Collected Stories for Children

Collected Stories for Children is a collection of seventeen short stories by Walter de la Mare, published in 1947. The book was awarded the Carnegie Medal for 1947,^[1] the first collection of stories to win the award, and the first time that previously published material had been considered.

The stories

• Dick and the Beanstalk: Dick discovers Jack's old beanstalk and climbs it to find the land of the giants, who have less than fond memories of Jack
• The Dutch Cheese: a stubborn young farmer offends the playful woodland fairies, and his sister has to negotiate with them for a peaceful life
• A Penny a Day: a dwarf helps a young girl with her household tasks, for a price
• The Scarecrow: an elderly man tells his niece of the time he saw a fairy perching on a scarecrow
• The Three Sleeping Boys of Warwickshire: three apprentice chimney-sweeps escape their cruel master in their dreams, but when he stops their souls returning to their bodies, they fall into an enchanted sleep which lasts for fifty-three years. This has been described as "the best of all modern short fairy-tales... a simple story but absorbing and beautifully told".^[2]
• The Lovely Myfanwy: a doting father keeps his lovely daughter in virtual imprisonment, but the rumour of her beauty spreads far and wide
• Lucy: three aging sisters fall on hard times but the youngest finds she prefers her new life
• Miss Jemima: an old lady tells her granddaughter about the time long ago when she was very nearly enticed away by a fairy
• The Magic Jacket: a benevolent admiral gives the jacket which had brought him luck and success to a young pavement artist
• The Lord Fish: a lazy young man who loves fishing strays into a strange land where he meets a girl who is half-fish, and is turned into a fish himself
• The Old Lion: in Africa a sailor is given an extraordinary monkey who becomes a phenomenal success on the stage in London
• Broomsticks: an old lady becomes suspicious of her beloved cat
• Alice's Godmother: Alice's ancient godmother offers to share the secret of her long life
• The Maria-Fly: Maria has an unusual experience with a fly, but none of the people she tells about it understand what she felt
• Visitors: Tom sees some strange birds which change his life
• Sambo and the Snow Mountains: Sambo doses himself with every kind of medicine in his attempt to become white
• The Riddle: some children play with an old wooden chest although they have been warned to stay away

The illustrations

Irene Hawkins, who had illustrated several of Walter de la Mare's early collections, was the original illustrator for Collected Stories. In the Library Review Muriel M. Green said: "Mr. de la Mare is especially fortunate in having found, in Irene Hawkins, an illustrator who can interpret his work so perfectly, and this volume is enhanced by her charming illustrations." ^[3] For the Puffin edition in 1957 new illustrations were commissioned from Robin Jacques, a highly-regarded illustrator of fairy-tales. Marcus Crouch considers these line-drawings among Jacques' best work, artistically emphasizing the homeliness of de la Mare's world.^[4]

Literary significance and reception

In the decade after the First World War some of the best work for children was in poetry, fantasy and poetic fantasy,^[2] and there was a spate of original stories in the folk-tale manner.^[5] Walter de la Mare, primarily a poet, published several short books of such stories for children in the 1920s and 1930s, and the best of his tales were brought together in his Collected Stories for Children.^[2] The stories range over a variety of subjects, but all have the touch of tender, dream-like melancholy which is the hallmark of the author's work in general.^[5]

Roger Lancelyn Green described Walter de la Mare's stories as having a strong but very particular appeal: "These strange, homely tales of wonder captivate a limited audience - and are frequently foisted on children by adults who have fallen under their very real spell. It is a spell, however, and one of selective magic, catching some readers away into the true lands of enchantment, and boring others to distraction." ^[6]

The award of the Carnegie Medal was unexpected, as none of the stories were new, but the collection was considered to give an opportunity for assessing and acknowledging "the achievement of the most gifted writer of the century who had dedicated his finest powers to delighting children".^[5]

References

1. ^ Carnegie Living Archive
2. ^ ^{a b c} Written for Children - An Outline of English-Language Children's Literature by John Rowe Townsend, third revised edition, Penguin 1987, p.144
3. ^ The Children's Book Section by Muriel M. Green in Library Review 1948 Volume: 11. Issue: 6 pp. 405 - 407
4. ^ Treasure Seekers and Borrowers: Children's Books in Britain 1900-1960 by Marcus Crouch, The Library Association, 1962, p. 134
5. ^ ^{a b c} Treasure Seekers and Borrowers, p. 46
6. ^ Tellers of Tales, Roger Lancelyn Green, Edmund Ward, 1965 edition, p. 270