Founded by Bertha Mahony Miller in 1924 with a mission to inform the public about the best in children’s writing, The Horn Book Magazine is still in business nearly 100 years later. You can read articles about children’s literature and subscribe to the magazine on the Horn Book’s website. After Rachel Field won the Newbery Medal for Hitty: Her First Hundred Years in 1930, Hitty became an American celebrity. The Horn Book Magazine published three articles about Hitty in the February 1930 issue, which I will summarize in this post. You can read all of the articles mentioned on archive.org.
How Hitty Happened
By Rachel Field
pp. 22-26
In 1928, Rachel Field was living in New York, while her friend, illustrator Dorothy Lathrop, lived in Albany. One day when Dorothy was visiting Rachel, they ate dinner at one of the shops on West 8th Street. Afterwards, they took a stroll down the street. Dorothy suggested that they should drop in and visit “Hitty” at the antique shop. When Rachel inquired who she was talking about, she was astonished to discover that Hitty was the very same doll which Rachel had frequently stopped to admire in the shop window.
Dorothy explained that she had inquired about the doll and was told that she was, “a regular museum piece,” and “genuine early American.” The name “Hitty” was written on a piece of paper that was sewn onto her dress. But other than her name, nothing about the doll’s origin was known. There was something about her that made her seem more like a person than a doll.
She had far too much character in her little brown face with its turned-up nose and long, wide apart eyes and her inscrutable smile.
“How Hitty Happened,” by Rachel Field in THE HORN BOOK MAGAZINE
The small wooden doll with the pleasant face and an old-fashioned, brown sprig printed dress had caught the attention of both women, and her charm continued to captivate them. But sadly, neither one could afford the $25.00 price listed for the doll. So they simply admired her from afar.
Passing by one day, Rachel was stunned to discover that the doll in the shop window was gone. She wrote a sad letter to Dorothy, bemoaning the fact that they would never see Hitty again. Dorothy wrote back and mentioned that if only they had pooled their funds, they could have shared Hitty and used her as inspiration to write a book. She suggested that Rachel should visit the shop, just in case Hitty was still available.
That very same day, Rachel entered the shop and asked about Hitty. To her relief, the shop keeper had shown Hitty to a customer and simply forgot to return her to the window. Rachel purchased Hitty on the spot and had her wrapped up to send to her friend, Dorothy. Rachel immediately began daydreaming about Hitty.
Right then and there it came to her how Hitty had lost her complexion on a whaling voyage that she had gone on long ago with a family from Maine named Preble. And it almost seemed as if Hitty must be telling her about those days on the Island where they all took refuge after the ship went down and where they would all doubtless have perished at the hands of the savages if she, Hitty, had not saved them.
“How Hitty Happened,” by Rachel Field in THE HORN BOOK MAGAZINE
As soon as Hitty arrived at Dorothy’s studio, she settled right in. Dorothy agreed with Rachel about the whaling voyage and her adventures in the South Seas. Like Rachel, she could imagine all that Hitty must have experienced in her hundred year life.
It was plain that she had survived the Civil War period and seen railroad trains take the place of stage coaches, and steamboats follow the sailing vessels of her youth. She must also have seen extraordinary changes take place in little girls’ clothes and manners. It made one almost afraid of Hitty to think of all she had experienced since her features had been fashioned and her legs so neatly pegged!
“How Hitty Happened,” by Rachel Field in THE HORN BOOK MAGAZINE
The summer of 1929 was a busy and fruitful time for Dorothy and Rachel. Dorothy carried Hitty in her handbag, all the way to Rachel’s summer cabin on Sutton Island, one of the Cranberry islands in Maine. Together, they brainstormed and hashed out all of Hitty’s adventures for the book. All the while, Hitty lived in comfort there, on a shelf with a cane-seated chair and a bench, a little braided rug, a china cupboard and a tiny dog for company.
From breakfast to the sunset, and even after dark in front of a driftwood fire, the two women furiously swapped ideas, until somehow they just knew that they had gotten Hitty’s adventures right. I think that the natural beauty of Sutton Island, as well as the isolation, created the perfect atmosphere for storytelling.
