Leonard Marcus

Leonard Marcus is a highly respected and versatile children's book expert and historian. A founding member of the board of the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art (www.picturebookart.org), he is one of the most trusted critics in the field. Leonard served as Parenting magazine's book critic for 21 years and is a regular contributor to The New York Times Book Review, The Horn Book, and Publishers Weekly, among other publications. He is a three–time judge of the New York Times Best Illustrated Books of the Year Prize. Leonard has been a featured guest on numerous radio and television programs, including ABC's Good Morning America, BBC Radio 4, C–SPAN 2's Book TV, and National Public Radio's All Things Considered as well as Talk of the Nation.

Leonard, who is known for his witty and highly accessible style as a presenter, speaks about children's books and literacy issues to parents and professional groups throughout the U. S. and around the world. He also enjoys giving talks and workshops for school children, especially for the lower and middle–school grades. Recent appearances have included programs at the Sidwell Friends School, the American Library Association convention, Yale University, Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators' National Conference, the Enoch Pratt Free Library, the New York Public Library, and the national libraries of France and Japan.

He is the author of many of the most highly acclaimed books about children's literature and the authors and artists who create them, including Margaret Wise Brown: Awakened by the Moon; Dear Genius: The Letters of Ursula Nordstrom; A Caldecott Celebration; Side by Side; Pass It Down; Storied City; The Wand in the Word: Conversations with Writers of Fantasy; Minders of Make–Believe; and Funny Business: Conversations with Writers of Comedy. His lavishly illustrated Golden Legacy: How Golden Books Won Children's Hearts, Changed Publishing Forever, and Became an American Icon Along the Way was published to commemorate the sixty–fifth anniversary of Little Golden Books and established him as an expert on that beloved and revolutionary line of children's books, which is also the subject of a major exhibition that Leonard co–curated, and is currently touring nationally.

Leonard was born and raised in Mount Vernon, New York. He holds degrees in history from Yale and poetry from the University of Iowa Graduate Writer's Workshop. In 2007, Leonard was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from the Bank Street College of Education. He and his wife, the picture–book artist Amy Schwartz, live with their son, Jacob, in Brooklyn, New York.

Works by this Speaker

Funny Business

What makes funny FUNNY? An esteemed anthologist interviews thirteen favorite children’s authors — and asks them to share their trade secrets.

DO YOU EVER MAKE YOURSELF LAUGH WHILE YOU ARE WRITING?

"A joke isn’t a joke if you need to explain it," notes Leonard S. Marcus. "Even so, the hidden clockwork of comedy . . . has long been considered one of the great riddles of life." There are many kinds of humor, but capturing their essence on paper is a remarkably difficult (and often undervalued) skill. So how do authors create books that not only stand the tests of time but also make us laugh? In thirteen fascinating interviews, well-loved writers of humorous books for children discuss an array of topics, from their sources of inspiration to the ways they began writing, from their revision processes to childhood anecdotes to the value they place on comedy in their work and lives. Beautifully designed and thoughtfully edited, this collection is bound to tickle the fancy of children and adults alike.

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Minders of Make Believe: Idealists, Entrepreneurs, and the Shaping of American Children's Literature (Houghton Mifflin, 2008)

Minders of Make–Believe is the first–ever history of American children's book publishing, from colonial times to Harry Potter. The book for finding out how American children's literature grew and changed over the last 300 years, in what ways it has mirrored and shaped the larger culture, and where the genre may be headed.

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A Caldecott Celebration: Seven Artists and Their Paths to the Caldecott Medal (Walker, 2008)

The expanded, tenth–anniversary edition of this award–winning book about Caldecott–winning artists and the creative process, featuring a new chapter about Mordicai Gerstein and the making of The Man Who Walked Between the Towers. The ideal companion book for Mock Caldecott events!

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Golden Legacy

THE YEAR 2007 marks the 65th anniversary of a bold experiment: the launch of the Little Golden Books during the dark days of World War II. At a time when the literacy rate was not nearly as high as it is now - and privation was felt by nearly all - quality books for children would now be available at a price nearly everyone could afford (25 cents), and sold where ordinary people shopped. Golden Legacy is a lively history of a company, a line of books, the groundbreaking writers and artists who created them, the clever mavericks who marketed and sold them, and the cultural landscape that surrounded them.

