Only ever glanced at her work, but it sounds like a nice tonic after all the casual assumptions in so many ‘classic’ kids books that it’s perfectly normal for your family to own a townhouse on the Upper East Side, i.e., just down the block from all the publishers and editors. Especially interesting because I’ve been immersing myself in the world of intense educational reforms afoot in NYC from the ’30s on. Amazing how deeply even the ‘litest’ cultural babble from WW2+ was a ferocious and sophisticated reactionary attack on progressive politics. Oh to be a fly on the wall at some of those dinner parties on the UES when those people got a few drinks in them, yow.
(NYT)