CONTEST! | Quibble and Win a Prize! (Updated Aug. 30, 2017)

Hilda van Stockum Marlin, with her six children, c. 1950.
Clockwise: Hilda, John, Brigid, Randal, Sheila, Lis, Olga.

The fact that our dog Hachikō just won Second Prize in the Springs Agricultural Fair led me to thinking: We should have a contest. 

So here it is.

Don Rittner of the Albany Times-Union wrote an excellent article on Hilda van Stockum, "Not an Ordinary Woman," at the time of her birthday earlier this year. This has inspired me to announce a contest relating to the article.

The article is thoughtful and far-reaching, and much welcomed. Here it is.

http://blog.timesunion.com/rittner/hilda-van-stockum-was-not-an-ordinary-woman/5852/

Contest Announcement
I found a couple of minor errors in the article. It's hard to get it all right. As someone who is working on a couple of biographies, I know how hard it is to get everything right. So test your knowledge of Hilda van Stockum and see how many incorrect details you can sleuth out (ignore any mistakes in the associated advertising), number the errors, and send them to me.

Prize: Any book of your choice by Hilda van Stockum that is in print as of the end of September, 2017, delivered to your door. 

Contest Rules
1. Send your entry by email to john@boissevainbooks.com by 11:55 p.m., September 30, 2017. Entries received after that day cannot be considered for a prize.
2. Include your email address (required) and photo (optional) with your submission. We will not sell, exchange or give away your email address to anyone else.
3. Entries become the property of this blog, for us to report and comment on.
4. Entries will be judged on the number of errors correctly identified and the correct replacement noted. 
5. The final judge of the number of errors correctly identified will  be John Tepper Marlin. Neither he nor his spouse is eligible to enter. He will not discuss the contest in person until after September 30.

KIDS | Brigid's 80th in Ottawa (Postscript Oct. 22)

Brigid and her "Nearly 80" birthday cake.

OTTAWA, Ontario, Canada, October 10, 2015. It is Thanksgiving weekend in Canada and it is a Marlin family reunion.

We thankfully celebrated the birthday of Hilda van Stockum's second child, Brigid Marlin, at lunch today.

Her 80th birthday actually does not occur until January, but we are taking advantage of the confluence of three Marlin siblings and four more in the next generation to start celebrating.

The cake reads "Happy Birthday Brigid, Nearly 80".

Brigid was coming from the opening in Montreal of an extensive exhibit sponsored by the international artists' group that she founded, the Society for Art of Imagination. She is the author of A Meaning for Danny and The Box House, and illustrated Hilda van Stockum's book King Oberon's Forest.

Château Laurier in Ottawa, where the birthday party was
held with eight people named Marlin and one other. One
more Marlin arrives for dinner with a family of four more,

Randal and Elaine have two sons and a daughter already visiting - Alex, Nick and Margie - and another daughter arriving later today (Christine, with Michael Schintgen and their three children).

The event was in the Wilfrid Restaurant of the Fairmont Château Laurier Hotel.

The birthday party was attended by the three Marlin siblings - Brigid, Randal and me - and two spouses (Elaine and Alice), plus three of Randal and Elaine's six children visiting for Thanksgiving - Alex, Margie and Nick - and Nick's significant other, Taeko. The other five are arriving this afternoon in time for a turkey dinner.

Brigid's "Nearly 80" Birthday Party in Ottawa. L to R: Alex, Alice, Margie, John, BRIGID, Randal, Taeko, Elaine, Nick.

Not Wilfrid Laurier - Randal Marlin.

Both the restaurant and the hotel are named after Sir Henri Charles Wilfrid Laurier, a great man in Canadian history.

Who was he?

Wilfrid Laurier was not the man at the left, who is Randal Marlin, a professor of philosophy at Carleton University, an expert on propaganda (author of Propaganda and the Ethics of Persuasion, now in its second edition) and my brother.

Sir Henri Charles Wilfrid Laurier, 1916.

Rather, Laurier is Canada's Quebec-raised 7th Prime Minister (1896-1911) -its first francophone Prime Minister - the man in the carriage at right, who was prime minister of Canada immediately before World War I. One of the two ladies next him is his wife Zoé, Lady Laurier, after whom the piano bar-lounge at the Château Laurier is named.

