Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel
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Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, 1939 (ISBN 0-590-75803-9) is a classic children's book by Virginia Lee Burton, the author and illustrator of the Caldecott Medal-winning The Little House. First published in 1939, it features Mike Mulligan, a steam shovel operator, and his steam shovel "Mary Anne" (whose name was based on Marion Steam Shovels).
After many years of working successfully together, the two face competition from modern, diesel-powered shovels. Seeking an area of the country where his less modern steam shovel can still find work, Mike finds a small town that is about to build a new town hall. The authorities react with disbelief when Mike makes the claim that he and his steam shovel Mary Anne can dig the cellar in a single day; they protest that it would take a hundred men a week. Mike insists that Mary Anne can indeed finish the job in one day, though he has some private doubts.
At sun-up the next day, Mike and Mary Anne begin work and manage to complete the task—barely—by sundown. However, they have neglected to dig themselves a ramp so they can drive out. A child who had been watching makes the suggestion that Mike take the job of janitor for the town hall, and that Mary Anne should become the boiler for the town hall's heating system.
In 1992, a children's animated video was released based on the book.
[edit] Curious footnote
On page 39 of the book's original edition, a footnote appears in which the idea of converting Mary Anne into a furnace is attributed to "Dicke Birkenbush." In fact, the footnote was misspelled; it was intended to refer to Dick Berkenbush. According to an article in the Boston Globe, the idea was suggested during a dinner table conversation:
At dinner on Chestnut Hill that evening, the author told the Albertsons and Berkenbushes about her dilemma. She had written Mike and Mary Anne into a literal corner -- they were stuck in the hole they dug for the Town Hall basement. Dick, then about 12 years old, suggested the steam shovel could become the building's heating source. It was a simple notion, he said. "My father had a garage in town that had a steam heating system, so I was familiar with it." [1]
