1947: MISS HICKORY by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey with illustrations by Ruth Gannett
Miss Hickory heard heavy footsteps clump, clumping along the stones of the pasture, then approaching her lilac bush.
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS - JANUARY, 1947
RONALD KRYCHOWIAK: Good morning, this meeting of the Newbery Medal sub-committee of the American Library Association is now called to order. Ronald Krychowiak is leading as sub-committee chair, joined by vice-chair Marilyn Szczeny-
MARILYN SZCZENY: Present.
RONALD: And secretary, taking minutes for this meeting, Edith Blaszczykowski.
EDITH BLASZCZYKOWSKI: Present.
RONALD: How is everyone?
EDITH: Doing very well, thank you. This past weekend, my husband and I had a chance to see Alfred Hitchcock’s Notorious.
RONALD: Excellent. That’s definitely a reference that is specific to this era, that you said during our real meeting for which this is a real transcript. On to business: today’s main topic is going to be our deciding the recipient of the 1947 Newbery Medal for the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children. The finalists are Wonderful Year by Nancy Barnes, Big Tree by Mary and Conrad Buff, The Heavenly Tenants by William Maxwell, The Avion My Uncle Flew by Cyrus Fisher, The Hidden Treasure Of Glaston by Eleanor Jewett, and Miss Hickory by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey. I know we’ve all corresponded with various librarians across the country, and we’ll each go around and hear each other’s final thoughts before coming to a consensus on the final medalist. Marilyn, we can start with you, if you like.
MARILYN: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. [Pause] Mr. Chairman, Madame Secretary-
RONALD: [Crosstalk] We work together, you really don’t need to be formal-
MARILYN: -I feel that I have to implore this esteemed committee-
RONALD: [Crosstalk] You called me Ronald this morning before the meeting started.
MARILYN: -to award the 1947 Newbery medal to Miss Hickory. In all of my years of working in children’s literature, I have never found a book as moving, as profound as Miss Hickory.
RONALD: The one about the doll made out of a nut?
MARILYN: I would draw your attention, Mr. Chairman, to chapter nine of this masterful novel, titled “Now Christmas Comes”. What we have here is a truly incredible passage, one unrivaled in the past twenty-five years of the legacy of the Newbery medal. I will now read selections from this chapter.
RONALD: [Crosstalk] I don’t know if that’s really necessary-
MARILYN: [Crosstalk, begins to read]:
“[Squirrel] dashed up-boughs to her nest as it began to be dusk. ‘Full moon tonight, Miss Hickory,’ he announced. ‘Bright moonlight for Christmas Eve. You mustn’t go to bed too early. Stay up for the celebration.
‘What celebration’ Miss Hickory pulled her hat down tightly . Even now, after so many weeks, she did not really trust Squirrel.
‘In the barn,’ he told her. ‘Something wonderful happens there every Christmas Eve at midnight. My mother took me over last Christmas to see it. Only we animals and the winged creatures see it. Large and small, wild and tame, of the earth or with God, we all go over to the barn to watch for it, and no one is afraid of those larger than himself.‘I have outgrown bedtime stories,’ Miss Hickory said crossly as she tucked her overs close about her feet. ‘You go, Squirrel, if you believe all this nonsense.’
‘The wonder on Christmas Eve is this,’ Squirrel continued, not noticing her remark. ‘In one of the barn mangers, the animal to whom it belongs finds the wonder. In the fresh grain of his manger, at midnight tonight, there will be a small hollow, although the straw and oats were freshly laid and not touched. It will be the shape of a baby’s head and body…Then all the animals, the barn creatures and the wild creatures, see the wonder too. They crowd around the manger…”
RONALD: Okay, so this is…okay, I’m actually glad you brought this up, Marilyn, I’ve been meaning to talk to you about this-
MARILYN: [Crosstalk, raising voice] AND LATER in the same chapter…[begins to read]:
“Miss Hickory sat up in bed, and the Christmas Eve moonlight on the snow was so dazzling that she rubbed her eyes, got out of bed, and went farther up-boughs to see what it was all about. As soon as she reached the top she understood that something extraordinary was taking place. Down from the peak of Temple Mountain, into its lee and passing through the orchard in the direction of the barn, Miss Hickory saw a strange procession. Flying ahead like a courier came a crow, but not Crow whom Miss Hickory knew, for this one was white. Following the white crow came the robins with sprays of holly in th/eir bills and the bluebirds carrying laurel leaves. Fawn came next, but to Miss Hickory’s surprise Doe, his mother, was beside him again-”
RONALD [interrupting]: This is the same Doe that had been killed in an earlier chapter, correct?
MARILYN [ignores him, continues to read]:
“The two, Fawn and Doe, stepped lightly and in time to the orchard chimes. They came slowly, looking neither toward the woods or the fields, for they were not afraid…Miss Hickory held her breath as the peacocks came in handsome array down the mountainside, tails of jeweled color or white lace spread in great fans. Nightingales came singing; green and gold parrots flew past in pairs with palm leaves in their bills; light-footed goats with bells at their throats danced. When she saw the camels marching, tall and majestic in their silk trappings, she was frightened. But the home creatures who mingled fearlessly among these other from far away seemed not at all afraid. A white skunk and her family went by, the woodchucks who had come out of their holes for this occasion, and hosts of scampering rabbits and herds of deer. Owls left their holes. The blind moles seemed to have their sight.”
