back to booklist

back to book covers

Danny the Dinosaur
makes an appearance

Danny the Dinosaur entertains childern at The Wonder of Reading Celebration

Urusla Nordstrom was regarded as one of the greatest editors of American children’s books in the 20th century. She began her career at Harper & Row in 1936 retired in 1973 as senior vice president. She was considered a creative force for innovation and was dedicated to fostering the talent of her authors, which she referred to as her “geniuses.”

Dear Genius…the letters of Ursula Nordstrom (HarperCollins, 1998) is a collection of her letters, which conveys her devotion to her friends and colleagues. It was edited by Leonard S. Marcus and published after her death.

Below are two letters sent to Syd, who had just submitted his children’s book, the now classic “Danny and the Dinosaur.” Working from a dummy of 64 pages, she leads her new author sentence by sentence, complimenting, criticizing, teaching and prodding, yet always as a supportive mentor.

1957: Letters to Syd from his editor, Ursula Nordstrom
(reprinted with permission from HarperCollins. No part may be copied or reprinted without permission)

Dear Syd: December 4, 1957

I’m returning your dummy of Danny and the Dinosaur with my penciled notations in it. I’m afraid it is very messy but I am sure you can make it all out. As I wrote you weeks ago, it is very good on the whole but it does need more work. We’ve taken a lot of time at this end but I think that will save you some time in the long run. Manufacturing estimates have taken longer than they should.

First of all, remember that you have 64 pages of text and pictures including front matter. I can’t figure out your numbering in this dummy.

First page of text and pictures (numbered 7 in your dummy, for purposes of identification.) I think you should just say “One day Danny went to the museum.” (He didn’t actually want to “see how the world looked a long, long time ago,” as you put it, do you think? Very unchildlike. He might have wanted to go to see the dead mummies, or other specific things in a museum, but I wouldn’t mention that here because you mention it on following pages. So just have a simple statement for this first page. “One day Danny went to the museum.” It is pretty short and if you can think of one more short sentence for this page by all means add it. I can’t come up with any suggestion myself. Page 8: you’ll have to simplify what he saw on this page. NOT THAT I WANT’ YOU TO GET SELF-CONSCIOUS ABOUT “I CAN READ.” I told you I wanted you to let me worry about that aspect and that’s all I’m doing now. You could just say “He saw Indians. He saw bears. He saw…” I haven’t been in a museum in 150 years and can’t think of anything else, but you can. On Page 9: “He saw horses and wagons. He saw mummies. He saw cavemen. And he saw…” (OK? Roman chariot and Egyptian mummies look too hard for a child who has just learned to read and is excited about reading.) Page 10 and 11: I think he should see dinosaurs in the distance – a double-spread with Danny in the foreground as he is but the dinosaurs much farther away across the museum floor, with other museum items slightly indicated. And on Page 11, where you now say “Of course these dinosaurs were stuffed like dolls and teddy bears, and we not real dinosaurs at all,” I’d suggest simply: “Danny loved dinosaurs. He wished he had one.” Now is you make double – spread Pages 10 and 11 a long distance picture, you could put the close-up now on 10 and 11 on Pages 12 and 13 with the words on Page 12, “Danny was sad. I wish they were real,” (sic) he said. “it would be nice to play with a dinosaur.” Page 13 could have the words “And I think it would be nice to play with you,” said a voice, on the bottom of Page 13. Well, of course you can figure this out better than I can, Syd. I’m just being very specific in case it is helpful to you in working out a new dummy for your guidance. On Page 14 I feel strongly that you should put this thought (that the dinosaur can take an hour or two off in a hundred million years) later in the book. On this Page 14 I think you should ju7st have Danny saying something pleased and happy but essentially matter-of-fact, you know, something as flat as “I’m glad to hear that, said Danny.” On Page 15 we suggest slight simplification: “Come on,” said the dinosaur. “I’ll take you for a ride.” The dinosaur put his head down so Danny could get on him. Nothing to say on 16 and 17, which are very good –except make traffic light red light. Pages 18 and 19 seem very resistible to me, Syd. The rest of the story is so reasonable, given the fact that a dinosaur came to life, but this stuff about pushing the cloud away with his nose doesn’t quite come off, I’m afraid. The same for the wet cement episode on Page 19. Now if both these pages are dear to you by all means keep them in. They just seem not good enough for you but I could certainly be wrong. Pages 20 and 21 are fine but we’ll (You’ll) have to simplify the words a bit. Instead of “tangled up in the telephone wires” you can just say the dinosaur was so tall Danny had to hold the wires away from him (or something –that suggestion is awful). But the main thing to remember is that you’ll be showing in the picture that he got tangled up in telephone wires*, so you can use simpler words under the picture. Page 21, sort of perfunctory words? Pages 22 and 23 are fine but the words are too involved. If you can’t fix we’ll try. Page 27: Text has to be simpler. Page 28 fine. Page 29, could you think of a better incident for this page? Pulling the ocean liner isn’t good enough for you, I think. Page 30 fine. Page 31, I definitely think you should cut this unless you plan to go on and do something with it –what the world was like so long ago. And I think you haven’t room to do that so I’d skip that bit and get to the business of Page 32. Pages 32 and 33 are fine. Page 34 fine wit the slight change we indicate. 35 fine. 36 and 37 simply wonderful. Same for 36(a) and 37(a) (this is your number duplication), but on Page 37(a) I’d show the tail end of a crowd of people going to look at the dinosaur. 40 and 41 (in this dummy you skip 38 and 39) are OK, I think, though we’ll have to simplify the words somewhat –but the ideas are very very good. 42 and 43 –absolutely wonderful, that’s “it’s Danny riding a dinosaur,” said one child is marvelous! We’ll have to worry a little bit about keeping the words simpler but 44 and 45 are fine. Pages 46 and 47 fine though words can be simpler. 48 good but you can cut text a bit. 49 fine. Page 50 fine. And 51, 52, and 53 just perfect. 54 and 55 also wonderful. 56 perfect, and also 57. 58 and 59 fine but we’ll have to get the words simpler. I wish you could think of a more original song for them to sing –something real dopey that they’d make up, instead of “for he’s a jolly good fellow.” They wouldn’t have sung anything like that, I think. Make up some dopey thing they could chant. I can’t think of anything but I’m sure you can. Children make up such silly rhymes. By the way, I doubt that the children would have done anything so consciously adorable as “join hands and form a ring.” Wouldn’t they just jump up and down and shout “Hurray hurray for the dinosaur.” Oh it is too bad we have to do all this by letter. It would be so much easier (for you too) if we could just go over this page by page. Well, it can be done this way I know; I just don’t want you to be confused by any of this. That’s why I’ve tried to take it page by page, which you probably don’t need me to do. To go on. Page 60 is OK but would you add “Well, good-bye, Danny,” said the dinosaur. Then on Page 61 I think you should change it quite a bit so it reads something like this: “Can’t you come stay wit me?” said Danny. “we could have fun.” “No,” said the dinosaur. “I’ve had a good time, the best I’ve had in one hundred million years. But now I have to go back to the museum. They need me there.” “Oh,” said Danny. “Well, good-bye.” Pages 62 and 63 are fine. And 64 is OK too but I think you should just have one last little sentence to finish the book off cheerfully, like “But we did have a wonderful time,” or something like that (only better!).

