‘It’s a pattern really. So many of the progressive writers and illustrators of children’s books were Jews,” says Leonard Marcus, who does not usually concern himself with the old parlor game of counting famous Jews. Marcus is curator of the New York Public Library’s exhibit on children’s literature, “The ABC of It: Why Children’s Books Matter,” which will conclude its run of over a year on September 7. It has attracted more visitors than any other exhibit in the library’s history.
The gallery spaces tell the history of children’s literature while giving the visitor the feel of walking into a children’s book. Marcus got this design idea from the children’s classics “Goodnight Moon” and “Where the Wild Things Are,” books that have a way of inviting children to enter the imaginary spaces they describe. The exhibit contains a wealth of anecdotes and artifacts from literary history. You’ll discover there, for example, the original Winnie the Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore, et al. — the actual stuffed animals belonging to Christopher Milne, son of author A.A. Milne, who wrote stories about them — and a handwritten letter in purple ink from Lewis Carroll to his friend Alice Liddell, who inspired him to write Alice in Wonderland.
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