When I heard today that author Catherine Woolley died this weekend at age 100, I had to write a short tribute to her in Test Pattern.
She never married or had children, but she wrote 87 books and entranced generations of readers with her many children's series, including the Ginnie and Geneva series. I write about how every time I put a pillowcase on a pillow, I think of how "Ginnie and Geneva" taught me to tuck the pillow under my chin and pull the case around it that way. The girls did it and won a party game against the boys that way in one of the books -- ah, for the days when party games involved making beds, not Grand Theft Auto.
My friend Stephanie visited Catherine Woolley some years ago, when she was 92 (Ms. Woolley was 92, not Stephanie!). She tells of how charming and gracious she was, and how Stephanie smartly identified that Woolley must like olives, because she passed that love on to the characters in the Ginnie books. And she signed Stephanie's books and wrote her a darling note thanking her for the visit.
As I write in Test Pattern, books have such an effect on children -- I can still remember exactly where the Woolley books were shelved in my childhood library. I hope that if I have children of my own, they love books and libraries with a passion, too. With the Harry Potter craze going on, I feel kind of good about the possibilities.
6 comments:
Ginnie and Geneva! I had forgotten about that series...thanks for taking me back.
My mom introduced me to those books and I used to read them obsessively.
My dad would religiously go to the book sales at the public library and bring home BOXES of books for me when I was little. Thanks to him, I got to experience the joys of "Trixie Belden!"
I was so saddened to read in the paper today that she had died. Of course, I didn't know she was still alive and I didn't know she also wrote under the name Jane Thayer (I think that was it?). I collect what are called "maltshop books" from the 1940s/50s/60s and the Ginnie & Geneva books are what got me started (even though they aren't teenagers)! I recently found two more Catherine Wooley books that I'd never seen before in a used bookstore here in Seattle and was thrilled! I've also amazingly have not read the Lenora Mattingly Weber series you mention in your article so thanks for the tip. Cheers to Catherine!
- Shannon
Oh my gosh, she died? I am choked up. I love Ginnie and Geneva. Oh my gosh.
I also visited Ms. Woolley, when she was 95. I had been a penpal fan for several years and drove to see her. She was bedridden, but did allow me to look around her house and see where her "Libby" series was inspired from. The house she lived in on Cape Cod was the same house her character Libby lived in. I loved the Ginnie books too, but Cathy Leonard was my favorite character of all!
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