Laurier was a Liberal, elected and re-elected  over a 15-year period until the Great War. Conservatives then ruled until 1917, when the Liberals came back and stayed in office until 1984. (Postscript - October 22 - the Liberals are back with Justin Trudeau.)

Laurier was voted Canada's best-ever prime minister, according to a 2011 poll by Maclean's Magazine. His portrait is on the Canadian $5 bill.

Here is a photo of the Marlin Family in Canada in 1950 or 1951. If it was May 1951, I was nine and Elisabeth was six.

The Marlins in Montreal, about 1951. Our ages ranged from six to 16.

BIRTHDAY | 1995, Berkhamsted

L to R: Randal, Olga, Mom, Brigid. 8 Castle Hill, January 2, 1995. All
photos by JT Marlin.

It was a happy time being all together in Berkhamsted in January-February 1995, but the reason we were together was sad.

Dad had a stroke - he had been suffering progressively from Parkinson's - and fell down on High Street in Berkhamsted in early December 1994.

He was hospitalized and in a coma. I got word when I was in Japan and flew back to New York, then got a plane to London.

L to R: Mom, Lis, Olga. January 2, 1995.

Dad died on December 12 and we had a service in Berkhamsted.

I flew back to New York City with Dad's coffin in the hold and he was buried next to his parents.

Then I came back to Berkhamsted. Olga came from Nairobi, Kenya to see Mom.

Mom with birthday cake at
Brigid's house. Feb. 11, 1995.

I think it was the last time that Mom and her six children were all together. Brigid, of course, was just up the road. Randal came from Ottawa. Sheila and Lis came from Garston (near Watford) and London.

The photos are taken either at Mom's house, 8 Castle Hill or at Brigid's house, 28 Castle Hill, Berkhamsted.

Sheila's late husband Shane (L) and Lis's husband Cliff.

We had a joint celebration on February 11 of Mom's birthday (Feb. 9) and Desmond's birthday (Feb. 14).

I forget the exact sequence, but there were issues about the estate and my Dad's accountant, Ray Hodges, said there would be a lot of taxes to pay if Mom died in the next few years.

We worked it out and Mom made gifts to us over two years. Under UK law the gifts would be subject to UK estate taxes and a portion would be clawed back by Inland Revenue if Mom died within seven years of the gift.

L to R: Desmond, Brigid, Sheila at Brigid's house, 28
Castle Hill, Feb. 11, 1995.

The taxes went down to 80 percent after one year following a gift, 60 percent after two years, 40 percent after three, 20 percent after four years, and nil after five years.

So Mom turned to me and said, pensively: "Tell me my job now. What is my job?"

I said: "Your job is to stay alive for seven more years. It's your job because we love you and want to see you with us. And it's your job because otherwise there will be not so much left of the gifts you are making from Dad's estate."

Mom said: "All right."

And she lived for another 12 years, to 2006, less than four months short of her 99th birthday.

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

HvS CONVERSION | Beaumont on American Catholic Converts

John Beaumont's book on Notable American Converts to the Catholic Church has been published. We were contacted by the author a couple of years ago for help with the biography and quotes.

He has assembled a huge collection of information on American converts to Catholicism, more than 1,000 pages long. The full title of the book is The Mississippi Flows Into the Tiber: A Guide to Notable American Converts to the Catholic Church. It is published in South Bend, Indiana - home of Notre Dame University - by Fidelity Press, 2014. It is 1,014 pp., and sells for $69 in hard cover.

A thoughtful and favorable review of the book appears on a website devoted to "Culture Wars". In May, he gave a reading from the book at the NYU Catholic Center.

My narrow interest is in the entry on Hilda van Stockum. Two quotes in the HvS entry have been used by Leo Wong in his post on quotations from Catholic Converts. One is from The Winged Watchman:

In the camps we saw our own people kill each other over a crust of bread. In the old days I used to think that religion did not matter much, that people could be good without it. That was not true in the camps. If you had no hope or faith to keep you human, you sank to the lowest depths. I'll practice my religion more faithfully now. (The Winged Watchman, p. 188, 1995 edition.)

