The country’s oldest
family-owned and operated bookstore, Warwick’s, located in beautiful La Jolla,
opened its doors to scholars and enthusiasts of children’s literature on February
23rd by hosting Dr. Jerry Griswold as he presented the revised
edition of Audacious Kids: The Classic American Children’s Story.
After a humorous
anecdote about his time living in Ireland (and having the good fortune to
immediately fall in with the “wrong crowd”*), Dr. Griswold thanked
attendees for coming out and supporting the local independent bookstore, who
uses the extra $1.25 that you save on Amazon to bring wonderful author events
such as this one to locals.
After that welldeserved jab at Amazon, Dr. Griswold proceeded to introduce his new book,
a revised and expanded version of the 1992 one entitled, Audacious Kids: Coming of Age in America’s Classic Children’s Books.
He joked that it’s really “an old book with improved writing” since over the
years he’s become a better writer. ;)
He quickly reviewed
his arguments on the twelve classic American stories that he focuses and expands on in his
book, such as Huckelberry Finn’s river ride
as a dream narrative, San Diego as the golden land of Oz, and the importance of Jo cutting her hair in Little Women (I especially can't wait to
read this one!).
The book also has
three new parts added to it, including the reception of the book, the history
before and after “the Golden Age,” and a bibliography of scholarly work that
directly responded to the original Audacious
Kids or the topics discuss within it.
Dr. Griswold
mentioned his joy at seeing a half page review in The New York Times for the
book when it first came out and the letter he got from his hero, Leslie
Fiedler. He also mentioned the “jerk from Montana” who gave him a book review
which was basically akin to: “This is what I would have done if I were writing
this book, but he didn't do any of those things!”
But among the good
reviews were phrases such as “impressive,” “trail blazing,” and “groundbreaking.” It was the first book of its
kind that included “scholarly analysis that is readable, enjoyable, and clear,”
encouraging a range of audiences to pick it up. But don't take our word for it;
there are four pages of praise for the original book in this edition, so you can
take their word instead.
To top the night
off, Dr. Griswold read a few pages from the chapter entitled, “Ur of the
Ur-Stories: Tarzan of the Apes,”
wherein he explores the question: why is Tarzan the greatest popular creation
of all time? Perhaps something in the rites of the Dum-Dum speak to the inner
Tarzan in us all, leading us back to the Darwinian dream and our hairy
ancestors.
The book was
originally conceived from a question that was asked during one of Dr. Griswold’s children's literature classes: “How come all these kids are orphans?”
Indeed, many of the famous
American children’s stories are filled with kids without parents, but why do
these stories appeal to readers so much? Dr. Griswold stated coming of
age stories require a character to separate from parents, and being an orphan
resolves the issue of guilt that would come up in that scenario. Not only this,
but America itself is seen as an orphan since its separation from the United
Kingdom. It gained its own independent identity and moved on. This is the value
that is predominantly shown in American children’s stories.
After the Q&A
session, Dr. Griswold invited all attendees, including current and former
SDSU professors and students, to join him at Hennessey’s for a night of further
literary discussion. Though in all honesty, we went because we wanted to hear
more stories from Ireland and other incredibly exciting tales of being an
English professor and a children’s literature scholar. We really cannot repeat
these tales on the blog, so we highly recommend befriending Dr. Jerry Griswold and asking
him to get a drink in an Irish pub around you. Hint: Make sure they have the
“Green Spot.”
* Definition of “the wrong crowd”: The people who know where the after-hours bars are in Ireland; the people who know where the after-hours, after-hours bars are in Ireland; the people who respond to being told, “We don't encourage dancing” by saying, “Don't worry. We don't need encouragement.”
P.S. I wonder if the
jerk from Montana ever wrote that book he so desperately wanted to read…
