Legendary Children's Book Editor Walter Lorraine Retires
RSSJoan Oleck -- School Library Journal, 10/16/2007
Walter Lorraine, the sometimes temperamental, always passionate children's books editor who chaperoned the creation of characters such as George and Martha, Martha the Talking Dog, and Lyle the Crocodile, is retiring after 55 years at Houghton Mifflin.
Lorraine, whose age has not been released, officially takes leave at the end of the year. Over the course of his career, the legendary editor, who has lent his name to a Houghton Mifflin imprint since 1995, has worked with such venerated children's writers and illustrators as two-time Newbery Medalist Lois Lowry; Caldecott Medalist Allen Say; Caldecott Medalist David Macaulay; Chris Van Allsburg; Arthur Geiser; Scott O'Dell; Susan Meddaugh; and James Marshall.
In 1992 Lorraine also became one of only five editors whose books have snagged the two highest awards for children's literature in the same year. Those books are Lowry's The Giver, which won the Newbery, and Say's Grandfather's Journey, which won the Caldecott.
Lorraine's newest collaboration with Lowry, The Willoughbys, will be published next March. Lowry herself will illustrate the book. The tongue-in-cheek book story follows four orphaned siblings as they try to escape the clutches of an odious nanny by modeling their behavior on that of children's literary characters from books like A Christmas Carol and Mary Poppins.
Lorraine is also working with Macaulay on his latest book, The Body, to be released in fall, 2008. Macaulay, in a phone interview, recalled how, in the 1970s, when he first proposed The Cathedral (1973), Lorraine convinced him to abandon his original idea--a fantasy book on cathedral gargoyles--and pursue the architectural track instead. "If you've got an interesting idea, he will back you to the hilt," Macaulay said. "That's the unique thing about Walter. If he saw you excited about an idea you had, and he was going to support you because he felt you were someone who an interesting ideas, then he would go all out."
Interestingly, Lorraine is a children's illustrator himself. His books include I Will Tell You of a Town (1956) by Alastair Reid, and Dear Rat,(1961) by Julia Cunningham (both Houghton) were selected by The New York Times as Best Illustrated Children's Books .
In Lorraine's honor, Houghton Mifflin has established the Walter Lorraine Children's Book Collection at the Rhode Island School of Design; the endowment will support the annual purchase of children's books, by both RISD graduates and others.
What Lorraine's authors will do after his departure is a question mark. "We're going to have to think about it," was Macaulay's own response. "It's complicated because it's a different business than when it was when I first met Waslter. There are some good people in it, but there's an awful lot of corporate overseeing these days. The great thing about Walter is he made the decisions and that was it...he was the children's publishing department, in a sense.
"He represents a kind of publishing that I don't think exists anymore."
