Meet Bev Clark, Alcott Fan and Children's Literature Expert
Louisa May Alcott's classic Little Women has inspired countless young women to emulate the novel's heroine, the spirited and resourceful Jo March.
Professor of English Beverly Lyon Clark's interest in Alcott's writing has led to a career high-point and every researcher's dream: finding untouched reviews from journals and newspapers, as well as newspaper clippings of book reviews hidden in Harvard University's Houghton Library.
In fact, the detective work of Clark and a couple student-researchers began with only a working bibliography of known Alcott works in print.
"It was a very spotty index," Clark says. "It's not like having Lexis-Nexis!"
Led by Clark, the research will culminate in the first published collection of Alcott reviews for the Cambridge Contemporary Review Series. The collection will also include reference to little-known literature that Alcott wrote for adult audiences.
"Certainly, I loved Alcott growing up," Clark says, "but children's literature was not the initial focus of my scholarship," she explains.
While working towards a Ph.D. at Brown University, Clark examined the elements of fantasy in contemporary American literature and rediscovered Lewis Carroll'sAlice in Wonderland, which marked her first serious foray into studying children's literature.
Now, Clark contributes articles on children's literature to The Chronicle of Higher Education and scholarly journals such as New Literary History. She also co-edited "Little Women" and the Feminist Imagination with Janice M. Alberghene; and Girls, Boys, Books, Toys: Gender in Children's Literature and Culture with Margaret R. Higonnet.
Clark's current research focuses on the relationship between feminist theory and criticism of children's literature and what status the academy assigned children's literature in the 19th and 20th centuries. And her collaboration with students includes looks at writer's block and the proliferation of romance novels and what this suggests about their readership, in addition to her work with students analyzing Alcott.
Clark is interested, she says, in the reception of children's literature and the reception of Alcott's work in particular. "There was not such a clear separation between literature for adults and children in the 19th century." The reputations of Alcott, Mark Twain and Frances Hodgson Burnett [^] author of Little Lord Fauntleroy -- are notable embodiments of this ambiguity.
Clark explains that many books traditionally considered children's literature were always widely read by adults. Some of these narratives, such as Alice in Wonderland, were also spun off into versions for the nursery set, altering the original into versions what Clark calls "twee" (British slang for overly cute, simplified and condescending).
"In my mind, what makes good children's literature is the same as what makes great adult literature: The work must be excellent in its own right, never condescend to the reader and raise interesting questions," Clark says.
"It must speak to children and their parents -- and also to the editors, publishers and sellers who first make it available."
Another question, according to Clark -- at least as provocative in relation to children's literature as it is in relation books for adults -- is how to read children's literature. The tenets of New Criticism, for example, ask that a narrative be read only for what is explicitly contained within it. Another approach, Reader Response, asks each reader to acknowledge personal experience and knowledge of the author's life and times.
In the case of revered children's author Michael Dorris -- accused of child molestation -- these intriguing questions are magnified. Should his well-loved story Morning Girl be forever tarnished because of his private, possibly unsavory, life?
Clark also correlates the rise of publishing houses seeking out highbrow children's literature to the genesis of Newbery Awards and Caldecott medals, which elevate books to best-seller lists. Also affecting the production and availability of children's literature is the demise of the independent bookseller (and the advent of amazon.com) -- and that libraries comprise a smaller-than-ever share of book-buyers.
Clark's predictions of what contemporary children's books will join classics from Lewis Caroll, Mark Twain, and Beatrix Potter?
"Certainly, Charlotte's Web (by E.B. White) and Where the Wild Things Are (by Maurice Sendak) will be on that shelf," Clark says.
"Children's literature is often looked down upon, especially in the academy," Clark says. "My mission is to reposition it, and get it the attention it deserves."