Attribution: Debivort at en.wikipedia
Later that year, while Rachel typed up the story, it was Dorothy’s turn to shine. Back in her Albany studio, she carefully posed Hitty and drew all the charming black and white illustrations that are so familiar to admirers of the Hitty book. Rachel visited Dorothy there and gave her approval. Finally, the story of Hitty was ready to be published. And the rest, as they say, is history!
A Test of Hitty’s Pegs and Patience
By Dorothy P. Lathrop
pp. 27-30
In this article, Dorothy claimed that Hitty was the most patient model she had ever had. Compared to grasshoppers, toddlers, mice, dogs, cats, deer, rabbits, chipmunks, and monkeys, I am not surprised that she was impressed by Hitty’s patience. Oddly, she also thought that flowers made difficult subjects, as well as fairies. She does not mention where she found the fairies to draw! But she did say that fairies’ fingers were particularly difficult to capture. She was pleased that Hitty had only mittens and “flat-iron feet,” with their sharp angles, instead of fingers and toes.
Drawing her was both very easy and very difficult. Easy, because much of her anatomy was unnaturally simple; difficult, because every simplification was counterbalance by a disturbing rigidity and an inability to register her emotions by appropriate gesture and expression. It did not seem right, for instance, that she should wear her normal pleasant smile in the picture with the cobra.
“A Test of Hitty’s Pegs and Patience,” By Dorothy P. Lathrop in THE HORN BOOK MAGAZINE
One thing which was challenging for Dorothy to capture was Hitty’s facial features. Using only pen and ink, she had to account for Hitty’s expressions of wisdom, humor and poise. The doll had nearly all of her face paint worn off, and her patina did not translate well to the high-contrast medium. I think Dorothy did a fantastic job of simplifying the essence of Hitty in each picture.
To translate adequately into pen and ink all the character and personality in that blurred and subtle little brown face, was almost more than could be expected of a pen. Fortunately I might look at it as long as I wished.
“A Test of Hitty’s Pegs and Patience,” By Dorothy P. Lathrop in THE HORN BOOK MAGAZINE
Dorothy concluded the article by reiterating how much of a joy it was to have Hitty for a model. She surmised that Hitty’s long lifespan had given her the patience she needed to be the ideal model.
After wiggling, squirming, gliding, flying and hopping animal models, after vanishing non-humans, after restless flowers — and no one who has not painted them knows how active they can be — it was peaceful to sit and contemplate Hitty’s imperturbably smiling little face.
“A Test of Hitty’s Pegs and Patience,” By Dorothy P. Lathrop in THE HORN BOOK MAGAZINE
Hitty in the Bookshop
By Alice Barrett
p.31
This last article was only one page long. It is a fictional account of two children who find Hitty on display in their local bookshop. I can only guess that this was around the time when Rachel Field went on speaking tours across the country to promote her book. She brought Hitty along with her in a special glass case so that Hitty’s admirers could view the doll.
The four glass walls which held her captive could not leash the vibrancy of her personality, for as you peeped down on her you felt intensely her will to go on living and doing. Hitty was never meant for inaction!
“Hitty in the Bookshop,” By Alice Barrett in THE HORN BOOK MAGAZINE
According to the article, people from all walks of life would gather to admire Hitty, who had now become a “Public Person.” The same could be said for Rachel Field, herself. At first, rather shy and awkward in front of an audience, she later grew into the role of author-celebrity. You can find more interesting facts about Rachel Field in the excellent biography by Robin Clifford Wood, The Field House.
And so, we come to the end of articles about Hitty. But I did find an interesting ad in the August 1930 issue of The Horn Book Magazine. You can see it on archive.org. This ad shows how the Hitty book was promoted, as well as other books of Rachel’s that were for sale at the time. Hitty: Her First Hundred Years cost $2.50, which seems like a lot of money for a children’s book in 1930, in the middle of the Great Depression.
