imported children's books

[calimac]

I got into a conversation about which British children's books beloved there also became American favorites and which didn't. This came through an experience I've had before, a reference by a Brit to some children's story or character that I'd barely or never heard of, but which context showed was universally known there. I'm making the assumption of what's known in the US from what's known to me, a leap I'd hardly take for current material, but children's lit from the early to mid 20C ... I'm pretty confident that if I hadn't heard of it, it wasn't widely known in the US.

So what's the score?

Winnie the Pooh made it in the US.

Peter Rabbit did.

The Hobbit and Narnia did, of course.

Just William didn't. The first I ever heard of that was reading that these books were favorites of John Lennon's in childhood.

Worzel Gummidge didn't. The first I'd ever heard of this character was years ago when somebody wrote that Michael Foot looked like him. "Do you not get scarecrows over there?" I was asked when I said this. Of course we do: and the nameless Scarecrow from The Wizard of Oz is one of our most beloved characters. What we didn't get was Worzel Gummidge.

Enid Blyton didn't. The first I ever heard of her was a British critic making the comparison in a blithe dismissal of Tolkien's early chapters.

I'm sure there are others I just haven't seen references to, or have forgotten about.

Then there's the mixed cases:

The Wind in the Willows made it. I don't think it's as widely beloved in the US as it is in the UK, but it's certainly known.

Swallows and Amazons ... I think that became sort of a special interest. It didn't become well known, but is cherished by a measurable number of Americans in a way that other less well-known ones are not.

Comments

[sartorias]

Agree except for Enid Blyton. Not all her stuff made it over, but enough did that I'd frequently have convos with people who'd read this or that series as kids, depending on what their library had.

[ethelmay]

I definitely recall seeing them around in late elementary/middle school libraries.

[oursin]

?Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking-Glass?

What about Frances Hodgson Burnett - The Secret Garden, Little Lord Fauntleroy, A Little Princess? or does she count as a US writer?

[calimac]

Alice made it, definitely.

I think Burnett counts as a US writer. She's obviously not forgotten, but I have no idea how generally popular she is on either side of the Atlantic on the scale I'm measuring here.

I'm better acquainted with this for 20C writers than 19C ones.

[petrea_mitchell]

I do remember reading The Wind in the Willows as a little kid.

The only thing I know about Worzel Gummidge is that Jon Pertwee went on to play him in the TV adaptation after leaving Doctor Who.

[sturgeonslawyer]

I had heard enough about Enid Blyton, but never actually seen one of her books, that, when a British correspondent asked me to find them a copy of a book not published there, I swapped for "your favorite" Enid Blyton book.

What I received was called (if I recall correctly) The Magical Faraway Tree; if that's not the correct title, it's (a) close and (b) very descriptive of the content.

Which I found intorably gooey, far gooier than anything of Tolkien's -- even that damn fox. I managed to get through it, but I decided that I have no desire to ever read another book by Enid Blyton in my life, which is too short for me to read syrupy goo.

[calimac]

I wanted to create parody Blyton affinity groups called the Sanctimonious Six and the Flatulent Five.

[wild_patience]

I read Enid Blyton as a child. It was in my local library in San Jose.