Publishing Update and Literary Doll III

Today is another crisp and deceptively cool day. Late at night, with my garage light flashing on and off with the motion detector, I worked on spring/Easter terrariums with Bunny Houses and small rabbit figures. I plan to spend the rest of the weekend working on my death penalty textbook. Talk about opposites! Then, there was Elmer F. and "Kill the Wabbit!"

Enough hilarity, especially bad hilarity. I was at the publisher yesterday and the appearance of the doll bibliography is becoming reality. I am getting anxious to see it. I am going to finish the paper doll houses for the book fair this weekend. On the subject of books and doll related items, Target has in its dollar section all types of Beatrix Potter themed items. There are small board books of "The Tale of Peter Rabbit" and "The Tale of Benjaimin" Bunny, and all kinds of stickers, small notebooks featuring Jemima Puddleduck, and graphics with Tom Kitten. They are all $1.00. There is a very nice sticker album with the stickers, too.

Barbie Basics has been restocked at Target as well. For those who love fashions, this is a series of nice dolls, all Barbie and friends, wearing the iconic "little black dress." There are also available accessory packs that are very nicely detailed, with gloves, purses, shoes, jewelry, etc. All are in perfect scale, of course, andI can see lots of projects taking place. For anyone interested in chronicling contemporary fashion, this is it.

Some more books that I would recommend include:

1. Books, cards, calendars by Tom Kelley. His son was also running a website. Kelley was the photographer who first took pictures of Marilyn Monroe. She was so young and new, that he legend claims he actually had to loan her some money. He migrated later in life to photgraphing antique dolls, especially gorgeous French bebes. For doll historians, fashionistas, and photography buffs, especially in portrait, you can't beat him.

2. Manfred Bachman, Dolls the Wide World Over. Bachman is another author who enjoys linking dolls with history, culture, art, and sociology. He talks about doll-shaped buildings and does photo studies of doll faces from every aspect of collecting, so that a modern vinyl baby's photo might appear between photos of Queen Anne woodens, Native American Kachinas, or Delicate French bisques. There are ritual dolls,tourist dolls, ethnic dolls, antiques, modern dolls, and creche figures galore, and the book is a fun read besides.

3. Helen Young, The Complete book of Doll Collecting. c. 1967. A fun surprise with this book is that when one takes off the wonderful dustcover with its antique dolls, the blue cloth bound book is decorated with a border of gold-gilt paper dolls dancing across the front cover. Young was also an artist and has done books for young collectors and books on dollmaking. Her dolls appeared for sale in Doll News, long published by Kimport dolls. She has an excellent section on N.I.A.D.A artists and tells stories and histories of dolls that I have used even in my Death Penatly Graduate Workshop. She gives tips on doll repair and collecting philosophy. She also has included in its entirety "The Ballad of Frozen Charlotte." I love how she thinks, and have followed her advice to have a good, varied collection. To complete it, Young thinks outside the box. For example, if wax dolls are too expensive or not easy to find, she recommends that one find some good figural candles, like those I grew up with that represented Christmas carolers or pilgrims. She suggested nice folk carvings or ornaments could fill in wear wooden dolls might be lacking. As always, she recommends collecting what we like, but cautions against "accumulations" of too many of the same type of doll. She mentions a collections of large bisque dolls that she viewed, that were no doubt expensive, but that all looked alike, were about the same height, had similar clothes, were from the same era, etc. For those of us who love variety, Young's philosophy is our mantra.

4. Dolls at 2000; comprehensive doll history by the U.F.D.C. This is a wonderful book that covers all types of dolls, and includes authors like Maria Argyriadis of the Benaki Museum that we never hear from otherwise. It is an excellent book for photo study and for tracking doll history. For Researchers, it is terrific.

That's the doll news for today. Hope you enjoy it. I'm interested to hear from readers. I will discuss a couple more books, and maybe begin to talk about favorite websites in blogs to come. I'm also interested in information on the following subjects:

1. Biographical information on Carl Fox and Max von Boehn.

2. The current whereabouts of the Metal Headed Huret doll, or the location of other dolls.

3. Information linking German or European dollmakers to the Holocaust.

Take care, and have a wonderful weekend.