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Twentieth-Century Children's Literature: 1890-1970

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1890-1914

Prior to the First World War, male heroism (often related to the promotion of the British Empire) was a popular element in children's literature – as in the writings of Kipling, Rider Haggard, Conan Doyle, John Buchan, and Robert Baden-Powell. Another kind of context was provided by the writings of Charles Darwin and Sigmund Freud, which radically challenged conventional images of children and childhood – though this did not have an immediate impact on children's literature. Freud's key texts on childhood are his Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality (1905-24):

It was left to Sigmund Freud to point out to a disbelieving world the self-evident fact of children's sexuality: 'If mankind had been able to learn from a direct observation of children, these three essays ... could have remained unwritten.' And it is no coincidence that he wrote them in these years, from 1890 to the 1920s, years in which children's literature was most heavily invested in denial. (Julia Briggs, in Children's Literature, p.170)

Henry James: What Masie Knew (1897) and The Turn of the Screw (1898); profound and disturbing accounts of childhood written for adults. Main Library.

Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900): the first and best of a series of books about the American fairytale land of Oz; some readers have seen a gay subtext in this novel (and more so in the film). Jordanhill.

Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book (1894), Kim (1901), Just So Stories (1902), Puck of Pook’s Hill (1906). Main Library.

J.M. Barrie: Peter Pan (as a baby) first appeared in adult novel The Little White Bird (1902) in story told by a bachelor to a small boy he has kidnapped; published separately as Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens (1906); becomes a boy in the play Peter Pan (first performed, 1904), and then in Peter and Wendy (1911). There's a large selection of Barrie's writings in both libraries.

Robert Baden-Powell: numerous fictional and non-fictional books for boys; most well-known is Scouting for Boys (first edition 1908; numerous later editions) - one of the most influential books for boys ever published and one of the best-selling books of C20.

Kenneth Graham: The Golden Age (1895) and Dream Days (1898) were runaway successes that offered a new way of representing 'the world of childhood as a self-sufficient and self-generated adventure'; The Wind in the Willows (1908) is 'a book without a child in it', save perhaps for Toad, and without females (Children's Literature, pp.173-4, 180). Wind in the Willows is in Jordanhill.

Hilaire Belloc, Cautionary Tales (1908): nonsense verses as 'vehicle for subversive energies', parodying the moralising of Watts, et al (Children's Literature, p.171). Jordanhill.

Edith Nesbit: The Story of the Treasure Seekers (1899), The Wouldbegoods (1901), Five Children and It (1902), The New Treasure Seekers (1904), The Phoenix and the Carpet (1904), The Amulet (1906), The Railway Children (1906), The Enchanted Castle (1907), The House of Arden (1908), Harding’s Luck (1909), The Magic City (1910), et al; children's writing with a touch of socialism. Jordanhill.

Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan of the Apes (1914) (with 24 sequels). On order for Main Library.

1914-45

Peter Hunt describes the period 1914-1945 as characterised by 'retreatism' – that is, retreat from war, social and intellectual change, and the threat of war (Children’s Literature, p.195).

A.A. Milne: When We Were Very Young (1924), Now We are Six (1927), Winnie-the-Pooh (1926), and The House at Pooh Corner (1928). Jordanhill.

Walter de la Mare: Peacock Pie (1913) is still a classic collection of children's poetry; his Collected Stories for Children won the Carnegie Medal in 1947; his most famous poem is 'The Listeners' (in Philip, pp.133-4). Jordanhill, with some holdings in Main Library.

Elinor M. Brent-Dyer, The School at the Chalet (1925), et al. Classic school series, still in print. Four episodes in Jordanill Library.

Hugh Lofting, The Story of Dr Dolittle (1920/1922). Jordanhill.

John Masefield, The Midnight Folk (1927): 'A fast-moving children's story, told from the child's point of view, skilfully blending fantasy and realism, black comedy and English rural life, to produce one of the classic children's novels of this period, memorably illustrated by Rowland Hilder' (Children's Books, p.481). Jordanhill.

J.R.R. Tolkien: The Hobbit (1937), The Lord of the Rings (1954-55). Main Library.

T.H. White, The Sword in the Stone (1938); Arthurian romance. Main Library.

Enid Blyton: 'probably the most successful children's writer ever'; 'by the end of 1945 she had written more than 100 children's books of fiction'; the Famous Five series is 'one of the most successful series ever written' (Children's Literature, pp.216-17); Blyton's work exemplifies the retreatism that Hunt identifies. Surprisingly limited holdings in Jordanhill.

Richmal Crompton, Just William series (1922-70). Jordanhill.

Eve Garnett: The Family from One End Street (1937); an attempt at social realism that became 'the first 20th-century bestseller for children peopled entirely by working-class characters'; it won the Carnegie Medal – beating The Hobbit (Children's Books, p.280). Jordanhill.

