Sheila Egoff

{{Short description|Canadian literary critic and historian (1918–2005)}} {{Use Canadian English|date=September 2022}} {{Use mdy dates|date=September 2022}} {{infobox writer | name = Sheila Egoff | honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=CAN|OC|size=100%}} | birth_name =  | image = 200px | birth_date = {{birth date|1918|01|20|mf=yes}} | birth_place = Auburn, Maine, US | death_date = {{death date and age|2005|05|22|1918|01|20|mf=yes}} | death_place = Vancouver, BC, Canada | occupation = Literary critic, historian, librarian | notable_works = | awards = | module = {{infobox academic | child = yes | honorific_prefix =  | period = | known_for = | title = Professor of children's literature | boards =  | website = | education = | alma_mater = University College, London | thesis_title = | thesis_url = | thesis_year = | school_tradition = | doctoral_advisor = | academic_advisors = | influences =  | era = | discipline =  | sub_discipline =  | workplaces = University of British Columbia | doctoral_students =  | notable_students = | main_interests = | notable_ideas = | influenced =  }} }} '''Sheila Agnes Egoff''' {{post-nominals|country=CAN|OC}} (January 20, 1918 – May 22, 2005) was a Canadian librarian, literary critic, and historian who was Canada's first professor of children's literature. A recipient of the Order of Canada, she was known for her studies of children's fiction including ''The Republic of Childhood'' (1967), ''Thursday's Child'' (1981) and ''Worlds Within'' (1988). The Sheila A. Egoff Children's Literature Prize is named after her.

==Life and career== Sheila Agnes Egoff was born in Auburn, Maine, in 1918 to a Bulgarian father and Scottish mother.<ref name=globe/><ref name=waterloo-record/> Her parents Daniel and Lucy Joyce Egoff ({{nee|Murray}}) had met in Galt, Ontario,<ref name=globe/><ref name=waterloo-record/> where they married before moving to Auburn.<ref name=autobiography/> When Sheila was a year old, her father died in a swimming pool accident, after which the family returned to Galt and experienced financial hardship.<ref name=globe/><ref name=autobiography/> Interested in reading from a young age, Egoff worked part-time at a local library in Galt when she was in high school.<ref name=globe/> She received a BA from the University of Toronto in 1947, a post-graduate degree in librarianship from the University College, London, in 1948, and a fellowship from the British Library Association.<ref name=cambridge-hall-of-fame/> Alongside her studies, she worked as a librarian at Toronto Public Library where she curated the Osborne Collection of classic British children's fiction.<ref name=cambridge-hall-of-fame/><ref name=oxford-2/> She also worked at the Canadian Library Association.<ref name=cambridge-hall-of-fame/>

In 1961, the University of British Columbia recruited Egoff to the newly established School of Librarianship.<ref name=globe/> Her academic career, which spanned over 25 years, saw her become the first tenured professor of children's literature in Canada.<ref name=globe/><ref name=oxford-2/> Known as a literary critic and historian,<ref name=cambridge/> she wrote books, developed graduate courses and organized the Pacific Rim Conference on children's literature. According to scholar and collaborator Judith Saltman, her work had "a profound impact" on the teaching, criticism, publishing and librarianship of children's books in Canada.<ref name=resource-links/> Through texts such as ''The Republic of Childhood'', Egoff both promoted and criticized Canadian children's fiction.<ref name=cambridge/> Her writings about international fiction in English include ''Thursday's Child'', which won the American Library Association's Ralph R. Shaw Award, and ''Worlds Within'', a study of fantasy literature.<ref name=resource-links/><ref name=oxford/>

In 1983, Egoff retired from her academic position and resumed her librarianship at the UBC Library.<ref name=vancouver-sun/> She was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada, delivered speeches including an Arbuthnot Lecture and a Library of Congress Children's Book Week Lecture, and served as a judge for the Hans Christian Andersen Award.<ref name=resource-links/> An award in her name, the Sheila A. Egoff Children's Literature Prize, was instituted by the BC Book Prizes in the 1980s.<ref name=resource-links/><ref name=vancouver-sun/> She died of kidney failure in Vancouver in 2005.<ref name=globe/>

==Bibliography== === As author=== * ''The Republic of Childhood: A Critical Guide to Canadian Children’s Books'', 1967 (revised as ''The New Republic of Childhood'', 1990, with Judith Saltman)<ref name=oxford/> * ''Notable Canadian Children's Books: An Annotated Catalogue'', 1973<ref name=oxford/> * ''Thursday's Child: Trends and Patterns in Contemporary Children's Literature'', 1981<ref name=oxford/> * ''Worlds Within: Children's Fantasy from the Middle Ages to Today'', 1988<ref name=worlds-within-review/> * ''Canadian Children's Books, 1799–1939: A Bibliographical Catalogue'', 1992<ref name=oxford/> * ''Books That Shaped Our Minds: A Bibliographical Catalogue of Selections Chiefly from the Arkley Collection of Early Historical Children's Literature'', 1998<ref name=oxford/> * ''Once Upon a Time: My Life with Children's Books'', 2005, with Wendy K. Sutton<ref name=vancouver-sun/>

