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Writers

There are many tributes by writers and illustrators to authors of the past who created stories and characters beloved by readers of all ages. Two titles in the exhibition celebrate E.B. White, who in the mid-20th century gave us Stuart Little, and Wilber and Charlotte, the famous characters in the equally famous Charlie’s Web.

Another splendid picturebook turns the spotlight on Margaret Wise Brown, one of the most important and prolific American writers of the last century, renowned for her books for the very young. Her most famous work, Goodnight Moon, has become a world classic, a beacon of the modern approach to education. Her books encourage the habit of the bedtime story, an act of love and togetherness.

Gradually, page after page, we enter the imaginings of the young J.R.R. Tolkien and the world full of dragons he pursued all of his life. Mary Shelley’s imaginings, on the other hand, had Gothic tones that gave rise to her great horror story, Frankenstein, published in 1818. The great female writers are given in pride of place. Jane Austen’s narrative prose continues to enthral generations of young female readers, while Emily Dickinson’s poems are a constant favourite. Delicate and seemingly effortless, the simplicity of her verses are at the same time piercingly intimate.