{{short description|American children's writer}} {{for|the Canadian photographer|Jean Gainfort Merrill}} {{Use mdy dates|date=September 2012}} {{Infobox writer | name = Jean Merrill | image = JeanMerrill.png | caption = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1923|1|27}} | birth_place = Rochester, New York, U.S. | death_date = {{Death date and age|2012|08|02|1923|1|27}} | death_place = Randolph, Vermont | occupation = Writer, editor | period = | genre = Children's novels }}
'''Jean Merrill''' (January 27, 1923{{spaced ndash}}August 2, 2012) was an American writer of children's books and editor, known best for ''The Pushcart War'', a novel published in 1964. She died from cancer at her home in Randolph, Vermont, in 2012, aged 89.<ref name=vitello>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/12/books/jean-merrill-childrens-book-writer-dies-at-89.html |title=Jean Merrill, a Writer of Children's Underdog Tales, Dies at 89 |author=Paul Vitello |newspaper=The New York Times |date=August 11, 2012 |access-date=2012-08-11}}</ref>
== Early life and personal life ==
Merrill was born on January 27, 1923, in Rochester, New York, to Earl and Elsie Almetta Merrill. She grew up on the shores of Lake Ontario in Webster, New York (now a suburb of Rochester).<ref name="UPenn-Jalowitz">{{cite web | last = Jalowitz | first = Alan | title = Biography for Jean Merrill | publisher = Pennsylvania Center for the Book, The Pennsylvania State University | year = 2001 | url = https://secureapps.libraries.psu.edu/PACFTB/bios/biography.cfm?AuthorID=1568 | access-date = 2008-07-31 | archive-date = August 26, 2016 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160826150915/https://secureapps.libraries.psu.edu/PACFTB/bios/biography.cfm?AuthorID=1568 | url-status = dead }}</ref> Merrill received her Bachelor of Arts degree in English and Theatre in 1944 from Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania and was inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa Society. She received her master's degree from Wellesley College in 1945.<ref name="UPenn-Jalowitz"/> Ronni Solbert was her illustrator and companion for almost 50 years.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Vitello |first1=Paul |title=Jean Merrill, a Writer of Children's Underdog Tales, Dies at 89 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/12/books/jean-merrill-childrens-book-writer-dies-at-89.html?_r=0 |work=New York Times |date=August 11, 2012 |access-date=February 26, 2020}}</ref>
==Editor==
After leaving Wellesley, Merrill was an editor for Scholastic Magazines from 1945 to 1949. She subsequently edited at Literary Cavalcade from 1950 to 1957. Starting in 1952, Merrill held a Fulbright Fellowship at the University of Madras in India. Her folklore studies in India would lead her to write a number of stories based on Asian folklore: ''Shan's Lucky Knife'' (1960, based on a Burmese folktale), ''The Superlative Horse'' (1961, based on a Chinese folktale), and ''The Girl Who Loved Caterpillars'' (1992, based on a Japanese tale). From 1965 to 1971, Merrill worked as an editor and consultant at the Publications Division of the Bank Street College of Education.<ref name="UPenn-Jalowitz"/><ref name="USM-deGrummond">{{cite web | author= | title = Jean Merrill Papers | publisher=de Grummond Children's Literature Collection. The University of Southern Mississippi | date = June 2001 <!-- 2002-05-16 huh? --> | url = http://www.lib.usm.edu/legacy/degrum/public_html/html/research/findaids/merrill,jean.htm | access-date = 2013-06-22 }} With biographical sketch. </ref>
==Writer==
Merrill started writing books while working at Literary Cavalcade, including ''Henry, The Hand-Painted Mouse'' (1951) and ''The Woover'' (1952). Merrill received the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award in 1963 for ''The Superlative Horse''.<ref name="USM-deGrummond"/>
In 1964, Merrill published her best-known work, ''The Pushcart War'', for which she won her second Lewis Carroll Shelf Award, in 1965. Set in New York, the book was written in the style of a historical report from the future, looking back at earlier events from a class warfare struggle between trucking companies and pushcart owners. Alberta Eiseman of ''The New York Times'' wrote that "it's rare to find a book for young people with both a point of view and a sense of the ridiculous."<ref name="UPenn-Jalowitz"/> The book has been reissued a number of times, with the dates adjusted to keep it set in the future.<ref name="UPenn-Jalowitz"/> In 2006, a musical adaptation was presented by Edric Haleen in Holt, Michigan.<ref name="UPenn-Jalowitz"/>