Arthur Ransome, Swallows and Amazons (1930), et al; the books in this series are 'probably the best celebrations of play in the language', though they also relate to empire building and 'mirror that retreat from world involvement which characterises the 1920s and 1930s' (Children's Literature, pp.218-19). Jordanhill.

Noel Streatfeild: prolific children's author; books currently in print include the classic Ballet Shoes (1936) and Thursday's Child (1970). Jordanhill.

Henry Williamson, Tarka the Otter (1937); originally published for adults, this is a great animal story. Jordanhill.

Geoffrey Trease: hugely diverse and prolific writer of ground-breaking historical adventure stories and school stories - from Bows Against the Barons (1934) to No Horn at Midnight (1995). Good holdings at Jorhanhill, though neither of these titles.

1945-1970

Anne Frank: The Diary of Anne Frank (1947; translated from the Dutch in 1953); The Diary of a Young Girl: Anne Frank, The Definitive Edition (newly translated, including material that her father had excised from the first edition, 1995); Tales From the Secret Annex: Stories, Essays, Fables and Reminiscences Written in Hiding (1949, translated from the Dutch, 1983). Main Library.

Laura Ingalls Wilder, the 'Little House' series (1937-74); don't be put off by the TV series! Jordanhill.

Marguerite de Angeli, Bright April (1946); 'one of the earliest books to focus on the problems of a black child' (Children’s Literature, p.255). Not in print or in Strathclyde's libraries.

C.S. Lewis, The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (1950); the first of The Chronicles of Narnia. Jordanhill.

C.S. Lewis, ‘On Three Ways of Writing for Children’ (1952).

William Golding, Lord of the Flies (1954); an anti-Robinsonnade in which the shipwreck of a number of boys on a desert island produces not a return to original innocence but to barbaric terror; not written for but often read by children. Main Library.

E.B. White: essayist and poet who wrote three books for children - Stuart Little (1945), Charlotte's Web (1952), and Trumpet of the Swan (1970). The last two are in Jordanhill.

Ian Serraillier, The Silver Sword (1956); a modern classic about four young refugees from Nazi-occupied Poland. Jordanhill.

Philippa Pearce, Tom’s Midnight Garden (1958); 'widely regarded as the outstanding single book of the period' (Children's Literature, p.271). Multiple copies in Jordanhill.

Michael Bond, A Bear Called Paddington (1958) – the first of a number of books about the refugee bear from Peru. Jordanhill.

James Vance Marshall, Walkabout (1959): a novel about two white children stranded in the Australian desert who are rescued by a young Aborigine boy. Jordanhill.

Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird (1960); deals with racism in a small American town through the eyes of children. Main Library and Jordanhill.

Scott O'Dell: an influential American writer of historical fiction for children, often focussing on the mistreatment of native Americans; Island of the Blue Dolphins (1960) is a survival novel/alternative Robinsonnade about a young native American girl that won the Newbery Medal. Jordanhill.

Ted Hughes: How the Whale Became and Other Stories (1961); The Iron Man (1968); and poetry for children. Jordanhill.

Joan Aiken: prolific author of children's books: The Wolves of Willoughby Chase (1962) is the most well-known of her popular James III historical fantasy series. A large number of her books are in Jordanhill Library.

Madeleine L’Engle, A Wrinkle in Time (1962) (Newbery Medal) - the first novel of the 'Time quartet' (science fiction/fantasy combined with quasi religious themes and elements of the young adult 'problem' novel). The quartet is on order for the Main Library.

John Rowe Townsend: a pioneering critic of children's literature who is also an award-winning practitioner; his books for children include Gumble's Yard (1961), The Intruder (1969), and Cloudy/Bright (1984). Jordanhill.

Anne Holm, I am David (1965); a boy's escape from a Nazi concentration camp. Jordanhill.

Leon Garfield: Devil in the Fog (1966), Black Jack (1968), The Strange Affair of Adelaide Harris (1971), The Sound of Coaches (1974): 'The most flamboyantly brilliant British children's author of his time' (Children's Books, p.297). Large holdings in Jordanhill.

John Donovan, I'll Get There. It Better Be Worth the Trip (1969); a groundbreaking novel in the way it introduces same-sex sexuality: 'Around 90 novels with gay and/or lesbian content have since been published in the United States and Britain' (Children's Books, p.281). One copy ordered for Main Library.

Charles Causley: an important contemporary British writer of poetry for children; Brian Morse described Figgie Hobbin (1970) as 'a book [of poetry] no childhood should be without' (quoted in Children's Literature, p.284). Several of his volumes of poetry for children are in Jordanhill Library.

For further information about the Children's Literature class, please contact Dr Tom Furniss at t.furniss@strath.ac.uk

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