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Pass it Down: Five Picture Book Families Make Their Mark (Walker & Company, 2007)

Leonard introduces readers to five award–winning artist–families with talent that spans the generations. Illustrated family–album style, readers see for themselves how picture books come into being, how artists and writers are nurtured and grown, and how family influences who we each become.

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The Wand in the Word

In a series of incisive interviews, Leonard S. Marcus engages thirteen master storytellers in spirited conversation about their life and work, providing inspiring reading for fantasy fans and future writers alike.

What kind of child were you? When did you decide you wanted to be a writer? Why do you write fantasy?

"Fantasy," writes Leonard S. Marcus, "is storytelling with the beguiling power to transform the impossible into the imaginable and to reveal our own ‘real' world in a fresh and truth-bearing light." Few have harnessed this power with the artistry, verve, and imagination of the authors encountered in this compelling book. How do they work their magic?

Finely nuanced and continually revealing, Leonard S. Marcus's interviews range widely over questions of literary craft and moral vision, as he asks thirteen noted fantasy authors about their pivotal life experiences, their literary influences and work routines, and their core beliefs about the place of fantasy in literature and in our lives.

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Storied City: A Children’s Book Walking–Tour Guide to New York City (Dutton, 2003)

These twenty–one walking tours offer a unique perspective on New York City, pointing the way to more than 100 New York places and spaces that have lit the imaginations of such writers and illustrators for children as E. B. White, Maurice Sendak, Judy Blume, Faith Ringgold, Kay Thompson, and Madeleine L'Engle. More than two hundred of the best books about New York City written for young people from preschoolers to teens are discussed. With book illustrations, original photographs, and maps.

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Side by Side: Five Picture–Book Teams Go to Work (Walker, 2001)

Have you ever wondered how a picture book is made? The process is similar to the way we play a team sport, put on a play, or build a sand castle with friends—through collaboration. Go behind the scenes with five famous author–artist teams: Arthur Yorinks and Richard Egielski; Alice and Martin Provensen; Jon Scieszka, Lane Smith, and Molly Leach; Julius Lester and Jerry Pinkney; and Joanna Cole and Bruce Degen—and find out how each set of collaborators rolled up their sleeves to create some of the best–known children's books.

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Dear Genius: The Letters of Ursula Nordstrom (HarperCollins, 1998; 2000)

Ursula Nordstrom, director of Harper's Department of Books for Boys and Girls from 1940 to 1973, is a legend—one of the most creative forces in children's books. Working with such talents as Maurice Sendak, E. B. White, Margaret Wise Brown, Shel Silverstein, Garth Williams, and John Steptoe, Nordstrom recognized that each was a genius to be nurtured, encouraged, and published. Here are the entertaining, thought–provoking, and inspiring editorial letters of this extraordinary woman.

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Margaret Wise Brown: Awakened by the Moon (Harper Perennial, 1999)

Margaret Wise Brown (1910–1952), author of Goodnight Moon and The Runaway Bunny, was early childhood's poet laureate and one of the bestselling children's authors of all time. Margaret Wise Brown is quite simply the definitive biography of this adventurous and often controversial figure and a brilliantly researched, in–depth look at the New York cultural world of the 1930s and 1940s in which she came of age.

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The Making of Goodnight Moon: A Fiftieth Anniversary Retrospective (HarperCollins, 1997)

Lively anecdotes about the making of the classic bedtime story Goodnight Moon will delight both new and devoted fans. Previously unpublished photographs of Margaret Wise Brown and Clement Hurd, as well as pages from the original dummy and full–color studies of the artwork, tell a personal story of friendship, respect, and inspired collaboration.

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75 Years of Children's Book Week Posters (Knopf, 1994)

From Jessie Willcox Smith and N. C. Wyeth to Maurice Sendak and Chris Van Allsburg, generations of renowned artists have lent their talents to help mark Children's Book Week. The posters they created—which are reproduced in full color in this lavish volume—make for fascinating social commentary as well as a unique overview of American children's book art during the twentieth century. Biographical notes on the artists are provided along with an essay tracing the history of children's publishing in the United States.

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