Merrill published ''The Black Sheep'' in 1969. In ''The New York Times Book Review'', Natalie Babbitt wrote that "her fable is a satisfying sandwich in which the peanut butter, sticky and nourishing, slides down with ease due to judicious use of jelly."<ref name="UPenn-Jalowitz"/> This was followed in 1972 by ''The Toothpaste Millionaire''. Set in East Cleveland, the story relates how a Caucasian sixth-grader girl who just moved into town becomes friends with her neighbor and classmate, an African-American boy entrepreneur, and becomes rich by selling their home-made toothpaste. In 1974, an ABC afternoon special was based on ''The Toothpaste Millionaire.''<ref name="UPenn-Jalowitz"/> ''The Toothpaste Millionaire'' has been used in the classroom to integrate lessons from a number of different subject areas: entrepreneurship, marketing, manufacturing of toothpaste, and the social issues associated with race in the story's setting.<ref name="Lesson-Sinsel"> {{cite web | author=Jennifer Sinsel | title = Integrating Science and Literacy Through Novel Studies | publisher=Lesson Planet | date = 2010-04-15 | url = http://www.lessonplanet.com/directory_articles/elementary_science_lesson_plans/14_April_2010/335/integrating_science_and_literacy_through_novel_studies | access-date = 2010-04-15 }} </ref>
In 1992, Merrill published ''The Girl Who Loved Caterpillars'', based on a 12th-century Japanese tale. True to the original manuscript, whose ending had been lost, the story ends abruptly.<ref name="UPenn-Jalowitz"/>
Books had a great impact on Merrill as a child, which motivated her to try to write children's stories that would have a similar effect.<ref name="UPenn-Jalowitz"/> Her books often illustrate universal human values serving to resolve conflict.<ref name="USM-deGrummond"/>
Most of her books were illustrated by her partner of over 50 years, Ronni Solbert.<ref name=vitello />
==Bibliography== {{expand list|date=August 2012}}
* ''Henry, The Hand-Painted Mouse.'' New York: Coward-McCann, 1951. * ''The Woover.'' New York: Coward-McCann, 1952. * ''Boxes.'' New York: Coward-McCann, 1953. * ''Shan's Lucky Knife: A Burmese Folk Tale.'' New York: W.R. Scott, 1960. * ''The Superlative Horse: A Tale of Ancient China.'' New York: W.R. Scott, 1961. * ''The Pushcart War'' New York: W.R. Scott, 1964. * ''The Travels of Marco.'' New York: Knopf Books for Younger Readers, 1965 * ''The Elephant Who Liked to Smash Small Cars.'' New York: Pantheon, 1967. * ''The Black Sheep.'' New York: Pantheon, 1969. * ''The Toothpaste Millionaire'' Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1972. * ''The Bumper Sticker Book'' Chicago: A. Whitman, 1973. * ''Maria's House'' New York: Atheneum, 1974. * ''The Girl who Loved Caterpillars: A Twelfth-Century Tale from Japan.'' New York: HarperCollins, 1992.
==See also== {{Portal bar |Children's literature }} <!-- delete the word "bar" if there are enough ordinary See also -->
==Notes== {{Reflist |25em}}
==References== * Babbitt, Natalie. Rev. of The Black Sheep, by Jean Merrill. ''The New York Times Book Review'' Oct 26, 1969: 42. * Boegehold, Betty. "Merrill, Jean (Fairbanks)". ''St. James Guide to Children's Writers''. 5th ed. Eds. Sara Pendergast & Tom Pendergast. Detroit: St. James Press, 1999. 742–44. * Eiseman, Alberta. Rev. of The Pushcart War, by Jean Merrill. ''The New York Times'' Jul 12, 1964: BR18. * Rev. of The Girl Who Loved Caterpillars, by Jean Merrill. ''Kirkus Reviews'' (Sep 15, 1992): 1191. * Rev. of The Girl Who Loved Caterpillars, by Jean Merrill. ''Publishers Weekly'' (Oct 12, 1992): 78. * Haviland, Virginia. Rev. of The Toothpaste Millionaire, by Jean Merrill. ''The Horn Book Magazine'' (Oct 1974): 137. * Hearne, Betsy. Rev. of The Girl Who Loved Caterpillars, by Jean Merrill. ''Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books'' (Nov 1992): 82. * Hughes, Mike. "''The Pushcart War'' Debuts at Holt High Auditorium". ''Lansing State Journal'' Jul 26, 2006: 1D+. * "Jean (Fairbanks) Merrill". The Gale Literary Database: Contemporary Authors Online. Feb 13, 2001. Nov 24, 2006. <http://www.galenet.com>. * McClelland, Kate. Rev. of The Girl Who Loved Caterpillars, by Jean Merrill. ''School Library Journal'' (Sep. 1992): 269. * "New Fiction from Our Autumn List". ''Times Literary Supplement'' Nov 23, 1973: 1428. * Perrin, Noel. "The Harder They Fall". Rev. of The Pushcart War, by Jean Merrill. ''The Washington Post'' Jan 14, 1990: x11+. * Rev. of The Toothpaste Millionaire, by Jean Merrill. ''Booklist'' (July 15, 1974): 1254. * Viguers, Ruth Hill. Rev. of The Pushcart War, by Jean Merrill. ''The Horn Book Magazine'' (Aug 1964): 378.
==External links== * [https://lccn.loc.gov/n50036907 Jean Merrill] at Library of Congress Authorities — with 29 catalog records
{{Authority control}} <!-- |GND=108350037 while same VIAF bundle is only a nameholder that links records for her works, perhaps among others -->
{{DEFAULTSORT:Merrill, Jean}} Category:1923 births Category:2012 deaths Category:People from Webster, New York Category:Writers from New York (state) Category:People from Randolph, Vermont Category:Writers from Vermont Category:21st-century American women writers Category:Allegheny College alumni Category:Wellesley College alumni Category:American children's writers Category:American women children's writers Category:American LGBTQ writers