Ahead of Her Time: Hunt Was Early Pioneer for Children’s Literature

Authors

  • Kimberly Grad

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5860/cal.20.1.8

Abstract

Even before she conferred the first Newbery Medal to Hendrik Willem van Loon for The Story of Mankind in 1922, Clara Whitehill Hunt kept the search for quality children’s literature in the forefront of her mind.

During the 1921 American Library Association conference, she made her point—to celebrate Book Week and embrace the quality of children’s literature; it was her support and collaboration with Fredric Melcher that eventually led to the advent of the John Newbery Medal.

Author Biography

Kimberly Grad

Kimberly Grad is the Director of Abbot Public Library in Marblehead, MA and formerly School Age Coordinator at Brooklyn Public Library. She is also a member of the 2022 Newbery Award Selection Committee and the Newbery 100th Anniversary Celebration Task Force.

Downloads

Published

2022-03-22

Issue

Vol. 20 No. 1 (2022): Spring

Section

Features

License

In the event that an author's work is accepted for publication in CAL, the author is required to sign a copyright agreement with ALA/ALSC. For more information and/or to download the copyright forms, visit the ALA Publishing Web site.

Send correspondence to

Sharon Korbeck Verbeten
CAL editor
820 Spooner Ct.
De Pere, WI 54115
920-339-2740
CALeditor@yahoo.com