The other is the beginning of HvS's final decision to become a Catholic, after reading Arnold Lunn's Now I See: 

I'm not thinking about being a Catholic, I AM a Catholic! - Hilda van Stockum

Beaumont's book also quotes at length from two articles on the Hilda van Stockum website, one by Randal Marlin (HvS's elder son) and one by Olga Marlin (HvS's eldest daughter); and he cites two  articles by Randal's daughter Christine Schintgen. The three relevant pages from his book are below.

BIRTH | Feb. 9 - HvS

Hilda van Stockum as Art Student

Hilda van Stockum was born this day in 1908 (108 years ago in 2016), eldest child and only daughter of Capt. Bram van Stockum and Olga Boissevain. She met an American, Ervin Ross Marlin, when she was attending the Royal Hibernian Academy of Art in Dublin and 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.)

She 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 runner-up 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, the Modern Library and Farrar Straus. Since 1994 about 15 of her books have been kept in print by Bethlehem Books and Boissevain Books.

One book (The Winged Watchman, published originally by Farrar Straus) has sold 51,000 copies in reprint, after all the sales by Farrar Straus & Giroux. She died on All Saints' Day, 2006.

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.]

Olga Marlin [in 2013 in Pamplona, Spain for medical treatment, on leave from her Kianda Foundation family in Nairobi, Kenya – she sent this on February 8 as an email to her five younger sibs]: 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, responding to Olga’s 2013 email] 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, responding to Olga’s 2013 email] 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, responding to Olga’s 2013 email] 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 [in New York City, USA, in 2013; in Tiradentes, Minas Gerais, Brazil in 2014]
2014 – We think of religion as a pacifying influence, especially in Latin America. But for Mom, her references to the Oxford Group suggest it was revolutionary, and that is what religion was in Tiradentes. The revolutionaries who started the movement to make Brazil independent 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, responding to Brigid’s 2013 email] 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.

5th Anniversary of Death of Hilda van Stockum

Remembrances of Hilda van Stockum (1908-2006) October 20, 2011 - All Six of Her Children Have Posted Remembrances. Her Fifth Anniversary is November 1, 2011 - All Saints' Day.

OLGA (Joan in The Mitchells Series) has for 51 years been based in Nairobi, Kenya, and in June 2011 received an honorary D.Litt. degree from Strathmore  University in Nairobi. She writes from the Navarre Clinic in Pamplona, Spain: "Mother liked to say that we were a family that knew how to love. I think this is very true. Our parents lived for us, and we grew up very close to one another..." More   Hilda van Stockum with Her Self-Portrait BRIGID (Patsy) writes from Berkhamsted, Herts., UK, where she paints and writes, living near her sons Chris and Desmond and Desmond's wife Anna and son Ivan: "Mother often seems to be near me. She was a larger than life person and I can detect parts of me as I get older that are parts of her. I feel in a way she has gone ahead into the unknown valley of death to help us cross the barrier when the time comes..." RANDAL (Peter) writes from Ottawa, Canada, where he teaches at Carleton University and Ottawa University, writes articles about Wikileaks and propaganda, lives with his wife Elaine and keeps in touch with their six children, two of whom have married: "We know Mom thought a lot about her duties as wife and mother. In an interview, when someone asked how she could write, paint and raise a family all at the same time, she replied 'by neglecting my duties.' One day (or night) she had an epiphany about her duties as wife..." SHEILA (Angela) writes from the High Elms Manor in Garston, near Watford, Herts., UK, where her four daughters and spouses, grandchildren and friends live under the same grand roof: "After five years, the memory of Mother has not faded but is just as strong. I have become far more appreciative of her books and paintings..." JOHN (Timmy) is writing from New York City, where he teaches at NYU and Pace Universities, manages Boissevain Books, engages with the media and lives with his wife of 40 years, Alice. They visit frequently with their two nearby children: "We can't know how Mom has changed in the last five years! But the five years since her death have given me so much better an appreciation of who she was and how she got there. Her letters and unpublished manuscripts, as well as her published books and paintings and photographs..." LIZ (Catherine) writes from London, where she lives with her husband Cliff Paice and is called on frequently for babysitting for their grandchildren. They have two married daughters and a married son: "I find myself remembering Mom's sayings. 'Writers write. Painters paint. If you haven't got time just now, you aren't a writer or a painter.' ..."   More To add your own remembrances, go to Facebook or NY Times Legacy.