When I wrote you about the drawings I said we could have 3 colors on one side of the sheet and two on the other. But you used four in the one with all the children and the dinosaur, and I can see that it wouldn’t be nearly so good with only three. So we’ve been trying to figure out ways to let you have 4 colors on one side of the sheet and two on the other, and still keep the list price of the book to $2.50. I can’t remember whether or not you and I talked about you ding color separations. Did we? I’m returning to you today the dinosaur with all the children and some Donobase sheets on which the Manufacturing Department has indicated on a small area how color separation might be done. This is going under separate cover. I enclose a copy of the memorandum from the Manufacturing Department about this process. What do you think of it? Do you think you could handle the color process because the strong black line would be weakened. I am getting additional manufacturing estimates on the possibility of your giving us a black key drawing, with everything on it which you want to appear in black. If we can afford it we’d send you non-photographic blues and you could put the colors (minus black) right on the blues, and we’d have the camera do the separation by three color process. I know this would be much much easier for you and I certainly hope the figures I finally get make this possible. I’ll write again in a day or tow (honestly, we’ve been slow getting going but now we’re almost through with the endless figuring and we won’t hold you up again).

I wrote you last month that it was all right to have a few double-spreads in the book, but I should have added that it is important to keep those double-spreads to a minimum because library bindings are side-sewn and therefore the middle of the double-spread is simply nipped into the binding and lost to sight. So have some but not too many and don’t put any vital action right in the middle of a double-spread. I also wrote you that it is all right for your drawings to bleed but I’ve just gone over a lot of details with the head of our Manufacturing Department and he say that really it will be much better if the drawings don’t bleed. So can you plan to stay at least 1/8th of an inch from the trimmed edges of the page?

