"Books have reference numbers too"

This is the second post written by Paula Pintos.  If you haven't read it already her post 'A Twit's story at Seven Stories' was very popular.  Paula spent two months with us on an international student placement and did a huge amount of work for us. Here she gives an excellent account of the Book Collections at Seven Stories. 

Possibly because my brain was trained to focus on librarian-y ideas, I had never considered the role of books in an archive, let alone a literary archive, before coming to Seven Stories for my work placement. That soon changed, though! On my very first day, Collection Officer Paula Wride introduced me to Seven Stories’ book collections, and I instantly found their role fascinating.

One of the first things I absorbed in my time at Seven Stories is that the whole collection grows strategically, in a Lego-like way, in the sense that acquisitions (mostly) follow a structured plan carefully devised to close gaps in areas of interest. Unlike, for instance, a public library, whose role is to offer a collection that fulfils its patrons’ current needs, changing and diverse as they may be. I realised archives collect items in order to build a coherent body of knowledge that is a legacy in itself. Do we have material in the archive that is linked to this potential purchase or donation? Do we already have the artwork for this author’s work? (This is how I picture things, anyway, it may or may not be an accurate portrayal of reality).

Also, archives are (mostly) about preserving and sharing unique things, like an annotated typescript of the first draft for, say, The Gingerbread Man. It is generally not in the nature of books to be unique though, at least since the invention of the printing press! That is, I think, why the book collection's role is often to complement the original artwork and archival material in the collection. They provide a context and show the final result of the creative process, along with subsequent reprints, revised editions and even foreign language versions. (That is also why the books are organised under the name of the donor, instead of some sensible, straightforward system like - I don’t know - Dewey).

Multiple British and foreign language editions of two of Robert Westall’s titles

It’s important to respect the origin and the links between items, so that researchers are able to follow the crumb trails. The best way to express it that I could think of was to steal for the title the fifth law of library science written by Ranganathan, a librarian with an ability to express abstract ideas quite poetically. Libraries and archives are both growing organisms in their own particular way, and Seven Stories’ book collections are part of an archive, rather than a traditional library.

That was possibly not as clear as I thought it would be, actually. Let me give you some examples!

As I mentioned above, one of the roles book collections have in relation to the archive is to complement a parallel body of original archival material (drafts, notes, correspondence, and other exciting things). Kaye Webb’s and Faith Jacques’ collections are good examples of that, as you can read if you browse through the previous blog posts! I think Faith Jacques’ collection is particularly interesting because of the book collection it includes: books that she illustrated for other authors as well as her own titles; books that belonged to her own personal reading library; and most importantly, a huge number of ‘bookmarked’ reference books that she used for researching all the historical background, that would go into the astonishingly accurate and detailed illustrations she was renowned for by authors such as Leon Garfield. Thus, while the archival material provides a picture of Faith Jacques’ creative process as well as her personal and professional life, the book collection offers a glimpse into her own relationship with books as a researcher, an illustrator and a reader.

Books illustrated by Faith Jaques and some of the ‘costume’ reference books she used.

Some of the book collections, however, are not linked to archival material but stand on their own merit. Sometimes because they consist of a substantial number of books about a core ‘children’s book’ theme, or else because they open a window into a particular era, a significant figure or publishing house of/in Children’s Literature, or because they are unique, out of print or hard to find. They also often offer really valuable information on the evolution of the physical book from design, through printing techniques and marketing strategies. 

Possibly the strongest collections of this particular kind are Pat Garret’s and Thimble Press. The former includes ever-growing collections of alphabet books (585 and still growing!), as well as counting and number books from 1930 to 2010.  The Thimble Press Collections, donated by Aidan and Nancy Chambers, include four different core topics for any children’s books collection: traditional tales (1300), pop-up books (72), children’s literature related reference books (270) and multiple editions of ‘Alice’ (25!) 

