Part I:
So, you want to write
a doll book? As a free lance writer on many topics, I hear a lot of what people
want to write about. I’ve read guides and doll collecting books by people who
write for magazines, but who are not collectors or even antique people. Some are adequate; they repeat the arty lines
about collectible doll types and books.
Some are just badly done and don’t contain helpful features like indices
and Tables of Contents.
I love to write and I love dolls. I’ve been writing since I was ten, when I was part of a kids writing club in the neighborhood. I’ve collected dolls since I was three, and
got my first doll book at age 7; it was “Dolls” by john Noble.
It seemed natural at one point that I would end up writing
articles and books about dolls.
Ever since I received Carl Fox’s “The Doll” as a gift, I
dreamed of writing a photo study of my own collection. That probably supported me on more than
anything. I’ve always enjoyed reading books about other peoples’ collections,
and have thought it was wonderful when they wrote beautiful color essays about
them. Kay Desmonde's dolls and her various books with their carefully
constructed backdrops of perfectly scaled furniture and accessories really
inspired me.
Reading
about dolls and nearly everything else led me to studying literature, so that
in college, I double majored in English and Spanish, and read the literature of
both. I began to write more poetry and served ion the editorial board of our
literary magazine, SAGA, and on the board of an “underground” college lit mag
called “An Ounce of Civet.
Just after graduating from college, I decided to try my hand
at publishing an article on doll collecting, and had “Confessions of a
Collector’ accepted for now out of print, "National Doll World." I was so excited that I had the article
framed.
Little by little, I started getting articles about dolls
published in other magazines including "Doll Reader", "Doll News", "Adventures; The
Illinois Travel Magazine", "Western Doll Collector, and Hope and Glory: The
Midwestern Journal of Victorian Studies."
I confess there is something thrilling about seeing your
name in print. Occasionally, I even got
a “fan letter’ form another writer or doll collector.
When I finally got out of graduate school the first round, I
got the idea of writing a book about dolls.
Of course, it had been done many times over, so I looked at types of
dolls, all kinds of books, doll magazines, doll newsletters, encyclopedia
articles, old fashioned card catalogs, and doll catalogs. I decided on metal dolls and dolls with metal
parts because no one had ever tackled those subjects together in book
form. Little did I know what I would
start. During my second round of
graduate school, I hit on the idea of writing a book length bibliography of
dolls, not just books about dolls, but all types of media that mentioned dolls
and toys.
The book on metal dolls
took me 25 years to finish and publish, and it took three publishers and all
kinds of revision. The bibliography, “A
Bibliography of Doll and Toy Sources,” now on Kindle as well, took over 17
years.
Metal Dolls: Part II
I think I felt sorry
for metal dolls when I was little. At 9,
my mother gave me "The Complete Book of Doll Collecting"
by renowned artist and author Helen Yung.
Mrs. Young made dolls sold by Kimport for many years, and you can still
find them advertised in vintage issues of Kimport’s own publication, “Doll
Talk.”
Mrs. Young addressed
Minerva, Juno, and Diana metal heads in a chapter she titled “Dolls Called Secondaries.”
These included celluloid dolls and half dolls.
Like the metal dolls, these dolls were secondaries because they were
sleepers that other collectors had not yet discovered. She advised new collectors to include a few
examples in their collections.
Young also wrote a
chapter on automata and mechanical dolls with amazing stories of their
own. There was a marionette clad in real
armor representing Joan of Arc that I loved; Joan of Arc was another of my
youthful interests; I read and watched everything I could about her. There was
a whistling Bru rescued from a French convent after World War II that had
belonged to a young girl in the French Resistance; the girl was shot as a
spy. “The Complete Book of Doll Collecting” was also the first place I had ever read about Schoenhuts. The little girl with short, dark bobbed hair
and overalls featured reminded me of Scout from my favorite book, “ To Kill a
Mockingbird.”
It was as if the
author was channeling me to continue her research and write a book on these
dolls she loved, but others ignored.
