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Telling Tales AN ARTICLE UTTERLY ABOUT LAUREN CHILD The Lonely Doll Dare Wright’s books captured the imagination of a generation of American children. Her carefully posed photograhs of Edith, a felt Lenci Doll dating from Dare's childhood in the 1920s, and her companions Mr. Bear and Little Bear still charm a contemporary eye although accounts of Wright’s tragic life pique our curiousity too. Of the ten Lonely Doll books, three are currently in print. A film of Dare Wright's life, directed by Oscar nominee Julian Schnabel is scheduled to begin filming later this year. www.lenci-dolls.net, www.darewright.com As a little girl,children’s author and illustrator Lauren Child wore beautiful dresses lovingly made by her mother. Unfortunately, once she had grown out of them her mother gave them to a local jumble sale. Luckily, Lauren spotted them and bought them back. Her mother then gave them to another jumble sale, some thing she now utterly regrets. The author rummages through her drawer of fabrics and finally digs out the one she has been searching for. The tiny floral print is one of the few rem nants from a childhood dress. Scanned into her com puter a red flower detail is picked out and becomes one of Lola’s dresses for the hugely popular animated Charlie and Lola series. From Clarice Bean to Charlie and Lola, with numerous titles in between, Lauren Child’s books have proved phenomenally successful. What is the secret of her success? It has not come easily. As a teenager she bounced from one art college course to another. Finally, events conspired to lead her towards children’s book publishing. Pausing to consider why her books have such appeal, Lauren suggests it may be “that I started from a point of what interested me so that I write in an unselfconscious way”. The books have a tactile quality. The naive style of drawing and the spontaneous collages of photos and fabrics look as though they might have been pasted with flour and water. The text works around the illustra tions, quite the reverse of the norm. It is also suggestive of the hopscotch logic that is perfectly clear to children but headache-inducing for adults. Lauren's retelling of Hans Christian Andersen's The Princess and the Pea on which she worked with photographer Polly Borland is her most intricate work to date. Each illustration was a painstakingly constructed miniature room set peopled with tiny figures clothed in layers of paper. What is most striking about her collection of fabrics is how ordinary it is. The fabulous evening dress and dinner suit worn by Mrs and Mr Bobton-Trent in Hubert Horatio Bartle Bobton-Trenthas its origin in a tacky synthetic circa 1970. But this is where her work is special. Just as children manage to transform incredible tat from the dressing-up box and appear as a fairy or princess, so these fabrics are given a change of scale and context so that they appear jewel-like throughout the pages of Lauren’s books. •••Marie O’Mahony
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Prairie dolls DOLLS WERE PLAIN AND SIMPLE AT HOME ON THE RANGE Long before the manufacturing processclaimed the doll, organising her into serried ranks of pink vinyl, she was an important and individual feature of childhood. Designed and made with the love and inspiration of a parent, grandparent or older sibling, dolls were largely created by whatever was to hand. A wooden spoon or clothes peg dressed in scraps of cloth, a carved knot of wood or cleverly plaited wool or even a knotted handkerchief could all seem sufficiently doll like to capture a child's vivid imagination. Necessity was the mother of many simple playthings. 19th-century handkerchief dolls, also known as a ‘church dolls’ were, (if you’ll excuse the pun) a godsend. Tradition has it that during long civil war era church services the desperate parents of fractious children would take out their hankies, tie a few knots in the right places and fashion a little cloth doll; interesting enough to entertain a young child, small enough to fit in a pocket and silent –even if they were dropped on the floor during the service. For the 19th-century American pioneers who hauled their wagon trains west into the unknown prairie land, dolls were an afterthought when For 19th-century American pioneers dolls were an afterthought when simply finding enough food until harvest was the priority.M oviestore colle ction simply finding enough food until harvest was the priority. Learning from the resourcefulness of the Native Americans, they adopted their doll-making techniques, using whatever was available. The Iroquois deified corn as one of the sustainers of life and celebrated the spirit with cornhusk dolls that would be set to watch over and entertain the children. Legend has it that the doll's face was so beautiful that she became obsessed with her reflection and neglected her duties, so as punishment the creator took it away as a reminder that the superficial is a distraction. A similar dislike of frivolity and an edict in the Book of Deuteronomy, ”Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness" [5:7-9] can be seen in handcrafted Amish cloth dolls whose simple shapes and blank faces could be viewed as a compromise between biblical constraints and a child’s need to play Corncobs were used to make Laura Ingalls Wilder's doll Susan who 'was only a corncob wrapped in a handkerchief' but that did nothing to diminish her personality! As a 7-year-old Laura Ingalls and her family travelled by covered wagon from Wisconsin's big woods to the prairie of Walnut Grove. As an adult, her Little House on the Prairiebooks, first published in 1935 encapsulated the pioneer spirit. These homespun American values were introduced to later generations through the television series that first aired in 1974 and ran for almost a decade. In 1967 The American Greetings Corporation licensed the illustrations of children's author Holly Hobbie and inspired by the huge success of Little House on the Prairieintroduced a namesake ragdoll. Based on the 19th-century quilting block Sunbonnet Sue, Holly Hobbie wore an oversized sunbonnet with Victorian dress and patchwork smock of gingham and calico. Capturing the hearts of little girls everywhere with her sweet wholesome values and creativity, she ironically became only the second manufactured ragdoll after Raggedy Ann with sales that topped $1 billion. Prairie dolls had come a long way from their simple origins. ••• Sarah Jane Downing The Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum, 330 8th Street, Walnut Grove, Minnesota, 56180, USA T: (+) 800 528 7280, www.walnutgrove.org

