Jean Merrill

Infobox Person
name = Jean Merrill


caption =
birth_date = Birth date|1923|1|27
birth_place = Rochester, New York, United States
death_date =
death_place =
known_for = author, children's books
occupation = writer
parents = Earl Merrill, Elsie Almetta Merrill

Jean Merrill is an American author of children's books and editor, best known for "The Pushcart War", originally published in 1964. Merrill currently lives in Vermont.

Early life

Merrill was born on January 27, 1923, in Rochester, New York, to Earl and Elsie Almetta Merrill. She grew up on the shores of Lake Ontario in Webster, New York (now a suburb of Rochester).cite web
last = Jalowitz
first = Alan
title = Biography for Jean Merrill
publisher = Pennsylvania Center for the book, The Pennsylvania State University
year = 2001
url = https://secureapps.libraries.psu.edu/PACFTB/bios/biography.cfm?AuthorID=1568
format = HTML
accessdate = 2008-07-31 ] Merrill received her Bachelor of Arts degree in English and Theatre in 1944 from Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania and was inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa Society. She received her master's degree from Wellesley College in 1945.

Editor

After leaving Wellesley, Merrill was an editor for Scholastic Magazines from 1945 to 1949. She subsequently edited at Literary Cavalcade from 1950 to 1957. Starting in 1952, Merrill held a Fulbright Fellowship at the University of Madras in India. Her folklore studies in India would lead her to write a number of stories based on Asian folklore: "Shan's Lucky Knife" (1960, based on a Burmese folktale), "The Superlative Horse" (1961, based on a Chinese folktale), and "The Girl Who Loved Caterpillars" (1992, based on a Japanese folktale). From 1965 to 1971, Merrill worked as an editor and consultant at the Publications Division of the Bank Street College of Education.cite web
author = The de Grummond Children's Literature Collection
title = Jean Merrill Papers
publisher = The University of Southern Mississippi
date = 2002-05-16
url = http://www.lib.usm.edu/~degrum/html/research/findaids/merrill,jean.htm
format = HTML
accessdate = 2008-07-31 ]

Writer

Merrill started writing books while working at Literary Cavalcade, including "Henry, The Hand-Painted Mouse" (1951) and "The Woover" (1952). Merrill received the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award in 1963 for "The Superlative Horse".

In 1964, Merrill published her best-known work, "The Pushcart War", for which she won her second Lewis Carroll Shelf Award, in 1965. Set in New York, the book was written in the style of a historical report from the future, looking back at earlier events from a class warfare struggle between trucking companies and pushcart owners. Alberta Eiseman of The New York Times wrote "...it's rare to find a book for young people with both a point of view and a sense of the ridiculous." The book has been reissued a number of times, with the dates adjusted to keep it set in the future. In 2006, a musical adaptation was presented by Edric Haleen in Holt, Michigan.

Merrill published "The Black Sheep" in 1969. In The New York Times Book Review, Natalie Babbitt wrote that "...her fable is a satisfying sandwich in which the peanut butter, sticky and nourishing, slides down with ease due to dudicious use of jelly." This was followed in 1972 by "The Toothpaste Millionaire". Set in Cleveland, the story relates how a Caucasian sixth-grader girl who just moved into town becomes friends with her neighbour and classmate, an intelligent African-American boy entrepreneur, and becomes rich by selling their home-made toothpaste. In 1974, an ABC afternoon special was based on "The Toothpaste Millionaire".

In 1992, Merrill published "The Girl Who Loved Caterpillars", based on a 12^th century Japanese tale. True to the original manuscript, whose ending had been lost, the story ends abruptly.

Books had a great impact on Merrill as a child, which motivated her to try to write children stories that would have a similar effect. Her books often illustrate universal human values serving to resolve conflict.

Bibliography

Note the following list is not comprehensive.

* "Henry, The Hand-Painted Mouse." New York: Coward-McCann, 1951.
* "The Woover." New York: Coward-McCann, 1952.
* "Shan's Lucky Knife: A Burmese Folk Tale." New York: W.R. Scott, 1960.
* "The Superlative Horse: A Tale of Ancient China." New York: W.R. Scott, 1961.
* "The Pushcart War." New York: W.R. Scott, 1964.
* "The Elephant Who Liked to Smash Small Cars." New York: Pantheon, 1967.
* "The Black Sheep." New York: Pantheon, 1969.
* "The Toothpaste Millionaire." Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1972.
* "The Girl who Loved Caterpillars: A Twelfth-Century Tale from Japan." New York: HarperCollins, 1992.

Notes

References

* Babbitt, Natalie. Rev. of The Black Sheep, by Jean Merrill. New York Times Book Review 26 Oct 1969: 42.
* Boegehold, Betty. “Merrill, Jean (Fairbanks).” St. James Guide to Children’s Writers. 5th ed. Eds. Sara Pendergast & Tom Pendergast. Detroit: St. James Press, 1999. 742-744.
* Eiseman, Alberta. Rev. of The Pushcart War, by Jean Merrill. New York Times 12 July 1964: BR18.
* Rev. of The Girl Who Loved Caterpillars, by Jean Merrill. Kirkus Reviews (15 Sep. 1992): 1191.
* Rev. of The Girl Who Loved Caterpillars, by Jean Merrill. Publishers Weekly (12 Oct. 1992): 78.
* Haviland, Virginia. Rev. of The Toothpaste Millionaire, by Jean Merrill. The Horn Book Magazine (Oct. 1974): 137.
* Hearne, Betsy. Rev. of The Girl Who Loved Caterpillars, by Jean Merrill. Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books (Nov 1992): 82.
* Hughes, Mike. “‘The Pushcart War’ Debuts at Holt High Auditorium.” Lansing State Journal 26 July 2006: 1D+.
* “Jean (Fairbanks) Merrill.” The Gale Literary Database: Contemporary Authors Online. 13 Feb. 2001. 24 Nov. 2006. .
* McClelland, Kate. Rev. of The Girl Who Loved Caterpillars, by Jean Merrill. School Library Journal (Sep. 1992): 269.
* “New Fiction from Our Autumn List.” Times Literary Supplement 23 Nov. 1973: 1428.
* Perrin, Noel. “The Harder They Fall.” Rev. of The Pushcart War, by Jean Merrill. Washington Post 14 Jan. 1990: x11+.
* Rev. of The Toothpaste Millionaire, by Jean Merrill. Booklist (15 July 1974): 1254.
* “USM de Grummond Collection - Jean Merrill Papers.” University of Southern Mississippi. 16 May 2002. 30 Oct. 2006. .
* Viguers, Ruth Hill. Rev. of The Pushcart War, by Jean Merrill. The Horn Book Magazine Aug. 1964: 378.