When I was 8, my
Brownie troop visited another doll collection in our neighborhood. Mrs. Wellman had perfect Minerva metal
doll twins, blonde, dressed in light blue cotton bustle dresses, trimmed in
fine lace. She considered them the best
of her collection, which also contained many china heads, antique bisques,
miniature, and Madame Alexanders ,including all of the Sound of Music set.
It got me thinking.
Also, when you want
to write a book, it is a good idea to try to find something others have not
written about. There was a plethora of
doll publications when I started to research.
I had a pretty big library of books, so I started with them.
Interlibrary Loan was a huge help, and in the early days of the modem, I asked
one of our librarians to do a ten minute Internet search.
After I got the
results of the Internet search, I
invested in a stash of 3x5 and 4x6 note cards.
I took notes on each card, clearly noting the quotations, names of authors,
publication dates, and titles of books.
I decided on how to organize the book, and then took notes on each
category. Soon, I wrote an outline based
on the categories I had created.
It took weeks to
organize my books and note cards. I went
from using a shoebox to store my research, to accordion files and a plastic
folio for pictures, to a filing cabinet, to several book cases. I had the accordion file for articles,
letters, and correspondence, and the folio for pictures.
Illustrations were
the hardest part of writing about dolls.
By the late 80s, publishers had become very picky and collectors and
museums very selfish. No other way to
put it. In the past, when I needed a
photo or a quote from someone, I politely wrote to ask them and contacted them
via their publisher. I never had an
editor or publisher refuse to forward a letter.
I also checked "Contemporary Authors" by Gale Publishing, and wrote to
some authors directly.
Part III More Research:
By writing to
editors, I was able to contact Mary Hillier, who became my very good friend and
penpal. We wrote about 2 letters a month to each other for 14 years until she
died. I also met Mr. R. Lane Herron, who
is still a good friend and correspondent.
Through Mary, I wrote to Dorothy Coleman and others.
At first, the
editors of the old “Dolls” were very enthusiastic. They were full of tips and
forwarded letters for me, and of course, I offered to pay postage. Then, quite
suddenly, KPG, who had just become an editor, refused to forward letters to
John Noble, Faith Eaton, and Lenon Hoyte.
They were my last three letters.
She also refused to help me contact them. I wrote to their book publishers, but never
got an answer. Soon after, the magazine
began publishing its own pieces on mechanical and metal dolls.
I had one noted
author plagiarize my work; no, she didn’t answer my letter. The assistant editor of the magazine removed
her next two articles on metal dolls.
Mrs. Coleman
answered my first letter tersely; she thought I had misspelled Janet Pagter
Johl’s name as Janice. I hadn’t. Later,
Mary Hillier “interceded” for me and Mrs. Coleman was very helpful. She told me that the Huret metal head was in
the collection of Dorothy Dixon.
I asked Mrs. Dixon
if I could pay to have a photo taken of the doll; she sent me a beautiful card
with an antique doll on it. I still have
it. She refused to send me a picture
because she “had other plans for her doll.” Then, she died.
If anyone knows the
whereabouts of the pewter head Huret, please, let me know! I had to sketch the doll from a photograph in
“Doll News.” The authors of that series of articles were very nice, but they no
longer owned the Huret, and had no influence on Ms. Dixon.
Needless to say, I
didn’t give up. My dad photographed my own dolls in black and white. I asked around a located a photographer who
took pictures for me as a challenge. He
refused to take my money, so when I lived in California, I sent him a lovely Christmas
gift.
Another friend
located the photos of Christine Nilsson and her dolls and others let me have
photos and take them. A couple of the
dealers I know gave me metal heads for the book and for my collection. Artists and jewelers talked to me about the
lost wax method and of the metals they enjoyed working with.
Of course, life went
on. I published articles on many other types of dolls, and other things. I
moved to California,
back home, and back to graduate school.
I took all my notes and manuscripts with me, but not my books. My mother kept track of them and the dolls
for me, or I never would have finished.