RONALD: Look, Marilyn, we have to talk about-
MARILYN [continuing]:
“At last she crept in and out of the maze of legs in the barnyard until she was just inside the barn door. She could go no farther. No one harmed her, but no one made a way. They all seemed to share a secret that she had been too stiff-minded to believe. So she waited there, and at midnight the Christmas star entered the barn. It shone straight down through the roof and made a line of gold that rested above Wild-Heifer’s stall. There was suddenly a sound of rushing wings outside. Then the creatures, every one, kneeled down on the barn floor and bowed their heads: Cow, Old Horse, Twin-Heifers. Mr. T. Willard-Brown among the mice also bowed his head. Monkey folded his little hands. The camels’ great heads drooped…the creatures arose. They had all, except Miss Hickory, seen the golden imprint in Wild-Heifer’s manger.” [closes book]
I think we have our medalist, don’t you?
RONALD: Marilyn…[sighs, rubs bridge of nose] Marilyn, do you remember what book we gave the medal two years ago?
MARILYN: Of course, the 1945 medalist was Rabbit Hill by Robert Lawson.
RONALD: Which you had voted for.
MARILYN: Well of course I did! A wonderful book. I was moved to tears by the ending, when it was revealed that the farmers had put up a statue of Saint Francis of Assisi, and that the animals of the farm had recognized him as “their saint”-
RONALD: Right, so…look. If we give the medal to Miss Hickory, that will mark the second time in three years that the Newbery committee has given a medal to a book about talking animals, where the climactic reveal, in both cases, was that the talking animals were devout Christians. We can’t do that, Marilyn.
MARILYN: [Laughs] Well, why on Earth not?
RONALD: Because it’s insane! It’s an insane thing to do! This book is ridiculous! It’s about a doll that lives in a tree and is friends with all of the animals! My main feeling when I finished reading it was relief that it wasn’t racist, because let me tell you, I was really scared when I saw that cover!
MARILYN: Are you saying that we cannot acknowledge the Christianity of the animals?
RONALD: What are you-
MARILYN: Are you suggesting that all animals are Jewish? I can’t believe you would suggest that, especially at this moment in history-
RONALD: That’s not what I’m suggesting! There’s no reasonable way to get from what I said to that conclusion! Animals are not Jewish!
MARILYN: Oh, well why on Earth can’t they be? Is there something wrong with being Jewish, Ronald?
[Crosstalk, inaudible]
RONALD: Edith, I want this all taken out of the transcript. The past five minutes never see the light of day.
EDITH: I can’t alter the transcript, Ronald.
RONALD: We had Johnny Tremain, that one was good, right? American history, the men behind the Revolution? Call It Courage, I liked that one, survival story, adventure story? And now all we do is animal books where the animals worship the Christ child. People are going to look back on this era of the Newbery medal and think we had lost our minds.
MARILYN: Or, Ronald, perhaps they think we’ll have finally found ourselves, finally found classics of children’s literature that reflect the values and reverence we want to see as we raise our own children. [Marilyn stands up] Yes, Ronald, I think I can safely predict that this will be remembered as the golden age of the Newbery medal, and of children’s literature overall. The medal, the legacy of John Newbery, and children’s literature itself, will forever be tied to the titles Rabbit Hill and Miss Hickory, two books which families nationwide will read decades from now, which will be taught in every classroom. You know the world we live in; that world almost destroyed itself in a war. In our lifetimes, we’ve seen that happen twice. We’ve seen our parents scrimp and save to keep us alive during the Depression. We’ve seen a plague of influenza. Chicago was overrun by criminals. The Teapot Dome scandal will be remembered, always, as the single low point of the American presidency. Through all of these tribulations, librarians, and especially children’s librarians, have shared the art and the thoughts that have nourished us and helped us grow through tragedy. And we have been at our best when we remember what children’s literature is really about: animals, who are Christian.
RONALD: Edith, please take all of that out as well.
EDITH: Again, the ALA bylaws are very clear, I’m not really allowed to alter the transcript.
RONALD: Marilyn, we are not doing this. I’m proud of the work the committee has done, and I don’t need the rest of the Association criticizing the work of the Krychowiak-Szczeny-Blaszczykowski committee. There is absolutely no way we are awarding the medal to Miss Hickory this year.
MARILYN: Oh really?
RONALD: What are you doing? Why are you closing your eyes? Why are your arms out like that?
MARILYN [otherworldly voice]: TO ME, CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS, TO ME!
ARCHIVIST NOTE, 2006: At this point the transcript of the sub-committee meeting cut off abruptly. The remaining pages are illegible and tattered, as if chewed up by a very large group of very angry woodland creatures.
Newburied is a series by Tony Ginocchio on the history of the Newbery Medal and a whole bunch of other stuff related to it. You can subscribe via Substack to get future installments sent to your inbox directly. The next installment will cover the 2006 medalist, Criss Cross by Lynn Rae Perkins.