===As editor=== * ''Only Connect: Readings on Children's Literature'', 1969, with G.T. Stubbs and L.F. Ashley<ref name=cambridge/>

==References== {{reflist|30em|refs= <ref name=cambridge> {{Cite book |last=Bostian |first=Frieda |chapter=Egoff, Sheila A. |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/cambridgeguideto0000unse_o6b3/page/232/ |chapter-url-access=registration |editor-last=Watson |editor-first=Victor |editor-link=Victor Watson (author) |title=The Cambridge Guide to Children's Books in English |year=2001 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=232 |isbn=978-0-52-155064-2}} </ref> <ref name=oxford> {{Cite book |last=Miyake |first=Okiko |chapter=Egoff, Sheila A. |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/oxfordencycloped0002unse_v3k8/page/22/ |chapter-url-access=registration |editor-last=Zipes |editor-first=Jack |editor-link=Jack Zipes |title=The Oxford Encyclopedia of Children's Literature |volume=2 |year=2006 |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=22 |isbn=978-0-19-514656-1}} </ref> <ref name=oxford-2> {{Cite book |last=Hahn |first=Daniel |author-link=Daniel Hahn |chapter=Osborne Collection |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/oxfordcompaniont0000hahn/page/434 |chapter-url-access=registration |title=The Oxford Companion to Children's Literature |edition=2nd |year=2015 |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=434 |isbn=978-0-19-969514-0}} </ref> <ref name=globe> {{cite news |last=Martin |first=Sandra |title=Sheila Egoff, Librarian and Academic 1918-2005 |url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/incoming/sheila-egoff-librarian-and-academic-1918-2005/article18228178/ |newspaper=The Globe and Mail |date=May 28, 2005}} </ref> <ref name=vancouver-sun> {{cite news |last=O'Leary |first=Sara |author-link=Sara O'Leary |title=A Champion of Children's Literature, Once Upon a Time |newspaper=Vancouver Sun |date=December 24, 2005 |page=E18 |id={{ProQuest|242190177}}}} </ref> <ref name=waterloo-record> {{cite news |last=Pedro |first=Kelly |title=George Egoff A Self-Made Businessman, Volunteer |newspaper=Waterloo Region Record |date=August 17, 2001 |page=B04 |id={{ProQuest|266973139}}}} </ref> <ref name=autobiography> {{cite book |last1=Egoff |first1=Sheila A. |last2=Sutton |first2=Wendy K. |title=Once Upon a Time: My Life with Children's Books |url=https://archive.org/details/onceupontimemyli0000egof/page/6 |url-access=registration |publisher=Orca Book Publishers |year=2005 |isbn=978-1-55143-793-4 |page=6}} </ref> <ref name=resource-links> {{cite journal |last=Saltman |first=Judith |title='Only the Best is Good Enough for Children': A Tribute to Sheila Egoff, Pioneer, Canadian Children's Literature Critic and Professor of Children's Literature |journal=Resource Links |volume=10 |number=5 |pages=48–49 |date=2005 |id={{Gale|A134008686}}. {{ProQuest|215239260}}}} </ref> <ref name=cambridge-hall-of-fame> {{cite web |title=Cambridge Hall of Fame: Sheila Egoff (Inducted 1998) |url=https://www.cambridge.ca/en/learn-about/cambridge-hall-of-fame.aspx |website=City of Cambridge |date=September 29, 2020 |access-date=September 1, 2022}} </ref> <ref name=worlds-within-review> {{cite journal |last=McShane |first=Rose Marie |year=1989 |title=[Review of] Egoff, Sheila A. Worlds Within: Children's Fantasy from the Middle Ages to Today |journal=Journal of Education for Library and Information Science |volume=30 |number=1 |pages=72–73 |doi=10.2307/40323505 |jstor=40323505}} </ref> }}

==External links== * {{IA |id=newrepublicofchi0000egof |name=''The New Republic of Childhood: A Critical Guide to Canadian Children’s Books''}} * {{IA |id=worldswithin00egof |name=''Worlds Within: Children's Fantasy from the Middle Ages to Today''}} * [https://www.exlibris.ca/doku.php?id=biographies:egoff-sheila-agnes Biography of Sheila Egoff] at Ex Libris Association

{{DEFAULTSORT:Egoff, Sheila}} Category:1918 births Category:2005 deaths Category:20th-century Canadian historians Category:Canadian librarians Category:Canadian literary critics Category:Canadian speculative fiction critics Category:Canadian women academics Category:Canadian women historians Category:Canadian women librarians Category:Canadian women literary critics Category:Academic staff of the University of British Columbia Category:Alumni of University College London Category:University of Toronto alumni Category:Officers of the Order of Canada Category:People from Auburn, Maine