By the early 90s,
the “book” had been published in a series of articles, primarily in "Doll Reader"
magazine. DR had been very good to me over the years, and very helpful. I owe a lot to the advice of Chris Revi and
Catherine Cook. Mary Hillier sent
photos, addresses, notes, and ideas, as well as articles from England. She also proofread my manuscript, along with
my dissertation on Barbara Pym. My
friend the late Angela Wells, a well known novelist, also read and edited, and
was full of ideas for general tips. I
lost an article to one magazine along with priceless photos. They had no clue what happened to it. The then editor of “National Doll World” got
snotty about the professional photographs an award winning professor of
photography had taken for me. She knew I
taught college level English, and quipped that she didn’t want “college kids”
playing with cameras taking photos. Somehow,
she found the name of a local photographer and paid for him to take pictures. He did a mediocre job, but at least Ms.
Snooty was satisfied, but I didn’t use those photos in the final book.
Next, after I met
and married my husband, who is a photographer and computer guru, the
publication process speeded up.
The manuscript had
been typed and proofed again by Dad, and the folks at now defunct Pip printing
who were terrific. I wrote and mailed
several book proposals, long detailed outlines with sample chapters and
photos. Remember, I had to type most of
these. I didn’t have a word processor
till the late 90s, and got a computer with Internet later. My friends at JnJ dolls were great about
giving me ideas, and I was able to chat with doll greats like Dorothy McGonagle
and Florence Theriault on the old Hobby Central Doll Folders in the early days
of AOL.
I was also writing a
lot of other books and articles, finished my Masters and PhD., wrote a book on
Barbara Pym, and chapters for books on Virginia Woolf, Anne Rice and The Harlem
Renaissance. I sent the book to The Popular
Press which ultimately closed, to my alma mater, to Dover Books, Crown, Hobby
House Press, and others. No luck. About
3 years ago, 918studio typeset the book and prepared to publish it. They were the gracious publishers of my
poetry chapbook, “Sappho, I should have Listened.” My photos travelled cross country and back,
and my husband took up the painstaking task of editing.
We set up our own
publishing group called American Doll and Toy Corp, and proceeded to contact
Fidlar-Doubleday/ now Brandt-Doubleday, and had the book printed. They also did my bibliography, which I’ll
discuss below in the next article.
All of this required
a lot of research, foot work, Internet searches and phone calls. I visited a lot of doll shows and museums,
studied marketing books, publishers’ literature, and writing journals. We published our book in May 2013. I excerpted it and featured it on my blogs, Doll Museum,
Dr. E’s Doll Museum, Dr. E’s Greening Tips for the
Common Person, An Apologia for Countess Erzebet Bathory, Memoir, Writing your
Life Story and Miss Barbara Pym meets Miss Charlotte Bronte.
Part IV:
At the
Midwest Modern Language Association convention, I presented a paper on “The
Invention of Hugo Cabret” and automatons. A group of my metal dolls, automatons,
and robots travelled to a display at The German American Heritage Center, and I
did two programs on the dolls, one that involved local readings from poets and
writers in our area. We wrote the group poem, “Hinges and Hearts."
Along the way, I
picked up a few rivals, one in particular, was determined to copy my work. Others tried to get my printed manuscript and
my pictures. Never hand over unpublished
material like this to anyone, not even your best friends. If it is printed and copyrighted [which it
technically is as son as it is published, then use your own discretion]. The book is now featured on Doll Pile, my
Twitter page, My Facebook page Dr. E’s Doll Museum,
and it is for sale on Alibris and Amazon.
Four local stores and one museum carry it, and it is doing very
well. I am thankful to Mr. Barry Mueller
of "Doll Castle News" and to Donna Kaonis of "Antique Doll Collector", who gave it
such good reviews, and to the five star reviews I’ve received on Amazon. My friend and penpal, Anne Marie Porot was
also helpful when I was writing, and she sent a nice email after I mailed her a
copy, stating she thought it was the first book of its kindl Thank you, Anne Marie, and Galerie Chartres,
who sent me a catalog as research.
The Internet has made publishing much easier
than it was, especially Independent Publishing, but this kind of research is
till a long haul. If you have had
experience publishing a book on dolls, especially as an Independent Publisher,
we’d love to hear from you!