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Telling Tales AN ARTICLE UTTERLY ABOUT LAUREN CHILD

The Lonely Doll

Dare Wright’s books captured the imagination of a

generation of American children. Her carefully

posed photograhs of Edith, a felt Lenci Doll dating

from Dare's childhood in the 1920s, and her

companions Mr. Bear and Little Bear still charm a

contemporary eye although accounts of Wright’s

tragic life pique our curiousity too. Of the ten Lonely

Doll books, three are currently in print. A film of Dare

Wright's life, directed by Oscar nominee Julian

Schnabel is scheduled to begin filming later this year.

www.lenci-dolls.net, www.darewright.com

As a little girl,children’s author and illustrator Lauren

Child wore beautiful dresses lovingly made by her

mother. Unfortunately, once she had grown out of them

her mother gave them to a local jumble sale. Luckily,

Lauren spotted them and bought them back. Her

mother then gave them to another jumble sale, some

thing she now utterly regrets.

The author rummages through her drawer of

fabrics and finally digs out the one she has been

searching for. The tiny floral print is one of the few rem

nants from a childhood dress. Scanned into her com

puter a red flower detail is picked out and becomes one

of Lola’s dresses for the hugely popular animated

Charlie and Lola series.

From Clarice Bean to Charlie and Lola, with

numerous titles in between, Lauren Child’s books have

proved phenomenally successful. What is the secret of

her success? It has not come easily. As a teenager she

bounced from one art college course to another. Finally,

events conspired to lead her towards children’s book

publishing. Pausing to consider why her books have

such appeal, Lauren suggests it may be “that I started

from a point of what interested me so that I write in an

unselfconscious way”.

The books have a tactile quality. The naive style of

drawing and the spontaneous collages of photos and

fabrics look as though they might have been pasted

with flour and water. The text works around the illustra

tions, quite the reverse of the norm. It is also suggestive

of the hopscotch logic that is perfectly clear to children

but headache-inducing for adults. Lauren's retelling of

Hans Christian Andersen's The Princess and the Pea

on which she worked with photographer Polly Borland

is her most intricate work to date. Each illustration was

a painstakingly constructed miniature room set

peopled with tiny figures clothed in layers of paper.

What is most striking about her collection of fabrics

is how ordinary it is. The fabulous evening dress and

dinner suit worn by Mrs and Mr Bobton-Trent in Hubert

Horatio Bartle Bobton-Trenthas its origin in a tacky

synthetic circa 1970. But this is where her work is

special. Just as children manage to transform incredible

tat from the dressing-up box and appear as a fairy or

princess, so these fabrics are given a change of scale

and context so that they appear jewel-like throughout

the pages of Lauren’s books. •••Marie O’Mahony

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