of her books have been kept in print by Bethlehem Books and Boissevain Books (named after Hilda van Stockum's mother). One book (The Winged Watchman) has sold 50,000 copies in reprint, in addition to the prior sales from the original publisher, Farrar Straus, over 20 years.

HvS died at 98 years of age on All Saints' Day, 2006. She was pre-deceased by her husband in 1994. She was survived by six children and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Remembrances by Her Children

The following remembrances of Hilda van Stockum on Her Birthday by Her Children were written in 2013, with two updates in 2014. [These were all in the form of emails, posted here by permission. Notes in square brackets by John. All six of her children are still living, in four countries, this month of her 107th birthday. Three live in England.]

Olga Marlin [in Pamplona, Spain for medical treatment, on leave from her Kianda Foundation family in Nairobi, Kenya – she sent these originally as emails to her five younger sibs]:

2013 - Tomorrow is Mom´s birthday,and a day when I pray especially for all of us. Are you following the work of John Beaumont? [Beaumont is finishing up a book on U.S. converts to Catholicism, including Hilda van Stockum.] I´m touched that he is so interested in mother´s religious background. It is built into her whole life, and always had a great influence on me. I don´t know whether he would like to read my book [To Africa with a Dream, Scepter and Boissevain Books]: it brings up quite a lot about Mom. I´m eagerly waiting for a feedback from my Kenyans on Lis´s book [Lis Paice, New Coach: Reflections from a Learning Journey, Open University Press]. I'm sure they are going to like it immensely. We have a number of philosophers coming and going in this Centre [in Pamplona]. An Ecuadorian has just left, who is studying the substance of freedom in the writings of Fernando Polo. Another, from Uruguay, is studying philosophical aspects of anthropology. I discuss their theses with them from time to time - very interesting, but out of my depth... I feel more at home in theology. I´m looking forward to April when the family visits start again!! I can walk around OK now, just using a stick outside for security. My love and a great big hug - I can just hear Mom singing: "Bind us together, Lord, bind us together..." XX Olga

2014 - Warmest greetings from Pamplona, where I´m thinking of you all especially on Mommy´s Birthday tomorrow, I´m sure she´ll hear our "Happy Birthday!" in Heaven. and bless us all. It has been a cold winter across the Atlantic -I hope you didn´t suffer too much. Here we are having huge tidal waves at the coast, with some loss of life and lots of property destroyed. The seaside walks have been cordoned off, to avoid people being swept away. Olga

Brigid Marlin [in Berkhamsted, UK]

2013 - I've been missing Mum so much in different ways. We always discussed painting problems together, and if either of us had a difficulty, a second artist's opinion was very helpful. She was endlessly patient in advising about writing - I always appreciated that very much. And finally she was brilliant at interpreting dreams! And how we all miss her great love for us; uncritical, believing in us and admiring us, giving us confidence and belief in ourselves! Thank you, Mother!

Randal Marlin [in Ottawa, Canada]

2013 - I play violin with our parish choir, Olga, and we recently played "Bind Us Together," and I thought of Mom at the Castle [in Galway]. "He will raise us up on the last day" is another reminder. I can't remember whether "Be not afraid" was a favourite of Mom's but it expresses her thoughts and is a great hymn. I'm studying Spanish with a good teacher and hope to be more fluent when I next come to Pamplona. I'll be playing "Pescador de Hombres" on Sunday, though the music is the same in English or Spanish. Maybe there's a slightly different feeling when I think the Spanish words as I play. Congratulations on your health improvement, Olga. Love to all. Randal

Sheila O'Neill [in Garston, UK]

2013 - Hi all, I miss mother a lot but I feel her presence, watching over us. She was a strong influence on us and a great example of dedication, hard work and religious fervour. She did something right because all six of us have been very successful in our careers. I raise a toast to Mum, long may our memory of her live on! Sheila

John Tepper Marlin

2014, Tiradentes, Brazil - We think of religion as a pacifying influence, especially in Latin America. But for Mom it was revolutionary and that is what religion was in Tiradentes. The revolutionaries who started the movement for Brazilian independence from the Portuguese Empire, inspired by the American Revolution, first met in 1789 in the home of Padre Toledo in this small mountain village. They were called the Inconfidencia Mineira. One of the group testified against 11 others, and they were all executed on April 21, 1792. Only Lieutenant Jose da Silva Xavier, known as Tiradentes (tooth-puller) was hanged, and since independence of the Portuguese monarchy was achieved a century later, in 1889, the anniversary of his death has been a public holiday in Republican Brazil. The flame that was lit in Tiradentes never went out. Mom lit flames like that and many are still burning.

