As my mother's executor, I was exhilarated to find forty-four letters from the great Bertha Mahony Miller to my late mother in my attic. Simmons University Library later sent me copies of five of my mother's letters to Bertha for the war years 1941-1944. In her letters, my mother, Hilda van Stockum Marlin [Netherlands-born author known for 1935 Newbery Honor Book Day on Skates, The Mitchells series, and The Winged Watchman, among others] expressed gratitude and respect for The Horn Book and especially its founding editor, Bertha. The intensity of their correspondence was heightened by their shared faith and the dangers facing their relatives during World War II. 

To set the stage, Bertha's key staff at The Horn Book were Louise Seaman Bechtel, Anne Carroll Moore, Alice M. Jordan, and Beulah Folmsbee. The Netherlands had been occupied by the Nazis since May 1940, sixteen months. The President of the United States was of Dutch ancestry. The correspondence that follows intersperses summaries with direct quotes. 

1941

Images courtesy of John Tepper Marlin.

September 30, HILDA: "Dear Bertha, I was delighted with your letter and am very honored…to illustrate your Christmas number. I don't want any more money than you can afford… I'm doing some Christmas cards for a company for 25 dollars each. I wouldn't want any more…I am going to make you a special drawing…Do you want Saint Nicholas greeting little Nicholas of Miss [Anne Carroll] Moore, whom I met once? Please tell me, and thank you so much for your kind words about my books! With best wishes, Hilda."

October 4, 1941, HILDA thanked Bertha for her "sweet letter." She has many questions: "Does three colors mean, for instance, white, blue, and red on a grey background, or can't I use white as a color? I think they should be in the snow...Perhaps you could find out for me from your printer?...Finding information [isn't easy with] four babies and only one servant. I was so pleased to hear your granddaughter likes my books. I think Pegeen is the best of the three Irish ones. I've put in it a mixture of my feelings about the essence of Ireland and, at the same time, a lot of autobiographical details. Pegeen's happiness at being punished at school was my own. Thank you so much for your warm appreciation! As soon as I get Nicholas's photograph, I'll start on the drawing! Very cordially yours, Hilda. P.S. My husband suggested...it might be rather good to have him [St. Nicholas] present the doll with a horn. Hilda."

October 10, BERTHA liked the idea of "St. Nicholas greeting Nicholas [Moore]" for the Christmas 1941 cover. Bertha said she was "prancing with joy," reindeer-like, at the prospect. She explained that she is Irish Catholic and that Hilda's Irish books have given her much joy. 

1942

November 17, BERTHA said she loved Hilda's Dutch story, Andries. Bertha added that her eleven-year-old granddaughter said she discovered God at a camp with a chapel, explaining: "I wish I could understand about God." Bertha said her family went to a Von Trapp Family concert in Boston, where Maria von Trapp spoke of her family's belief in the power of prayer.  

November 24, BERTHA advised Hilda that her husband, William Miller, would be in Washington, DC, and that he expressed a wish to call on Hilda. 

1943 

December 10, BERTHA thanked Hilda for her "verses." "I have chosen 'A Friendship' for the January Horn Book. Would you like to look over a group of new storybooks? If you hold your copy down to 2,000 words ($20), we would use two pages of pictures." Bertha advises Hilda on how to approach her review(s): "The exciting work to me is work which flows, showing always a moving current of fresh effort."

December 14, HILDA: "Dear Bertha, I would love to write the article you mentioned…I was very interested in the enclosed article. I do not think the upholding of physical laws conflicts with miracles. Miracles obey other — spiritual — laws on a higher plane and only occur when they have value as a witness to God, never merely to help someone get out of a tight spot. Without miracles, you cannot explain Christ…Very sincerely yours, Hilda."

December 28, BERTHA asked Hilda for a "paper" and wrote about Willa Cather's 1927 novel, Death Comes for the Archbishop. She referenced an old Mexican lady's talks with the Virgin Mary: "You are a woman, O Mary, and you know my sufferings."

1944 

January 6, BERTHA said that A Woman Wrapped in Silence, which Hilda recommended, was "Beautiful." She says Mrs. Coblentz said her visit to Hilda's home was "wonderful."

January 11, BERTHA urged Hilda to visit Washington, DC's Public Library to view their illustrated books. She listed books she would like Hilda to review, and reproached those reluctant to review picture books: "It leaves an important element of children's books — the pictures — rather badly off if the only people equipped to discuss them refuse to do so...We must have a paper on illustrating in each number of The Horn Book."