Paula wrote a blog all about Thimble Press Traditional Tales Collection, so I suggest you read that first, because I have only been working with Thimble Press Children’s Literature Reference Books. In fact, I have been working with several reference book collections, and it has been fascinating. Seven Stories’ donors are often involved with children’s books in a professional way e.g. librarians and storytellers, publishers, editors, agents and reviewers, each of whom has a set of reference books.  So, there is a strong body of reference material covering children’s literature through the centuries from all sorts of angles, including ideology and diversity in children’s books, literary criticism, literacy promotion and education, and biographies of significant figures in the genre. 

Thimble Press Children’s Literature Reference books.

The Thimble Press Reference Books Collections includes 383 books mainly published between the 1940s and 2010. It covers many areas, but it is particularly strong in early children’s literature, biographies of authors and illustrators (such as C.S. Lewis and Edward Ardizzone), and booklists/annual book guides, including both bibliographies of award-winning books and recommended books, from influential librarians and critics such as Elaine Moss and Naomi Lewis. Since the collection covers such a long period, we can also note research topics changing and becoming more contemporary. For instance, the 70s seem to have brought a new wave of literary criticism centered on social matters, and so Aidan and Nancy Chambers also collected books on how children’s books are affected by class, gender, diversity or the construction of the concept of childhood.

As you can imagine, while browsing through the book collections, questions and research ideas often leap at you from the shelves. They are less shy in person than manuscripts, hiding away in their minty coloured boxes. Still, the one book collection that I was shown on my very first day and, being the language nerd I am, am a bit sad to leave only half-explored, is Colin Ray’s Collection of International Children’s Books. This collection was originally built in the 1970s by Colin Ray (husband of Sheila Ray) and lecturer at the Department of Librarianship of Birmingham Polytechnic (later the University of Central England), in order to collect a sample of the foreign books that were being published around the world, to be used for reference by students of Librarianship and external researchers. It is comprised of more than 3,000 books and journals in various foreign languages including French, Spanish, Italian, Russian and Japanese, but also Afrikaans, Catalan, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Hebrew, Hungarian, Persian, Malay, Polish and Swedish. 

The Colin Ray Collection of International Children’s Books and some of the Spanish titles.

This book collection is a bit of a rarity in that it is not attached to an archive and it is not about a particular core topic or a relevant figure, but it offers a fascinating snapshot of what was published, both originally and in translation, all around the world in a particular period. It is quite overwhelming, I could only help to identify some languages (not as easy as it sounds with about 50 of them!) and provide translations into English of book titles that were not in the amazing original ‘old-school’ card catalogue.

Colin Ray’s card catalogue for the International Children’s Books arranged by ‘Author’, Country of publication’, ‘Language’ plus a volume of ‘British Books in Translation’.

I am not immune to its vintage charm, I must say, but what I enjoyed the most is seeing how the Spanish and Catalan books are quite representative of the time, including  familiar names such as illustrator Luis de Horna and author Ana María Matute, and finding a few typed translations of some of the books texts, seemingly for informative purposes.

But moving away from the Spanish-language books, it is easy to notice  some names again and again, with Christine Nöstlinger and Enid Blyton being particularly ubiquitous, and there is a stunning variety of illustration techniques and book designs. Even without being able to compare the contents of that chaotic Babelesque army of children’s books, nosing through the stacks highlights the cultural and social ingredients that go into defining what makes an edition appropriate or appealing for children. I think my 22 year-old self would have regarded this collection as Gringotts, minus the gnomes, so I really hope it sparks at least a handful of research projects on comparative literature and translation! Regardless of the languages you speak, there is bound to be something for you. And, you know, there’s always Enid! 

- Paula Pintos 

If you'd like to find out more about the Seven Stories Collection, then 

email: collections@sevenstories.org.uk or phone: 0191 495 2707 or comment on this blog.

Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medal Winners

Yesterday the big announcement was made!  

The 2015 winner of the Kate Greenaway medal was William Grill for Shackleton’s Journey and this years Carnegie Medal went to Tanya Landman for Buffalo Soldier.  Over the past weeks our steering group have enjoyed reading and discussing all of the books shortlisted for the awards; here they are enjoying words, illustration, tea and biscuits.  

Carnegie and Kate Greenaway medal steering group at Seven Stories

To fill the gap in our reading lists, I thought it would be a great chance to delve into the Carnegie and Greenaway treasure chest to the show you some of the items in our collections that have won prizes in the past. Our book and archive collections at Seven Stories represent work by hundreds of authors and illustrators and among them are many Carnegie and Greenaway prize winners.

This is a very small selection, if you’d like to see some more, or you have a Carnegie and Greenaway favourite that isn’t featured, let us know!

The second ever Carnegie winner was Eve Garnett in 1937 with The Family from One End Street, which was quite ground-breaking for its portrayal of a working class family.  It may not be considered anything revolutionary today but in 1937, children’s literature was dominated by middle-class children.  We don’t hold any original material but we do have multiple editions in our book collections.  

Eve Garnett's Family from One End Street (Puffin Books, 1945)

In 1961 Antony Maitland won the Kate Greenaway prize for his portrayal of Mrs Cockle’s Cat.  This image only demonstrates a small amount of material that we hold in our Antony Maitland Collection; we have the whole dummy book, original illustrations and a draft of the cover for Mrs Cockle’s Cat.  We also hold artwork from his other books.

Original artwork for Mrs Cockle's Cat, Anthony Maitland c. 1961 ©Anthony Maitland 

Seven Stories Visitor centre is based in Ouseburn Valley in Newcastle and our Collections are held at our Gateshead office so, this next winner is close to home.  Set in the fictional Garmouth, quite like our own Tynemouth, is Robert Westall’s 1975 Carnegie winner The Machine Gunners.  Westall wrote his draft for The Machine Gunners by hand in notebooks. Six years later Robert won the Carnegie again for The Scarecrows. We hold a selection of original work within our Robert Westall collection which includes material from the majority of his published books. Alongside the archive we also have an extensive Westall book collection, which includes some interesting translations.   

Draft of Machine Gunners, Robert Westall c. 1975 © Robert Westall Estate

Peter Dickinson also won the Carnegie prize two years running. Tulku won in 1979.  Here is an early, incomplete typescript manuscript which is a possible first draft of Tulku.  There is also preliminary material for City of Gold in our archive, which was Peter’s Dickinson’s second book to win the Carnegie in 1980.  City of Gold was illustrated by Michael Forman whose work you can see in our upcoming exhibition. 

Typescript draft of Tulku, Peter Dickinson c. 1978 © Peter Dickinson 

There are very few authors who have won the Carnegie prize more than once, Berlie Doherty is another.  Her first prize was for Granny was a Buffer Girl in 1986 and the second for Dear Nobody in 1991.  Berlie's books can be found in a number of our book collections and our archive collection includes material from her published books, story books and radio broadcasts. The original material for Granny was a Buffer Girl includes these drafts and photographs which we think were used for inspiration. 

Drafts and photographs for Granny was a Buffer Girl c. 1984 © Berlie Doherty

Anthony Browne won the Kate Greenaway in 1992 with Zoo, at Seven Stories we hold one preliminary sketch from the book which shows the zoo visitors looking into the orang-utan’s cage.  We also have a preliminary sketch from Gorilla which won Browne his first Kate Greenaway prize in 1983.

Original Illustration for Zoo c. 1992  © Anthony Browne

A lot of Philip Pullman’s collection is digital but this is a typescript draft from the 1995 Carnegie winner His Dark Materials: Northern Lights.  Some of my favourite items in our collections are Philip Pullman’s handwritten notes and drafts which show his doodling and thought process. Philip’s name is very popular, particularly within our ex-library book collections, it’s great to see how the artwork for ‘His Dark Materials’ developed over time into what is the very recognisable Philip Pullman cover. 

Typescript draft for His Dark Materials: Northern Lights c. 1995 © Philip Pullman 

Emily Gravett’s Little Mouse’s Big Book of Fears won the Greenaway prize in 2008.  In our collection we have some original artwork of mice, these drawings were used to create the final artwork digitally.  The drawings were scanned and then digitally positioned into the relevant spreads like a collage.  

Original artwork for Little Mouse's Big Book of Fears c. 2007 © Emily Gravett

Come along to Seven Stories Visitor Centre after our grand reopening in August and you may be able to spot some of Emily’s mice in our Rhyme Around the World exhibition or...If you'd like to find out more about the Seven Stories Collection, then email: collections@sevenstories.org.uk or phone: 0191 495 2707 or comment on this blog.

Visitors to the Collection

Over the years, we have had quite a few fantastic and famous faces visiting our Collection store.

Here are a few images of some of comments from the lovely authors, illustrators and editors that have visited, and even a few illustrations too!

Above we have comments from a few illustrators, including Catherine Rayner and Emily Gravett, the little mouse is apt as we have some of the artwork for her book 'Little Mouse's Big Book of Fears' in the Collection. Also the author Gillian McClure, and Roger and Gill Wright, who donated the archive of Elinor Lyon.

Here we have some 'wonderful' comments from some more illustrators, including Ed Vere, Ian Beck and Anthony Browne, who has kindly provided us with a shape to transform! The comment below the cheeky monkey by Anthony Browne is from another ex-Children's Laureate, the poet Michael Rosen.

At the top of the page, we have a lovely little picture of the Incredible Book Eating Boy himself, drawn for us when Oliver Jeffers visited in 2009.

Some more fantastic comments, and a lovely little illustration from Lauren Child, whose exhibition we hosted in 2009/10. There is also a fantastic comment from John Burningham, beloved illustrator, who we also worked with for an exhibition in 2010.

One of our favourite comments from Colin McNaughton, although we won't be working any less any time soon!

A list of some of the names that visited in 2011, including Imogen and Sophie Smallwood, daughter and granddaughter of Enid Blyton, as well as a cheeky 'Lost Thing' from the very brilliant Shaun Tan.

And the final page, with our most recent comments from two very lovely new illustrators who have been filmed as part of our Picturebooks in Progress project - Yasmeen Ismail and Levi Pinfold.

Touring Exhibitions from Seven Stories

Seven Stories have been touring exhibitions for many years, travelling all around England, Wales and Scotland, and this blog post is the first of many about our ventures.

Last week was a very busy one for our team, as we travelled to Leeds and Kilmarnock to take down two separate exhibitions - Through the Magic Mirror: The World of Anthony Browne and Daydreams and Diaries: the Story of Jacqueline Wilson.

The Dick Institute, Kilmarnock where Daydreams and Diaries was on display from September 2013 to January 2014

Leeds City Museum, where Through the Magic Mirror was on display from July 2013 to January 2014

When each exhibition arrives and leaves a venue, a member of our staff goes along with it. We make sure the original objects to be put on display are in perfect condition, and make sure the installation of all the graphics and props goes to plan. 

Once all objects are removed from the display cases, they are carefully laid out to be checked, before being packed away.

Two of Jacqueline Wilson's toy monkeys, which inspired a section of 'My Sister Jodie' being packed away for safe transport back to Newcastle.

Leeds was the final venue for the Browne exhibition, but in April, the Wilson exhibition will be travelling to London, to go on display at the V&A: Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green from April 2014.

Over the Summer, we also have our exhibition A Vikings Guide to Deadly Dragons heading to Wolverhampton Art Gallery, and in February, A Squash and a Squeeze: Sharing Stories with Julia Donaldson will be opening at Chatham Historic Dockyard. Head to the Seven Stories website for more details.

To find out more about where Seven Stories touring exhibitions are heading to next, click here! 

And if you are interested in booking an exhibition for your venue, please email alison.fisher@sevenstories.org.uk or sarah.mcglynn@sevenstories.org.uk.