A review by erboe501
Dear Genius: The Letters of Ursula Nordstrom by Leonard S. Marcus

3.0

This took me a few months to get through, so I don't have as comprehensive of a view on Nordstrom's evolution as I would have liked (there was a lot of stopping and starting on this, and some extra books in-between). This is partly due to my few and scattered moments of reading in school, and also because of the nature of the book. There are nearly 400 pages of letters, and I found that I couldn't read more than around 15 pages at a time without beginning to skim. It takes a letter or two to get back into the groove of her writing style, and then after about 10, I couldn't read them with the focus they warranted. Nonetheless, as a lover of children's books like Goodnight Moon and Harold and the Purple Crayon this was a fascinating read. Nordstrom was a forceful personality; she persisted with erratic illustrators, emotional writers, and intolerant librarians. Even when she was nagging a procrastinating writer, she always held onto her sense of humor and wit. I loved her focus on the child as the primary consumer, rather than on the parent who bought the book. She didn't care if the parents liked the books or not; if the children enjoyed it, it was a success. I would recommend this to anyone interested in publishing (which is why I picked up the book), children's books in general, or strong and successful female workers. I have a newfound appreciation for editors of children's books, especially Nordstrom, who helped to make the industry what it is today and cultivated so many of the books that I grew up on.