Category Archives: 1940s

341F: Human Sterilization for Health Care

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It's not a children's book. I probably read this book 20 years ago and it was not a new book then. I'm guessing it was written some time between the 40s and 60s, but that's just a guess. The book takes place in a society where there have been lots of treatments for genetic diseases, so people who used to die before child-bearing age weren't, passing the diseases along, and health of the population was therefore less robust. (Plus possibly the cost of treatment.) So people were only allowed to get medical treatments, vaccinations, etc. if they were sterilized. I seem to recall people living in a sort of health-care ghetto and many people being anti-health care.

339N: Who is the author? Begins with Stephen…not King or Crane (Solved!)

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I am recalling an early short story writer, from the 1930s and 1940s, he wasn’t known as a science fiction author but wrote a piece of science fiction about a take over of the world by machines. They weren’t AI or anything that sophisticated. No microprocessors. The takeover included automobiles and even irons and vacuum cleaners. The machines just revolted. I think that the story was told by a person in an enclosed room waiting to die, telling his tale. The writer’s first name was Stephen. My parents had a copy of “The Complete Works of Stephen….” or “The Collected Works of Stephen….” but I can’t remember his last name. Does anyone who it might be? I believe he also wrote some poetry included in the set.  I think there were two volumes.

337N: Earth History As Scenes In A Play (Solved!)

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Children's illustrated science book about earth history, in which each age (formation of the solar system, age of dinosaurs, building Egypt's pyramids, etc.) is presented as a scene on stage in a play, with curtains to the sides. Last scene is at a typical house in the present day. Might have been printed in the 1930s or 1940s, was available in a grade-school library in the late 1970s.

337J: Cowboys and Indians in England

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The book I’m looking for was a children’s book probably published in the 1950s, although possibly going to back to the ’20s or so (no later than the early 1960s and I’m pretty sure it belonged to one of my parents when they were children, both born in 1949). I believe it took place somewhere in England or in Europe. Our copy did not have the dust jacket so I don’t know what was on the cover other than it was a green hardback. The most distinctive feature was a neighborhood map on the inside cover, probably in orange.

The plot concerned the kids in this neighborhood. I believe there was a new family moving in from America, and the kids played cowboys and Indians and built a teepee in a front yard (I remember learning that the British word was “garden” for yard from this book). And if I remember correctly, there was something beyond the neighborhood on the map, like a meadow, forest, or some kind of land over a fence or boundary line that the kids would go over to play.
I’m a librarian and I have searched WorldCat a lot for this book, and have also contacted the Library of Congress, the NYPL and the British Library with no luck. I have a feeling that a word related to the neighborhood was in the title, something like “Street,” “Lane,” “Road,” etc. so I have searched those kinds of words a lot but nothing pops up that looks familiar. Several times I have thought that it was something like the Mulberry Street or Primrose Lane books but those don’t have the right plots. Or maybe the title had something to do with whatever the kids called their little group– maybe something American Indian related.
Thanks for your help! I don’t know why I am so fixated on this…

337D: A boy, a little good luck person, fighting roaches (Solved!)

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I read this book as a young child in my grandmother’s house so it must have been published prior to 1950 ( late 30s?- 49?)  My sister thinks it was called Piccolo, but that title brings up no hits.  It is the story of a young boy who get a little “person” good luck charm who helps him. ( I think bullying was a theme back then too!)   In one illustration the little charm person is seen in his shirt pocket when a photo is taken of the boy doing something heroic, I think.   Along the way, the little charmer meets up with a cockroach who is going to attack, but the little guy puts a sewing pin in him ( I know weird)  but they become friends with the little boy, who paints the cockroach bright colors and he becomes the leader of his group winning against his adversary because of the paint job and pin!
The good luck little person ends up leaving because the boy doesn’t need him anymore.
It was an oblong book with plain blue/grey sort of cloth cover and had “flat” illustrations.  Another illustration showed the cockroach all painted different colors.

 

336H: A unique, darkly humorous children’s picture book

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Looking for the title of a picture book I had when I was a child–and absolutely LOVED.
Clues:
1. I know I possessed it at least as early as 1960/1961, and it was a used book when I got it. So my guess is that it was published sometime in the 1950’s, or even the late 1940’s.
2. As I recall, the book had an unusual shape. The top edge was curved, rather than straight across. I’m not 100% certain about this, but it is my strong recollection. It was taller than it was wide, giving it a much more rectangular shape.
3. There were both stories and poems in the book.
4. This was definitely not a sweet, endearing, Beatrix Potter-type book. The stories had a slightly darker edge to them. One of the poems was about a big, creepy tree, and the drawing of the tree scared me silly–but I loved it!
5. One of the stories was about a mischievous boy (it used that word specifically–it had to be explained to me) and one of the naughty things he did in the story was take piano keys off the piano and stuff them down between the crack in the floor boards.
There you have it…that’s all I remember. I sure hope someone can track this one down!

334V: Mystery series probably published 1940-1970 (Solved!)

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I do not know the name of any of the books in the series, but I can describe at least one of the covers. Our library had 4 books but there may have been more. All of the books had a deep purple cover. One had a mansion or haunted house on top of a hill or cliff. For some reason murder mansion, Whispering Hill, sticks in my head. I believe there were 2 or 3 kids and one had an odd name. Definitely not the more prolific series, Three Investigators, Hardy Boys, etc. The books were hardcover and not very thick, 70-80 pages and meant for grades 3-6. I hope you can find the series I am looking for.