Book-A-Day Almanac

Today marks the birthday of Charlotte Zolotow, legendary publisher, editor, and writer. Sometime in the late seventies I first met Charlotte; Bill Morris, Harper’s devoted head of Marketing, adored her and wanted us to get to know each other. From that day on, I suddenly had a new goal—I wanted to grow up to be Charlotte Zolotow. Her grace, intelligence, sparking eyes, sly sense of humor—and her talent—simply won me over.

In her career, Charlotte excelled as both an editor and a writer. As an editor for one of the great children’s imprints in the history of publishing, Harper & Row during the forties through eighties, she made her mark by encouraging writers and bringing books into print that otherwise would not have existed. Louise Fitzhugh’s Harriet the Spy was drawn from the author by conversations with Charlotte and Ursula Nordstrom, the latter then head of the department. Harriet the Spy did not arrive as a book, but became one under Charlotte’s direction. She helped find talent for the emerging young adult arena, often locating writers who were doing other kinds of work, such as playwright Paul Zindel. His My Darling, My Hamburger, is dedicated simply to “My Darling, My Charlotte Zolotow.”

When the brilliant group of Harper illustrators needed new picture book texts, Charlotte wrote them. Examples include: The Park Book for H. A. Rey and The Storm Book for Margaret Bloy Graham. In William’s Doll, illustrated by William Pène du Bois, she took a stand against gender stereotypes. Gentleness, a sense of the joy of life, and a beauty of phrasing exists in these texts—qualities very difficult for picture book writers to achieve.

Best known for a book that won a Caldecott Honor for Maurice Sendak, Mr. Rabbit and the Lovely Present, Charlotte wrote the text when she became aware that her three-year-old daughter Crescent was attempting to locate the perfect birthday present for her mother. Charlotte started to think about the Pulitzer Prize–winning play, Harvey, about a six-foot invisible rabbit, who was the companion of a good-hearted inebriate. Well, if the rabbit were visible, he could help a little girl find the perfect present for her mother. As Charlotte has said about the writing process, “All children’s books, really, are made up of double and triple exposures, pieces of this and that that you carry around….one day they take shape and become a book.”

I can think of no better words to celebrate Charlotte Zolotow’s birthday than a quote from one of the great Harper classics, E. B. White’s Charlotte’s Web: “She was in a class by herself. It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer. Charlotte was both.”

Here’s a page from Mr. Rabbit and the Lovely Present: