My New Book is forth Coming!

Author Background for Thinking outside the Dollhouse; A Memoir:  The author began collecting dolls and studying them when she was three years old.  Her collection began with 3 Greek dolls, her first, that were purchased for her in Athens or that were purchased years before as part of her grandmother’s collection.  Dr. Tsagaris’ family has traveled, lived, and worked on every continent except Antarctica,  but a very close family friend traveled there, so even that territory is covered and represented by the items in her collection, which encompasses thousands of dolls, a library of books on dolls and related subjects that numbers in the thousands and is the subject of its own book-length bibliography, some 50 doll houses and shadow boxes, thousands of miniatures, hundreds of vintage toys, and thousands of doll related ephemera, antiques, children’s items, paper dolls, and doll clothes.

 

These items have been displayed in local museums, libraries, and schools, including The German American Heritage Center in Davenport, IA, The Bettendorf Public Library, and Kaplan University, Davenport, IA.

 

Dr. Tsagaris has published hundreds of articles on dolls and their history in publications that include National Doll World, Doll Reader, Antique Trader, Collector’s Weekly, The Dispatch/Argus, Doll News, International Doll World, Doll Designs, Hope and Glory: The Midwest Journal of Victorian Studies, and The Western Doll Collector.  She has published two books about dolls, A Bibliography of Doll and Toy Sources, favorably reviewed by the editors of Doll Castle News, Antique Doll Collector,  and With Love from Tin Lizzie: A History of Metal Dolls and Automatons.  She was Director of Social Media for Antique Doll Collector Magazine and the Expert Guide for About.com Doll Collecting, now defunct. She has also presented papers about dolls and about children’s books that feature dolls at the annual Convention of the Midwest Modern Language Association. These titles include “They want to Play with You; Dolls in Horror Movies,” and  “A Literary Shelter for Misfit Dolls,” “Sara Crewe’s Emotional Debts in A Little Princess” and “Rumer Godden’s debt to Children’s Literature.”  She has written a book review for the American Journal of Play, published by the Strong National Museum of play and corresponds with many well-known doll makers, authors, collectors and dealers.  She is affiliated with The Warren County/West Central Illinois Doll Club, is a friend of the Fennimore Doll and Toy Museum of Fennimore, WI, a Friend of the Eugene Field House and Toy Museum, and has been a member of the United Federation of Doll Clubs.  She has taught classes on the historical and literary significance of dolls, including The Doll as Other, for CommUniversity, a series of weekend courses mentored by St. Ambrose University and other institutions of higher learning.  She has lectured on various literary and historical subjects, including dolls for The American Association of University Women, The German American Heritage Center, various Churches, The Quad City Literary Guild, and The Putnam Museum.

 

Dr. Tsagaris writes several blogs, and five are devoted exclusively to dolls and doll collectors. Three are translated into other languages.  These are Doll Museum, a historical web museum of the history of dolls, and Dr. E’s Doll Museum.  She also writes blogs on green living, which often features folk dolls, Dr. E’s Greening Tips for the Common Person, blogs on memoir, Writing Your Life Story, a blog on the works of Barbara Pym and Charlotte Bronte, Miss Barbara Pym meets Miss Charlotte Bronte and An Apologia for Erzebet Bathory. She has a blog for GoodReads.com, too. These blogs often include stories and information about dolls. Over 50,000 people around the world have visited, read, and occasionally commented, on these blogs.  She maintains several Pinterest boards including one called “Doll Collection,” and has her own Facebook Pages for dolls, “Doll Universe“, “Antique Doll”,  “Dr. R.”  and Dr.E’s Doll Museum.”  Her hashtag on Twitter is Dr. E’s Doll Museum.  She has written for The Ruby Lane Blog and The R. John Wright Design Blog, “Ellen’s Takes.”  She catalogs descriptions for eBay and Ruby Lane, and has created boards for Ruby Lane and other doll orgs.  She has appraised dolls for the Bishop Hill Museum and Historical Society.

 

Education:  Dr. Tsagaris holds a law degree (Juris Doctor) and a Masters and Ph.D. in English.  Her Bachelors degree is a double major in English and Spanish.  She has published widely in many fields, including a chapbook on poetry, Sappho, I Should have Listened, and she is the editor and a contributor for an anthology of ghost stories, The Legend of Tugfest, 918 Studio 2012.   She writes a guest column for the Moline Dispatch/Argus newspaper, and contributes articles on Astronomy as well.  She published a book of literary criticism, The Subversion of Romance in the Novels of Barbara Pym, The Popular Press, 1998, and has published in anthologies of fiction and poetry, She published college study guides in Legal Writing and Administrative Law and is currently working on a book about the death penalty, two novels, and two books about vintage jewelry.   She chaired departments in Criminal Justice Legal Studies and Humanities for a major University. Currently, she is concentrating on opening a doll museum, and writing this book.  She is also a free lance writer in fiction and nonfiction.