Leonard S. Marcus

Leonard S. Marcus (born December 11, 1950)^[1] is one of the world's leading scholars of English language children's literature. Marcus is a critic, historian,^[2] and author.^[3]

Leonard Marcus is a contributor to the Horn Book and New York Times Book Review.^[4] Marcus is a founding trustee of the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art. Also, he is the curator of the New York Public Library's 2013 exhibition called The ABC OF IT: Why Children’s Books Matter. Marcus "... is one of the best and brightest critics of children`s literature. He is a fine stylist in his own right," said Liz Rosenberg in reference to his biography of Margaret Wise Brown ``Awakened By The Moon`` . He lives in Brooklyn, New York.^[4]

Education

-Yale University, magna cum laude with honors in history, BA, 1972

-University of Iowa, Graduate Writers Workshop in Poetry, Master of Fine Arts, 1974

-Bank Street College of Education, Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters, 2007

Bibliography

Books

-Helen Oxenbury: A Life in Illustration (Walker UK/Candlewick USA, fall 2017) (forthcoming)

-The Runaway Bunny 75th Anniversary Book (HarperCollins, spring 2017) (forthcoming)

-Comics Confidential: Thirteen Graphic Novelists Talk Story, Craft, and Life Outside the Box (Candlewick, fall 2016)

-Randolph Caldecott: The Man Who Could Not Stop Drawing (Frances Foster/Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013) (also published in Japan, China, and Taiwan)

-Maurice Sendak: A Celebration of the Artist and His Work (Abrams, 2013) (forthcoming in China and possibly France)

-Listening for Madeleine: A Portrait of Madeleine L’Engle in Many Voices (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2012)

-Show Me A Story! Why Picture Books Matter (Candlewick, 2012) (published in Japan and forthcoming in China and Taiwan)

-The Annotated Phantom Tollbooth (Knopf, 2011)

-Funny Business: Conversations with Writers of Comedy (Candlewick, 2009)

-Minders of Make-Believe: Idealists, Entrepreneurs, and the Shaping of American Children’s Literature (Houghton Mifflin, 2008) (published in Japan)

-A Caldecott Celebration: Seven Artists and Their Paths to the Caldecott Medal (expanded, tenth-anniversary edition) (Walker, 2008)

-Golden Legacy: How Golden Books Won Children’s Hearts, Changed Publishing Forever, and Became an American Icon Along the Way (Random House, 2007)

-Pass It Down: Five Picture-Book Families Make Their Mark (Walker, 2007)

-Oscar: The Big Adventure of a Little Sock Monkey, co-authored with Amy Schwartz; illustrated by Amy Schwartz, (Harper/Tegen, 2006)

-The Wand In The Word: Conversations With Writers of Fantasy (Candlewick Press, 2006)

-Storied City: A Children's Book-Walking Tour Guide to New York City (Dutton, 2003)

-Ways of Telling: Conversations on the Art of the Picture Book (Dutton, 2002)

-Side by Side: Five Favorite Picture Book Teams Go To Work (Walker, 2001)

-Author Talk (Simon & Schuster, 2000)

-Dear Genius: The Letters of Ursula Nordstrom (ed) (HarperCollins, 1998; 2000) (published in Japan and China)

-Margaret Wise Brown: Awakened by the Moon (Beacon, 1992; Harper Perennial, 1999)

-A Caldecott Celebration: Six Artists and Their Paths to the Caldecott Medal (Walker, 1998)

-The Making of Goodnight Moon: A Fiftieth Anniversary Retrospective (HarperCollins, 1997)

-Morrow Junior Books: The First Fifty Years (Morrow, 1996)

-75 Years of Children’s Book Week Posters (Knopf, 1994) (published in Japan)

-Lifelines: A Poetry Anthology (Dutton, 1994)

-Mother Goose's Little Misfortunes (Bradbury, 1990)

-Humor and Play in Children's Literature (Johns Hopkins UP, 1989)

-An Epinal Album: Popular Prints from Nineteenth-Century France (Godine, 1984)

-Picture Books (Johns Hopkins UP, 1984)

-Petrouchka (Godine, 1983)

Book Introductions

-Out of Line: The Art of Jules Feiffer, by Martha Fay (Abrams, 2014)

