Alice Dalgliesh papers
Scope and Contents
The Alice Dalgliesh papers span the years 1924-1979 and documents Dalgliesh’s career as an author and illustrator of children’s books, editor, and teacher of children’s literature and story writing. Moreover, it tracks her creative process through editorial notes, corrections, original author/illustrator artwork, and illustration layouts. The papers contain production files that were intended for her course on children’s literature at Columbia University, a dummy of a published book, and a complete manuscript draft of her novel The Courage of Sarah Noble (1954), a recipient of a Newbery Honor award. Dalgliesh’s teaching materials, drafts of her published and unpublished stories, and book reviews provide insight into her writing process, her teaching pedagogy, and her expertise in the genre. The collection also contains a handmade book, book lists, lecture notes, and incoming correspondence from authors, editors, publishers, and fans and a movie contract.
Dates
- 1924 - 1979
Creator
- Dalgliesh, Alice, 1893-1979 (Person)
Conditions Governing Access
This collection is open for research.
Conditions Governing Use
Items in this collection may be subject to copyright restrictions. In most cases, the Boston Public Library does not hold the copyright to the items in our collections. It is the sole responsibility of the user to make their own determination about what types of usage might be permissible under U.S. and international copyright law.
Alice Dalgliesh (1893-1979)
Alice Dalgliesh (1893-1979) was an American author of children’s books, a teacher of children’s literature, and founding editor of Charles Scribner’s Sons children’s book department. She was born in Trinidad, on October 7, 1893, to John and Alice (Haynes) Dalgliesh. When she was 13, her family immigrated to England. She came to the United States at 19 to study kindergarten education at the Pratt Institute in New York City. She earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Teacher’s College at Columbia University, where she later taught courses in children’s literature and story writing. Dalgliesh published her first children’s book, A Happy School Year, in 1924 and went on to write forty others. Two of her books were listed as Newbery Honor Books, including the historical novel The Courage of Sarah Noble, published in 1954. She wrote books for adults and book reviews for several journals. Dalgliesh became the children’s book editor at Scribner’s in 1934 and served as editor for 26 years, during which time she published works by Robert A. Heinlein and illustrator Katherine Milhous, among others. After retiring in 1960, she edited “Books for Young Readers” for The Saturday Review of Literature from 1961-1966. Alice Dalgliesh died on June 11, 1979, in Woodbury, Connecticut.
Extent
0.46 Cubic Feet (2 document boxes and 3 oversized folders)
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
The Alice Dalgliesh papers span the years 1924-1979 and document Dalgliesh’s career as an author and illustrator of children’s books, teacher of children’s literature and story writing, and editor. Included are original author/illustrator artworks, teaching materials, drafts of her published and unpublished stories, and book reviews that provide insight into her pedagogy, her writing process, and her expertise in the genre. Records include clippings, correspondence, production drawings, notebooks, and drafts.
Arrangement
The papers are arranged in three series: Series l. Drafts, production materials, and unpublished manuscripts; Series ll. Teaching materials; and Series lll. Correspondence.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of Alice Dalgliesh, 1979.
Processing Information
This collection is held within the Boston Public Library Rare Books and Manuscripts Department's American Manuscripts collection. Materials in this collection were preliminarily cataloged as part of the 2020 Rare Books and Manuscripts Department manuscript retrospective conversion project. Descriptive data for this project was transcribed from catalog cards or earlier typed inventories of manuscripts. Item descriptions were then converted into finding aids in order to ease access to complete collections and materials with shared provenance.
Statement on harmful description
Archival description reflects the biases of time periods and cultures in which it was created and may include direct quotations or descriptions that use inappropriate or harmful language. Creator provided descriptions may be maintained in order to preserve the context in which the collection was created and/or used. Legacy description and potentially offensive content may be made available online until a collection can be reprocessed because the access that they provide to primary source materials is uniquely valuable to the research community at large. Our efforts to repair outdated descriptions and to describe our collections more equitably are iterative and ongoing.
- layouts (printed matter) Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- Children's literature, American Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- College teaching -- Aids and devices Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Dalgliesh, Alice, 1893-1979
- Illustrated children's books Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Illustrated children's books -- Publishing Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Macmillian Children's Publishing Group
- Manuscripts for publication Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- Potter, Beatrix, 1866-1943
- Women authors, American Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Women editors Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Women illustrators -- United States Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- children's books Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- correspondence Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- drawings (visual works) Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- dummies (printed matter) Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- pen and ink drawings Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- picture books Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- Title
- Guide to the Alice Dalgliesh papers
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Kim Reynolds and Eve Neiger
- Date
- 2023 July
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
About this library
Part of the Boston Public Library Archives & Special Collections Repository
