Alice Dalgliesh

Alice Dalgliesh (October 7, 1893 – June 11, 1979) was a naturalized American writer and publisher who wrote more than 40 fiction and non-fiction books, mainly for children. She has been called "a pioneer in the field of children's historical fiction". Three of her books were runners-up for the annual Newbery Medal, the partly autobiographical The Silver Pencil, The Bears on Hemlock Mountain, and The Courage of Sarah Noble, which was also named to the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award list.

As the founding editor (in 1934) of Scribner's and Sons Children's Book Division, Dalgliesh published works by award-winning authors and illustrators including Robert A. Heinlein, Marcia Brown, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Katherine Milhous, Will James, Leonard Weisgard, and Leo Politi. Her prominence in the field of children's literature led to her being appointed the first president of the Children's Book Council, a national nonprofit trade association of children's book publishers and presses.

Biography Born October 7, 1893, in Trinidad, British West Indies, to John and Alice (Haynes) Dalgliesh, Alice immigrated to England with her family when she was 13. Six years later she came to America to study kindergarten education at the Pratt Institute in New York City. She eventually received a Bachelor in Education and Master in English Literature from the Teachers College at Columbia University. While she was at school Dalgliesh applied for and received her naturalization as an American citizen. She taught for 17 years at the Horace Mann School, while also leading courses in children's literature and story writing at Columbia. Dalgliesh regularly wrote about children's books for Parent's Magazine (1929 to 1943), Publishers Weekly, School Library Journal, and The Saturday Review. She also contributed to The Horn Book Magazine, including the article "In Mr. Newbery's Bookshop", about John Newbery.

Dalgliesh worked with the textbook department at Charles Scribner and Sons editing social studies books. This led to an invitation to start a children's book publishing department at the firm in 1934. According to Charles Scribner, Jr., at that time "Scribner's employed no women except secretaries. When she came to my father and asked him to give her an office, he replied, 'Oh, do you really need one?'" Apparently he had expected her to begin and run the division out of her home. She held the position of children's book editor until 1960.

After her retirement from Scribner's, Dalgleish became the editor of "Books for Young Readers" by The Saturday Review of Literature. She reviewed books for that magazine from 1961 until 1966. Vassar College Library, and the Princeton University Library.

The Silver Pencil, published by Scribners in 1944, was a runner-up for the annual American Library Association Newbery Medal, a Newbery Honor Book in modern terms. The title refers to a silver pencil given to Dalgleish by her father. The book is a thinly veiled partial-autobiography about Janet Laidlaw, born in Trinidad to a Scotch father and British mother, like Dalgliesh. Janet eventually comes to America and becomes a teacher and writer. The book, illustrated by Katherine Milhous, was called by Saturday Review, "a treasure to possess and to keep." Two years later Along Janet's Road, also illustrated by Milhous, continued the story.

Dalgliesh's next major book was The Bears on Hemlock Mountain. She said this simple picture book was based on an old Pennsylvania tall tale. Illustrated by Helen Sewell, it is another Newbery Honor Book.

Her third Newbery Honor Book came two years later, The Courage of Sarah Noble. The book opens with an Author's Note stating that it is a true story. Virginia Haviland, later the first director of the Library of Congress Children's Book Section, said of Sarah Noble, “Here is a remarkable book for younger readers — a true pioneer adventure, written for easy reading but without any sacrifice of literary quality or depth of feeling.”

Dalgliesh wrote over three dozen children's books, others for adults, and a great many articles and reviews of children's fiction. A number of her books were named Best Books of the Year by Horn Book Magazine. Her non-fiction was often noted by reviewers for its "casual yet factual and detailed style." Frequently her books capitalized on her interest in American history and were praised for their "accuracy and detail as well as her creation of believable characters and dramatic plots." One of Heinlein's juveniles that she edited eventually won a Retro-Hugo Award for Best Novel - Farmer in the Sky.

Francis Felsen, who worked under Dalgliesh as an editor, said she "knew clearly what she liked and didn't like and stood behind it”, but she also "let authors write in their own voice, had insights into writers, and a respect for history". Besides the Hugo award, Dalgliesh published at least eleven Newbery Honor books, three Caldecott Medal books and ten Caldecott Honor books, (including her own). Dalgleish has been "credited with advancing the place of children's literature in the publishing world".

During the period in which Alice Dalgliesh edited Heinlein's juvenile books (as documented in Grumbles from the Grave), she requested what Heinlein considered very unreasonable revisions to several of his novels. Some of these revisions were grounded in Freudian psychological analysis of Heinlein's work which he felt were without literary merit and were poorly considered. At one point, Dalgliesh asked Heinlein to have (in her words) "a good Freudian" look at his novels to point out what she thought undesirable psychosexual imagery in his work for juveniles.

Finally, during Dalgleish's editing of Heinlein's The Rolling Stones, Heinlein analyzed Dalgliesh's own juvenile novel Along Janet's Way for psychosexual symbology in the same manner she analyzed his "Martian flat cats" - to show how (in his words) "it is impossible to write any story in such a way that it will not bring a knowing leer to the face of 'a good Freudian'." Lewis Carroll Shelf Award book (1959) + Caldecott Honor Book ^