-The Reluctant Dragon, by Kenneth Grahame, illustrated by Ernest Shepard (Holiday House, 2013)

-True Grit, by Charles Portis (Overlook, 2013)

-Nursery Rhyme Comics (First Second Books, 2011)

-The Art of Reading: Forty Illustrators Celebrate RIF's 40th Anniversary (Dutton, 2005)

-Mary Engelbreit's Mother Goose (HarperCollins, 2005)

-Make Way for McCloskey: A Robert McCloskey Treasury (Viking, 2004)

-The Borrowers Fiftieth Anniversary Edition, by Mary Norton, illustrated by Diana Stanley (Harcourt, 2003)

-The Picture Book World of Garth Williams, by Motoo Ito (Book Globe, 2002)

-Corduroy & Company: A Don Freeman Treasury (Viking, 2001)

-The Complete Adventures of Curious George (Houghton Mifflin, 2001)

-Garth Williams Treasury of Best-Loved Golden Books (Golden, 2001)

-Nursery Classics: A Galdone Treasury (Clarion, 2001)

-Mouse of My Heart, by Margaret Wise Brown; illustrated by Loretta Krupinski (Hyperion, 2001)

-Century of Picture Books, by Motoo Ito (Book Globe, 1999)

-Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll; illustrated with photographs by Abelardo Morell (Dutton, 1998)

-The Original Curious George, H. A. and Margret Rey (Houghton Mifflin, 1998)

-A Family Treasury of Little Golden Books (Golden, 1998)

-The Golden Books Family Treasury of Poetry (Golden, 1998)

-The Penguin Book of Classic Children's Characters (Penguin, 1998)

-The Art of Eric Carle, by Eric Carle (Philomel, 1996)

-The Complete Works of Lewis Carroll, by Lewis Carroll (Barnes & Noble, 1994)

-A Little Princess, by Frances Hodgson Burnett (Barnes & Noble, 1994)

-Peter Pan, by James Barrie (Barnes & Noble, 1994)

-The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame (Barnes & Noble, 1994)

-The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum (Barnes & Noble, 1994)

-New York Street Cries in Rhyme, by Mahlon Day (Dover, 1977)

Magazine Work and Editorial Experience

Parenting magazine (Time, Inc./later Time Warner; circulation 2 million):

-1987-2008: regular monthly children’s book reviewer from magazine’s founding to its sale to Bonniers. Reviewed 100-150 books annually across all age categories; produced feature interviews with Maurice Sendak, Robert McCloskey, Helen Oxenbury, Mitsumasa Anno, and others; represented the magazine at major conferences.

-1988-2008: contributing editor

-1988-2007: originated plans for and directed the annual Parenting Reading Magic Awards (later, Best Books of the Year). Chose four nationally prominent judges, consolidated their recommended lists, and wrote the feature article covering fifty titles across age categories.

-1993-1994: coordinated joint publication of children’s book reviews for Parenting and Entertainment Weekly. Chose all books for review for both magazines (where they were published concurrently); assigned half the titles to EW’s reviewer Michelle Landsberg and wrote the other half himself.

-The Lion and the Unicorn: A Critical Journal of Children’s Literature (Johns Hopkins UP)

-1980-1991: editorial board member. Helped develop themed issues and assigned and edited essays and book reviews. Edited two book-length double issues (on “Humor” and “The Picture Book”). Writers commissioned included Robert Coles, Morton N. Cohen, Nancy Willard, Elizabeth Sewell, X. J. Kennedy, Terese Svoboda, Peter Neumeyer, and Brian Alderson. Commissioned cover art by Paul O. Zelinsky and others.

-1985-1991: book review editor. Planned and edited “Booklog” department of reviews of books about children’s literature.

Related Review Work and Journalism

Washington Post Book World

-1980-1994: 13 reviews (most full-page) of children’s books and related titles such as The Art of Maurice Sendak, by Selma G. Lanes.

New York Times Book Review

-1983–present: 35 articles and essays. Three-time judge of the Ten Best Illustrated Books of the Year Awards: 1987, 1993, and 2002.