January 20, HILDA: "Dear Bertha, It was lovely to get your letter and to know you are not bored, but pleased, to get mine. I always feel a little guilty about taking up people's time with my thoughts, but I do love some contact with other people. I was sorry to hear you are sick — you did too much, of course. I hope your cook is quite better now. I am enclosing the letter of Fritz Eichenberg and his article...His handwriting is so like his illustrations — the same spidery twinkling, sensitivity, and aliveness, as well as neat precision, concentration, and well-regulated imagination. It made me feel more than ever that you can't separate artists from their styles...The evenings are always full of going to bed. Prayers for our absent men and wounded soldiers...take up half an hour. Then Johnny and Sheila have to be put to bed, Johnny struggling like a lion and Sheila slippery and elusive as an eel. When they're...settled down with more candy than is good for them, I have to catch Randal and see if he needs a bath; he normally does. Then I go up to the girls, who usually sit innocently in their beds, but I have to inspect whether they...put their nightgowns on top of all their clothes...Then the light goes out, and our 'talk' starts...very precious to all three of us. Randal doesn't want any talks. When he goes to bed, he falls asleep right away. Sheila can't listen, she wants to do all the squealing, singing, and prattling. But with the older girls, I spend lovely, intimate moments. Olga has lately been much worried about her past, which has had a certain amount of mischief in it. She told me yesterday with a melancholy look on her face: 'I wish I could start my life all over again.' 'Well,' I said cheerfully. 'If you feel like that now, what must Grannie feel, who has seventy years of mischief to look back on!' 'Oh!' cried Olga, 'but I have done more sins in my nine years than Grannie in her seventy!' I thought it was rather sweet, but, of course, I told her she could start her life all over right away if she wanted to. I think they exaggerate their remorse to play on my sympathy. When at last I am out of their clutches, I have to attend to mountains of mending and usually sit with my mother and Mr. Smith, our English lodger, in her room before the fire (Mr. Miller sat there too). So you see, the evenings rule out any work. Whatever I have to do is squeezed into a day already full of shopping, trips to the doctor, going to the bank, and making accounts and taxes, etc. But it is surprising how much I get done anyway...Here is a portrait of my youngest son [Johnny], age 22 months, who is already beginning to ask: "Why?" He is a terrible ruffian. The other day, he said "Up he goes!" and threw his soup in the air. He is so masculine. Every morning, after breakfast, when Mr. Smith leaves [for work], he and Mr. Smith bow solemnly to each other...It is very funny to see...Your idea of my writing on 'the Bible in children's books' (the Lauren Ford etc. books you mentioned) is very good, but that would again be an entirely different article. Since you have a survey article on artists, why don't I write in the May issue from the point of view of the artist? I just don't know how I'm going to work all I have to say in one article...What I would so much like to write about is the false place art has taken in modern society, how it has left the still-natural company of music and letters and placed itself on a pedestal where it now languishes...I would also like to make a special plea for amateurs. No art can flourish without them. Not able to succeed themselves, they can put their whole enjoyment in what others have created. Knowing something of the difficulties, they can appreciate with discernment. They can do more with their vitality and charity to keep artists alive than anyone else. Yet they are made fun of. There are too few of them nowadays. Very best regards, also to your husband, Hilda."

February 8, BERTHA said she would be leaving on February 21 for Sarasota, Florida "where I shall be with my friend, Marguerite Mitchell. Mrs. Coblentz has sent me a charming paper about the Marlin high days and holidays. I would like to use the pen and ink drawing of Mr. Smith and John Anthony bowing to each other after breakfast."

February 12, BERTHA: "Your paper pleases me more than I can say. I agree that every creative person should have a day job. My husband has been ill since Monday. How hard husbands are to take care of...After being crushed by the invalid's remarks, the worm turns and starts a fight, at which point William becomes as sweet as he is habitually. 'Bittersweet' is what I mean! So appreciatively and gratefully yours." 

May 10, BERTHA: “I have enjoyed every letter so much. Beulah Folmsbee and I are [writing]...The Illustrators of Children's Books, English and American, going back to 1744. I have a great deal of correspondence for The Horn Book and do all the typing myself. Susie Marlin's doll's prayer book is the loveliest thing I have seen in a long time. And Brigid's little poem at the end is the loveliest of all. I hope we may be able to reproduce, in Mrs. Coblentz's paper, the whole of this little poem. We'll guard the tiny book as the apple of our eye."

May 16, BERTHA: "You, I suppose, never have an arid period when your head feels perfectly stupid. That is the state I am in...During these low days, Susie Marlin's little prayer book is giving me [so much pleasure]. I think many of us feel a kind of despair under current conditions, which stems from the war with all its destruction. The Horn Book lacks humor. We are overly earnest. That is why I have welcomed your verses and drawings...Do you think we could get for each issue a drawing, in a way a cartoon? Of course, we should expect to pay well." 

June 14, BERTHA: "A letter awaited us at home from Marguerite de Angeli [who wrote]: 'I was thrilled at the beautiful tribute in Hilda van Stockum's article, not overlooking the well-merited criticism!' It is a great comfort you do not feel The Horn Book to be heavily earnest. We want to express God all the time. The spirit of God is like the element of air; He is just as accessible. [M]y friends [were much pleased by] 'Susie Marlin's Prayer Book.'"

July 5, BERTHA: "Thank you many times for giving us the privilege of publishing your brother Willem's letter. It is splendid!"

August 22, BERTHA: "Here is the galley of 'A Soldier's Creed,' [which] I hope to publish in the Christmas issue, to hold our young men and women of the Armed Forces in loving remembrance during the season. Your faithful and appreciative friend."

November 28, BERTHA: "Oh, how sorry I am about your brother! We have a wonderful young grandson, pilot of a Fortress, now in England and flying his missions over Germany constantly. So you see I feel very close to your entire situation. Billy Dean, Nancy's brother, felt pacifistic all through his boyhood and early adolescence. Only since the war began, since Pearl Harbor, has he changed. Such fearful destruction of young lives, which the world needs so much, should not be. I for one shall be heartbroken if we do not start upon a genuine world government organization...The Christmas 1944 Horn Book is particularly satisfying because of all it has in it of you and yours. Your faithful friend."

December 21, BERTHA: "From a letter to The Horn Book from Mrs. E. L. Ferguson, Dallas, Texas: 'Thank you from the bottom of my heart for 'A Soldier's Creed' in the Christmas Horn Book. I would like six more copies to mail this article to as many boys in the service."