Category Archives: 1950s

290M: Discoveries in grandma’s house

I checked this book out of the library numerous times between 1964 and 1966. I don’t think it was new at that time. A little girl and her family relocate to a home that used to belong to her grandmother/great-grandmother. While remodeling the house, a door that had been covered over was discovered. The hidden room had apparently been used as a hiding place during Indian raids. There is also a large, hollow tree in this story. I cannot recall if a leather trunk with the grandmother’s initials in nail heads, was found in the hidden room or the tree, but inside is a beautiful doll with beautiful clothes. One outfit was definitely an elegant riding habit. It is possible that the little girl was named after the grandmother so had the same initials as those on the trunk.

I hope this rings a bell with someone. I have tried, unsuccessfully, in the past to discover this long lost, well-loved treasure from my youth.

290L: The Girl With the Disappointing (Mustard-Colored) Walls

Thanks to the Sunday NY Times, I now know who to ask the question that has been nagging at me for years: what O what was the book for teens (they didn’t call them YA novels yet) that I read in the 1960s (might’ve been published then, but also could’ve been published in the late 1950s) in which a daydreamy teenage girl envisioned painting her room gold, then painted it, then was bitterly disappointed that the walls were in fact “mustard yellow.” I remember nothing else about the girl, the story (or the walls) but the book must have had some kind of profound effect on me, because I’m over 60 now, a novelist and an English professor, and have read many, many novels since–and I’ve never forgotten it.

290K: 50s or 60s girl with doll builds wagon, makes friends

I read this novel in 1963 or 1964. A little girl is left to live with a childless couple in an apartment building, because her father goes away for work. The other children in the building talk about her among themselves, thinking she is like a snooty princess. But no, she is a very lonely little girl, and has only one possession, a doll. There is a broken wagon, and the children become friends with the girl when they all work together to repair the wagon. The wagon is a bed for the doll and it is given to the girl to take with her when her father returns.

289M: A collection of fairy tales and legends

The book I am searching for is an anthology of stories that include fairy tales and legends such as Tales of Robin Hood which covers his death, The Waterbabies, East of the Sun and West of the Moon, and Longshanks, Girth and Keen, I think even Aladdin, to name a few. It was at least 8×12 red and probably from the late 50’s or before, it had fallen apart by the 60’s. The collection was eclectic to be sure but it obsesses me. Any help would be greatly appreciated!