Elisabeth Paice [in London, UK]

2013 - Awwww. That does bring Mom back, Brigid! And “How Great Thou Art!” She loved to get mimosa on her birthday, and Yardley’s Lavender Water, and a poem. I just reread The Winged Watchman in her memory.

Other February-Birthday Children's Book Authors and Illustrators

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!)

The Winged Watchman Has Sold 50,000 Copies

The Winged Watchman by Hilda van Stockum has sold 50,000 copies in reprint (by Bethlehem Books) after long being in print by the original publisher, Farrar Straus, since 1962.

At least one reviewer on Amazon recommends it be made into a movie (this by a mother with three sons).

I'm exploring doing a comic book that could be the prototype for the movie.

Happy St. Nicholas Day to van Stockum Fans - Dec. 6

St. Nicholas Day has great significance in Holland, Belgium and much of Germany - at least the equal of Christmas as a day of gift-giving. With New York still recovering from Hurricane Sandy, it is notable that St. Nicholas is the patron saint of millers and sailors, Holland and New York City. Hilda van Stockum's book Kersti and St. Nicholas (1934) which was just republished (2010) for $13.99 after being out of print for 50 years and available only through rare-book dealers at $200 for a good copy..

This is what the Dutch call a 

"Speculaas Moulin" - a windmill 

cookie, with almond and ginger 

spices. In Belgium they are called

"Speculoos" cookies. In both 

countries they are a specialty of St. 

Nicholas Eve (Dec. 5) and Day.

St. Nicholas is the patron saint of many countries, cities and groups, including millers, sailors, children, incarcerated people, Holland and New York City.

At left is a cookie my wife Alice purchased yesterday in Belgium. It is a St. Nicholas Day specialty. It has a windmill on it because Holland it's specialty of Holland and other low countries threatened by floods.

Hurricane Sandy recently shut down much of New York City and reminded us of the Dutch skill at keeping out water. Much of Holland is at or below sea level and the windmills were used to pump out the "polders", the areas surrounded by dikes (Dutch word for embankments).

The Port of Rotterdam is a great example of Dutch engineering to keep water at bay. It is also where my mother, Hilda van Stockum (1908-2006), was born. (Her father was a naval captain and she grew up near naval bases.) Her book, The Winged Watchman (1962), was republished in 1997 after 20 years being out of print. It has sold 45,000 copies in the reprint version and has been optioned for a movie and is in process of being the subject of a comic book. It is about  This book by my mother has special relevance in light of Hurricane Sandy, which caused most of its damage because of flooding and caused most of the lost economic activity because of the electricity outages.

First published in 1962, The Winged 

Watchman has sold 45,000 copies

in reprint since 1997 and was 

optioned  for a movie.

The story is about a family that lives in an old windmill during the Nazi Occupation. Two boys aged 10 and 14 join the Resistance. The book shows how the windmill did their work when the electric mills were starved for fuel during the Dutch famine.

New York City has lost the skills of its Dutch colonists and Hurricane Sandy did major target="_blank">damage to the areas of NYC near water. If the Dutch were still in charge this wouldn't have happened. NY State Governor Andrew Cuomo has assessed the damage statewide as $33 billion and has called for $30 billion in Federal aid. Speaker Christine Quinn has put the New York City damage (which would fit within the statewide number) at $26 billion and has called for $20 million and a surge-control system to prevent 15-foot waves from cascading through New York City streets.

Bring back the Dutch! They first came to New York when the Dutch East India Company in 1609 sent English navigator Henry Hudson to explore the river now named after him. He went far upriver into what is now Canada and wrote back to his sponsors that beavers lived on the river in abundance. A Dutch settlement, New Amsterdam, was founded in Manhattan largely to support trapping beavers and sending them to Europe for women to wear. The New York City coat of arms has two beavers on it as well as a four windmill wings in honor of the Dutch settlers.

Seal of the City of New York..

Note windmill wings and two

beavers.

The Dutch have been facing these flooding problems for many centuries. Their world preeminence in building windmills to pump out water also made them experts in making sails for the mill wings and this helped make them a global naval power for a time.

After the English took over the Dutch colony in 1664, they renamed it New York. The city grew most rapidly when the Hudson River became the gateway not only to upstate New York but also, after the Erie Canal was built, to the Great Lakes.

The Dutch have developed many kinds of technology to deal with today's challenges to their flood-threatened system of polders. New York needs to get their advice. And The Winged Watchman provides both a history of the importance of windmills in Dutch history and an education in the ways to deal with flooding.