People come to children's
literature from all kinds of pursuits: some from education, others
from librarianship, Medieval or Victorian studies, folklore, history
of childhood. I have recently been trying to remember when my
interest for children's literature first appeared, and it seems to
have always been there. I have a book, or used to have a book,
published in Moscow in 1965, titled Anthology of English
Children's Literature, with nursery rhymes, folktales, excerpts
from novels, and extensive introductions and footnotes. From today's
vantage point, I cannot really see who the intended audience was,
since children's literature was only taught at schools of
librarianship, and the students there probably didn't read English. But the book was compiled by a devoted scholar of English
children's literature, and for many years it was the most reliable
source I had.
I remember buying this
book, which means it wasn't a gift, and it was relatively expensive,
while I didn't receive any pocket money (a non-existent concept in my
home country). It means that I had to ask my parents for money to buy
the book and took the trouble to go to the only bookstore in Moscow
that sold books of this kind. It means that, as a thirteen-year-old,
I already knew that children's literature was part of my future
profession, worth an investment.
About the same time, my
grandfather was granted the privilege to travel to England and Ireland, which
was very unusual, even for his high academic position. He asked me
what I wanted him to buy for me. Most of my classmates would
certainly have asked for pretty clothes (there wasn't much choice of
these in Russia at the time), pencils, souvernirs. I asked for two
books: Winnie-the-Pooh and Peter Pan. My grandfather
didn't know about paperbacks and was horrified by the prices of
hardbacks, but he did buy the books for me (I still have them).
When, age fourteen, I
finished middle school, I seriously contemplated going to a
vocational library college, because they taught children's literature
there. I didn't, but the very idea, as I see now, indicated the depth
of my interest. When it was time for university I didn't choose
librarianship because it wasn't what I wanted to do, so I studied
English as the closest alternative, and since there was practically
no research in children's literature I was planning a career as a
translator.
So how did it start? When
did the love of children's books as reading matter turn into love of
children's books as a study object?
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