I should have said earlier in this letter (and I should have written you earlier) that we love the dinosaur and the children spread. The feeling is just right. I am not so enthusiastic about the one of Danny and the dinosaur’s feet, which I am returning with the other picture. I think you’re kidding Danny too much; he looks like an adenoidal dumbbell. I think the book will be much funnier if he looks like a relatively sensible, real boy –I can’t think of the right word. I mean I think he wouldn’t have a great many changes of expression, you know. If he just accepts all this in a pretty matter-of-fact manner it will seem funnier to adults and perfectly reasonable to children.

We agree that crayons are a nice medium for this book.

I hope you will go over these suggestions for changes in the text and make whatever changes you are willing to make and then send a revised text back to me. We can set it in type immediately and that will be a big help to you when you are finishing the drawings. You’ll be able to see just how the words fit on the page. I guess a lot of this sounds awfully fussy, but when the book comes out it will look just right and as though this is exactly the way it was meant to be, and then we’ll all be happy.

You will notice that though I wrote you I like the bit about teaching the dinosaur to sit up and beg, and rubbing his stomach, I didn’t see any way to fit it into the dummy. After my initial enthusiasm about these tow pictures I sort of cooled off on them; maybe they would seem a little forced? I don’t feel strongly, though, and if you want them in just say so.

Be sure that you plan the dummy for 64 pages, including front matter. Check your copy of Little Bear to see exactly what I mean. You don’t need to allow so many pages for front matter as Sendak did, of course. We can do with as few as four, a title-page, copyright page, half-title page, blank, and start first page of text and pictures on Page 5. That would be 60 pages for the text and pictures.

Best regards and I hope all this makes sense. It is going to be a wonderful book and we’re delighted to have it on our list. Write me soon. What is your phone number in case I have to call?

Yours,

* In a later edition, the telephone wires were changed to clotheslines in a nod to the dangers of playing with electricity

Dear Syd: December 13, 1957

The new dummy is SO good. Congratulations! “He wanted to see what was inside” was a perfect second sentence for Page 5. Everything is fine but at Page 10 I now wonder if you shouldn’t take out “Danny was sad.” I now I didn’t think so earlier, but now that the text is so much better, and I can read it more smoothly as I turn the pages, “Danny was sad” doesn’t look or sound right. His “I wish they were real” sort of implies at least wistfulness, without actually saying it, and I think you could leave out “Danny was sad” with no loss. On Page 10 we suggest you add, after “And I think it would be nice to play with you,” said a voice that you add another line: “Can you?” said Danny. Then change Page 12 to read:

“Yes,” said the dinosaur.
“Oh, good,” said Danny. “What can we do?”

That simplifies some of the stuff here and we like it better. Hope you agree. If not just say so. But we really think it is better.

Then everything is fine up to Page 22: The dinosaur had to be very careful going around corners on account of his long tail. That picture is lovely, but I don’t know exactly why he would have to be “very careful” on account of “his long tail.” I mean, why? Not that I expect you to explain why in the actual words, but if you will tell me more what you meant I’ll be more helpful right here I think. If he hadn’t been careful going around corners what would have happened, that is to say? (Isn’t this an idiotic sort of correspondence. I’m sorry!)

Yes, we like the mention of the hour or two off on Page 26. you can still have it later. This makes it sort of nice and casual. Page 27: change “peeked in” to “looked” at the ball game. All else is just fine but when I got to Page 40 I thought that the line I once thought flawless: “It’s Danny, riding a dinosaur,” might possibly be better if you changed it to “Look at Danny riding on a dinosaur,” said a boy. “It’s Danny etc.” doesn’t really sound so much like a child as “Look at Danny riding on a dinosaur” is good. What do you think? We do not love “Little heads looked over the fence.” What could you put in here. Something like a lot of children ran to look over the fence. Or something like that? “Little heads” is too cute. Everything fine to Page 46. the world “tummy” sounds so baby-talkish, and stomach isn’t good here either. What with the explicit picture I should think you could just say “He’s smart,” said Danny, patting the dinosaur. All is fine to Page 55 where I’d suggest instead of having “whispered Danny to the children” you say “Danny said to the children,” and on this page you can show Danny in a huddle, heads together, with the other kids and the dinosaur slightly to one side, so we can get away from the hard word “whisper.” OK? Page 61. couldn’t you show a little bit of Danny and the dinosaur shaking hands goodbye, or something. Nothing sticky, you know. Just goodbye. And on Page 64 “But we did have a wonderful time? Is a perfectly acceptable last sentence but it isn’t perfect so see if you can’t think of something exactly right. I will keep the dummy here because I am sure you remember words and sketches clearly enough to decide on these points without having the dummy. If you will let me know what you agree with soon we’ll have the text typed up from this dummy, with these changes, and have the book set in galleys at once. Write soon. Are you in your house yet?

Yours sincerely,

back to top

©SydHoff.org 2009