Josette Frank

Early life Frank was born on March 27, 1893, in Manhattan, New York City, into a family of secular Jews. Her father, Leo, owned a successful furniture business. As a young girl, she was involved in early feminism and the Women's Land Army. She got her first job when she was 19, working as a secretary for Theodore Roosevelt. The fair brought Frank's progressive ideas about oversight of children's reading to a much larger audience, and Frank reassured parents that their children's morals were not shaped to a great amount by reading material. The article was one of the first times Frank discussed children's readership of comic books, saying:

In a response to a letter critical of Frank's liberalized views on children's reading, Frank noted that children could never be wholly protected from forbidden literature by parental oversight alone, saying "...we know that prohibiting has ever had the effect of enhancing the allure of the forbidden." National Comics Publications managing editor Whitney Ellsworth sent out a memo to his staff that read: It is our desire to publish our magazines in strict adherence to accepted standards of decency and good taste. The following code must be followed both as to spirit and to letter; there are no exceptions. Writers and artists are advised to confine their contributions to material that is completely above any possible criticism. Our requirements are rigid, and much time and effort will be saved if they are strictly adhered to. In this rapidly growing field, many recent comic books have fallen far short of our standards. We have no intention of catering to that fringe of the public which forms the market for vulgar, obscene or vicious literature. Our obligation to the youth of America and parents requires us to publish only wholesome material. We wish to point out that this code of editorial practice has been prepared with the advice and assistance of: Dr. Robert Thorndike, Teachers College, Columbia University. Miss Josette Frank, Staff Advisor to the Children's Book Committee, Child Study Association of America. Dr. Ruth Perl, Associate Member, American Psychological Association. Dr. C. Bowie Millican, Department of English Literature, New York University. In 1943, she sent a letter criticizing sexual and bondage imagery in Wonder Woman stories to National's publisher, Max Gaines.

In the new chapter on comic books published in Frank's 1941 2nd edition of What Books For Children?, Frank became more candid about her comic book advocacy, posing a question towards understanding children's interest in comics. She reveals one of the main aspects of parental frustration with comic books: "the intensity of the children's absorption in these paper-covered concentrations of color and motion leaves us aghast." Much of the chapter focuses on explaining the appeal of comics to a decidedly parental audience. Frank reasons that children have always craved adventure, but questions on a deeper level why children ostensibly nurtured and protected from danger craved stories (presumably) filled with "bloodcurdling horror, mystery, violence, and sudden death".

In the end, Frank reasoned that

After the publication of What Books For Children?, the CSAA featured two articles by Frank in their Spring 1942 and Summer 1943 issues of Child Study, the organization's magazine. Frank's first article was largely a rehashing of the book's chapter, while the second demarcated and analyzed different types of comic books. Hilde Mosse, the acting physician in charge of the Lafargue Clinic, used Frank's position on the advisory board to discredit her pro-comic writings published in the Journal of Educational Sociology at a 1950 symposium on comics held at a New York school. In 1954, the Senate held hearings to investigate a link between comic books and juvenile delinquency. During the proceedings, Senator Estes Kefauver grilled CSAA president Gunnar Dybwad over Frank's links to the comic book industry, suggesting, as Mosse had, that her writing was not credible due to her receiving pay from the industry.

Personal life and death Frank married Henry Jacobs in 1923 but kept her maiden name, which was a rare decision at the time. Frank refused to open mail addressed to her using her husband's name, and would return unopened letters saying that no person with that name lived there. Her husband died in 1941. They had two children, a daughter named Judith and a son named Stephen. In addition to her work with the CSAA, she also served on committees for the National Conference of Christians and Jews and the National Committee for Program Services of the Campfire Girls.

Frank died of pneumonia on September 9, 1989, in a nursing home in Alexandria, Virginia.

In popular culture Connie Britton portrayed Frank in the 2017 film Professor Marston and the Wonder Women, where she is depicted as a comics-critical moralist leading a National Comics Publications hearing against the sexual content of William Moulton Marston's Wonder Woman comics. The conservative image of Frank in the film was criticized by her granddaughter, Yereth Rosen: "Real Josette was pretty much the opposite of a Focus-on-the-Family-type arch-conservative Christian, for reasons beyond the fact that she was not a Christian." "Let's Look at the Comics" – An introductory primer published in Child Study (the CSAA's journal) for parents on comic books and common criticisms. "Looking at the Comics" with Flora Stieglitz Straus – Another Child Study article, this one a breakdown of various types and styles of comic books with evaluation of their appropriateness for children. "What's in the Comics?" – a 9-page article published in the December 1944 edition of The Journal of Educational Sociology. Your Child's Reading Today – published by Doubleday in 1954.