Publishers Weekly

-1983–present: author profiles and interviews (Garth Williams, James Marshall, Helen Oxenbury, John Burningham, and others) and features on the history of children’s book publishing.

The Horn Book Magazine

-1990–present: feature interviews with major publishing figures including Margaret K. McElderry, Walter Lorraine, Susan Hirschman, and Sheldon Fogelman.

-2010–present: regular column on picture books and illustration, called “Sight Reading”.

Major Lectures

New York Public Library Pforzheimer Lecture;

Yale University Betsy Beinecke Shirley Lecture;

University of Wisconsin/Madison Charlotte Zolotow Lecture;

University of Illinois MillerComm Lecture;

Texas Woman’s University Bradshaw Lecture;

Princeton University;

New York University Medical Center Grand Rounds;

Art Institute of Chicago;

Library of Congress Center for the Book;

Los Angeles Public Library; American Library Association;

Maurice Sendak Fellowship;

Morgan Library & Museum (New York;

Chicago Humanities Festival;

National Book Festival;

Texas Book Festival;

University of Bologna; Bologna Children's Book Fair

Bibliothèque Nationale de France (Paris)

Mona Bismarck Foundation (Paris); Bologna International Children’s Book Fair;

National Library of Japan (Tokyo);

Asian Festival of Children’s Content keynote (Singapore);

National Library of China (Beijing)

National Library of Taiwan (Taipei);

Exhibitions Curated

New York Public Library (“The ABC of It: Why Children’s Books Matter,” and others);

Rosenbach Museum (“Wonderland Rules: ALICE at 150”);

New School for Social Research;

Katonah Museum of Art;

Boston Athenaeum;

Vassar College Library;

Brooklyn Public Library;

Joslyn Art Museum (Omaha);

Hartford Public Library/Hartford History Center;

Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art (“The Magician of the Modern: The Art of Leonard Weisgard” and several exhibitions); Katonah Museum of Art (Katonah, NY);

National Museum of American Jewish History (Philadelphia, PA);

National Center for Children’s Illustrated Literature (Abilene, TX); Real Art Ways (Hartford)..

Awards Judged

-Creator of the Carle Honors Awards (Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art);

Reading Magic Awards (Parenting magazine)

-2016 International Award in Illustration, Bologna Book Fair

-2016: Scholastic Asia Book Award (chief judge)

-2011: Sendak Fellowship

-2006–present: The Carle Honors Awards of the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art (committee chair); also, as a museum trustee, designed the plan for these awards.

-2009: Ragazzi Illustration Prize of the Bologna International Children’s Book Fair

-2001: Boston Globe/Horn Book Awards

-2001 Society of Illustrators/Original Art Show Juried Exhibition and Gold and Silver Medals

-1996: The National Book Award, Young People’s Literature; advised the National Book Foundation for five years thereafter on the selection of judges in this category.

-1993-2007: The Ezra Jack Keats New Writer and New Illustrator Awards

-1988-2007: Parenting Magazine Reading Magic Awards (later, Best Books of the Year): designed the plan for these awards; selected four judges annually; consolidated judges’ recommendations, and wrote the awards feature article for each Dec/Jan double issue of the magazine.

-1987, 1993, 2002: New York Times Book Review Ten Best Illustrated Books of the Year Awards

Teaching Experience

-School of Visual Arts (summer 2013–present). MFA in Visual Narrative Program seminar on the history of the picture book

-NYU Child Study Center/NYU Medical Center, “The Literature of Children and Adolescents” (2009–present)

-University of Illinois, “The Picture Book: History, Art, and Visual Literacy” (summer 2009 and summer 2011)

-Texas Woman’s University, “Children’s Books and Editorial Vision” (graduate seminar, School of Information and Library Science, 2000)

-California College of Arts and Crafts, “Writing for Children” (summer 1987)

-New School for Social Research, “Children’s Books As Literature” (Vera List Center, 1986-1992)

-School of Visual Arts, “Children’s Literature for Illustrators” (1982-1992)

Other Current Affiliations Eric Carle Museum, founding trustee (chair of exhibitions, collections, and Carle Honors Awards committees);

Authors Guild, member; The Century Association, member.

The Leonard Marcus Papers are at the Reinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.

External links

Personal Website: www.leonardmarcus.com

References