Horn Book Magazine

As soon as our first issue appeared in 1924, The Horn Book Magazine established itself as the place where everyone who worked with children’s books — writers, artists, editors, librarians, educators, and parents — came together to share their experiences and deepen their knowledge. Our archives overflow with treasures, including the letters, photographs, covers, notable articles, and engaging editorials gathered here. Also here are profiles of the seven remarkable women and men who have served as editor of the Magazine.

Why is it called the Horn Book?
How Bertha Mahony and Elinor Whitney came up with the Magazine‘s name

A Little History of the Horn Book by Karen Jameyson
Text from a Horn Book brochure, c. 1985

Bertha Mahony Miller
All about the Horn Book’s founding editor

Horn Book Magazine‘s first editorial

Editors
Information about the Magazine‘s eight editors, with links to editorials by each

Letters
Letters from authors and illustrators about Magazine articles and reviews

Articles and editorials
Dozens of articles, from our earliest days up to the 1990s.

Reviews
What did we think of Madeline, Charlotte’s Web, Harry Potter, and other classics?

Hunt Breakfast
Surprising notices from W. H. Auden, Beatrix Potter, Eleanor Roosevelt, and others.

Covers
An online gallery

Reminiscences of working at and writing for the Magazine (September/October 1999 Horn Book Magazine)

• Lillian N. Gerhardt
  The School Library Journal editor has fond memories of her competitor
• Johanna Hurwitz
  The future author recalls her first rejection slip
• Jane Manthorne
  Remembering Ruth Hill Viguers
• Jill Paton Walsh & John Rowe Townsend
  On the golden age of children’s books
• Isabel Wilner
  The only author who has written for every single Horn Book editor
• Elizabeth Orton Jones
  An old friend remembers her neighbor, Bertha Mahony Miller
• Nancy Sheridan
  Memories of the old Horn Book office and, especially, Ethel Heins
• Karen Klockner
  Working amidst the Horn Book’s collection of classic books
• Karen Jameyson
  A former Horn Book editor recalls our pre-technology workflow
• Elizabeth Dyer Halbrooks
  Marketing the Horn Book in the Mad Men days

Barbara Bader on Horn Book Magazine history

• Peter Says Please (March/April 1999)
  Beatrix Potter befriends the Horn Book.
• Politi for Christmas (May/June 1999)
  An up-and-coming artist’s holiday keepsake
• Preach and Practice (July/August 1999)
  Editor Ethel Heins ascends her bully pulpit.
• Realms of Gold and Granite (September/October 1999)
  Miss Mahony opens her Bookshop for Boys and Girls in 1916.
• One Childhood, One World (November/December 1999)
  The Horn Book’s global vision was always clear.