By MARGALIT FOX - Published: November 19, 2013 - The New York Times
Charlotte Zolotow, a distinguished author and editor of children’s books whose work — both her own titles and those of the writers in her stable — offered even the youngest readers a forthright view of emotionally fraught subjects like anger, envy and death, died on Tuesday at her home in Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y. She was 98.
Charlotte Zolotow - Andrew Kilgore
"Mr. Rabbit and the Lovely Present" - HarperCollins
Her daughter, the noted children’s author Crescent Dragonwagon, confirmed the death.
Ms. Zolotow’s own picture books — she wrote more than 70 — were cleareyed explorations of the interior landscape of childhood by one who had obviously not forgotten what it felt like to dwell there. Delicately, with surgical precision, they plumbed children’s interior lives, often ranging over loneliness, loss, longing and other painful topics that earlier generations of children’s books had either sugarcoated or ignored outright.
Her work was graced by art from some of the 20th century’s finest illustrators: Garth Williams, Hilary Knight, Marc Simont, Uri Shulevitz, James Stevenson and Tana Hoban. Ms. Zolotow’s first picture book, “The Park Book,” published in 1944, had illustrations by H. A. Rey, the artist behind the “Curious George” books.
Among Ms. Zolotow’s most famous titles are “Mr. Rabbit and the Lovely Present” (1962), the story of a girl’s search for a gift for her mother, with tender, quasi-Impressionist illustrations by a young Maurice Sendak; “My Grandson Lew” (1974), illustrated by William Pène du Bois, about a grandparent’s death; and “William’s Doll” (1972), illustrated by Mr. du Bois, about a boy who, despite his father’s embarrassed reluctance, realizes his wish to have a doll. That story was adapted as a song (with lyrics by Mary Rodgers and music by Sheldon Harnick), recorded in 1972 on the popular children’s album “Free to Be ... You and Me.”
As an editor, Ms. Zolotow worked for many years at Harper & Row (now HarperCollins Publishers), where she presided over her own imprint, Charlotte Zolotow Books.
The celebrated writers in her stable included M. E. Kerr (author of the 1986 novel “Night Kites” and the 1983 autobiography “Me, Me, Me, Me, Me”); Karla Kuskin (“The Philharmonic Gets Dressed,” 1982); Robert Lipsyte (“The Summerboy,” 1982); and Patricia MacLachlan, whose 1985 novella for Ms. Zolotow, “Sarah, Plain and Tall,” about a mail-order bride newly arrived on the American prairie, won a Newbery Medal, the country’s highest honor for children’s writing.
In her editorial capacity, Ms. Zolotow was known as a midwife of books of immense emotional honesty: Ms. Kerr’s “Night Kites,” for instance, was among the first novels for young adults to deal with AIDS. Editing writers for younger children, Ms. Zolotow was also a skilled matchmaker, pairing them with many of the illustrators whose work adorned her own books.
Ms. Zolotow concern for children’s deepest feelings, she often said, was rooted in her own uneasy childhood.
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