Barbara Cooney

CHILDREN'S AUTHOR GETS STATE-WIDE RECOGNITION
Bangor Daily News. Dec. 27, 1996.
By Alicia Anstead.


Author Barbara Cooney is escorted by state Trooper Greg Morse (left) and Cpl. Harold Savage (right) after being named a state treasure. (NEWS phot by Michele Stapleton)

Although we may have wanted to and we thought it would have been a good idea, we couldn't do it last year. Or any other year. But since Gov. Angus King proclaimed two days ago that Dec. 12 is a special 24 hours in Maine, let us be the first to wish you a Happy Barbara Cooney Day.

That's Barbara Cooney, the children's book author and illustrator who lives in Damariscotta, has written 109, and is now officially a Maine State Treasure (complete with governor-appointed bodyguards who might bring her back if she tried to leave the state for any reason other than vacation.)

"She's a remarkable writer," King said in a phone conversation earlier this week. "I consider Miss Rumphius one of the best five children's books ever written. And I'm a connoisseur of children's books since I've got five kids."

At Tuesday's press conference, King put Cooney's work in the same category with Margaret Wise Brown's Goodnight Moon., Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are, and anything from H.A,. Rey's Curious George series. He applauded her contributions to world literature and to the world's understanding of Maine, which, he said, she describes in the "best possible way."

King wants all of Maine to celebrate the day, but the good news has already traveled far beyond state lines.

"Adult authors are so often celebrated, but children's authors less so," children's book author Rosemary Wells said. "So this is an honor and a special thing for everybody in the whole field of children's books."
Wells knows Cooney not just from books such as Chanticleerand Ox-cart Man, but from the many conferences and speaking engagements the two writers have attended together. Wells lives in Scarborough, N.Y. and has written more than 50 books including Noisy Nora, Edward's Overwhelming Overnight and My Very First Mother Goose. She also runs a national campaign for reading to children.

Barbara Cooney is one of the finest writers for children of this century, said Wells. "She is one of those people - you wish there were 10,000 of her and they were all in government, too. We'd be better off. God bless her. She's a wonderful, wonderful American."

In the midst of all the excitement, Cooney, who is 79, is keeping cool. For someone who has won the Caldecott Medal twice and the American Book award once, who holds honorary degrees from four colleges, and whose books have been translated into 10 languages, Cooney manages to hold on to the well-bred manners she was taught while growing up on Long island, N. Y. and attending Smith College as an art student.

True to her storytelling career, she recounted an ancient Chinese proverb about an old woman taking a fat pig to town. The woman was filled with pride because she know how jealous her neighbors would be when they saw her walking through town with such a fat pig. The pig knew what was ahead, too. "No person should ever become too proud and no pig should ever become too big," Cooney told the audience at the State House.

Earlier in the week, after a crew from CBS had left her house, there was a moment of quiet for Cooney. She gave a mischievous giggle and said; "It's it crazy? It's flabbergasting. I didn't believe it, you know. When I was told, I said, "Oh, come on. That couldn't be so." I waited a little while, and it turned out to be so."

Cooney has been working in the industry since 1940, when her first book, Ake and His World was published. Her most recent book, Eleanor was published last year and tells about the childhood of Eleanor Roosevelt.

Cooney has often been quoted as saying, however, that her favorite books are the ones with Maine settings -- Miss Rumphius, Island Boy and Hattie and the Wild Waves.

The original paintings for the Maine books are on long-term loan to Bowdoin College. where more than 100 friends associates and admirers met for a reception Tuesday.

"It feels busy," said Cooney, referring to all the attention from the media. "I don't know how to tell you exactly what it feels like. You've got to be in my boots. It's weird. I feel like Greta Garbo, except I'm not in hiding.

Of course, now that she's a state treasure, Cooney can run but she can't hide. And even though she has no special plans for today -- except perhaps working on the illustrations for a forthcoming book called Basket Moon -- We want to be the first to wish her a happy Barbara Cooney Day.

Hip, Hip, hooray.

Reprinted here with the kind permission of the Bangor Daily News. Back to S.A.M.M. Page