Obituary: Grace Hogarth

GRACE HOGARTH

5 November 1905 – 11 December 1995

According to Barbara Ker Wilson, Consulting Editor at the University of Queensland Press, Grace Hogarth was ‘one of the most significant and seminal influences on the development of children’s books ever since the 1930s.’ The founder of Constable Young Books and, many would say, the careers of a whole generation of authors, illustrators and distinguished book editors, Grace Hogarth was something of a role model for the children’s book people of her time… also, as editor-turned-author, she produced Sneeze on Sunday, a crime novel (co-written with Andre Norton) and The Funny Guy, a children’s book.

Shortly before her 90th birthday, Grace Hogarth’s professional and personal gifts were celebrated by Elaine Moss, Delia Huddy, Philippa Pearce, Julia MacRae and Nancy Chambers in a special feature in Signal 78 (September ‘95), which we’re happy to commend to BfK readers. According to Philippa Pearce ‘there has been no better children’s editor than Grace Hogarth; nor can I imagine a better one’. It’s hard to imagine a more fitting tribute.

Signal is published by Thimble Press, Lockwood, Station Road, Stroud, Glos GL5 5EQ (tel. 01453 873716).