EDITH HOWES

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 985, 30 May 1930, Page 16

EDITH HOWES

Reviews & Notes

A Storyteller With A Mission TO INSTIL sex knowledge into tide minds o£ children in pure and natural fashion was the ideal sought by a New Zealand teacher some 12 years ago. She realised what a tarnishing effect this knowledge might produce if come by haphazardly and perhaps in a nastily suggestive manner. To this end she told her pupils stories about the habits of plants, flowers, birds, fish and insects, insidiously bearing on the facts of life. New Zealand had not at that time awakened to the importance of sex education, and the teacher found herself and her methods roundly condemned by her pupils' parents, who thought it not quite nice for their little girls to receive such instruction. The teacher was IVliss Edith Howes. To-day these stories, done into book form, have a wide acclaim, and the name of Edith Howes is blessed by tens of thousands of modern mothers who find a difficulty in imparting the knowledge advanced thought has taught them their children should have. At one important school in England each child, on leaving tho kindergarten, is presented with a copy of “The Cradle Ship,” Miss Howes's bestteown book. A prophecy by G. B. Lancaster some time ago that this book would in time bo translated into every known language shows some promise

of being fulfilled. A letter lias just come to Miss Howes from Dr lion-treuil-Straus, of Paris, President of the Comite D’Education Feminine, saying that she has read "The i Cradle Ship,” which was very favourably discussed by the International Medical Women's Association in Paris last year, and asking that she be allowed to translate and adapt it for France, adding that its originality of plan and treatment had interested h;r very much. . A copy of “The Cradle Shi l” had been sent to the Paris meeting of the International Medical Women s Association by Dr Sinclair, of Dunedin, honorary secretary of the New Zealand branch of the association, the subject of last year’s conference being the question of sex education and the work done In connection with it in the various countries. The hold which “The Crad e Ship" has upon the mothers of England may be gauged by the fact that when, back in the war years, the book went out of print owing to the then existihg paper shortage, so great was the demand for it that the popular journal. “The Queen,” took the matter up, and by its agency mothers in possession of the book were induced to lend their copies to others. It is now in its eighteenth reprint. Within the last two years Miss Howes has had three books published by leading American houses: “The Enchanted Road” and “Sandals of Pearls” (William Morrow, New York), and “The Long Bright Land” (Little, Brown and Co., Boston). “Sandals of Pearls” has also been brought out by Mr Dent, the London publisher. It is included in The King’s Treasury series as a school reader, while Messrs Cassell have recently issued stories from some of Miss Howes’s other books, “The Sun’s Babies,” “The Cradle Ship,” “Fairy Rings,” and “Rainbow Children,” in Happy Hour Stories, a school reader series.

"The LOng Bright Land” is a hook of Maori myths and legends told as stories for children. Some years ago Miss Howes wrote the myths up and the book was published by Messrs Ward, Lock, in England, under the title “Maoriland Fairytales.” It has a constant sale in New Zealand, and has gone through many reprints. The American book is “Maoriland Fairytales” completely rewritten, with half-a-dosen new tales added. Miss Howes sent it two years ago to Messrs Little Brown, it is only lately out. "because i. has been difficult to get illustrations worthy of these beautiful stories so beautifully told,” the editor wrote to the author. However, they found their illustrator at last, and excellent work she has done. The result has been described as “the last word in book production." The book is selling at 12/6 a copy in America. The “New York Herald-Tribune” devotes a whole page to a review of the

book, calling it “one of the most distinguished or tne year . . . with pictures as satisfying as the text which inspired them . . . The author has kept the folktale conciseness: nothing interferes with the action of her story

. . . ‘The Long Bright Land’ is a happy title, investing New Zealand with beauty and romance and a familiarity not commonly gained from geographical associations . . . The bock is a permanent one.”

1 Dorothy Lathrop, the illustrator, t writes: “I knew nothing cf Maori art 2 before I began, but I found that they carve everything they use, their 3 houses, canoes, oars, weapons, bowls, >. and implements of ail kinds, using -• them during the periods of carving, ! - which often covers years of time. Or e so they did before the white man x came. . . I read many of these legends ’• in several different translations or retellings,. and I think they could hardly 0 have been presented more simply and r directly than they are here. . . The ■ legends themselves are so different, and the Maoris had such a beautiful and k intricate art to build on.” e Further distinction (also s modicum y of heartbreak) came to this delightful s weaver of fairytales when about two o years ago Mr Dent, the London pub s lisher, on visiting New York was d shown a copy of “The Enchanted ;- Road.” The result was a commission > from Mr Dent to write a book on simi- £ lar lines for his firm. This the author t- proceeded to do, and had the book i- half written—only to find her work k wasted: Mr Dent had not been suffiy eiently explicit: it was fatherhood, not e motherhood, he had in mind, a book more especially for boys when they were old enough to wonder and think a.bout things. He added that he knew it would be most difficult to do, indeed he was not sure that it could be done; but if it could, Miss Howes was the one to do It. “And don’t baulk at your fences,” he added, or words to that j effect. “I want it to be explicit. I | am very interested in giving boy 3 | this necessary outlook.” “So I started all over again,” Miss Howes told the writer, “and a difficult book it was indeed. It took, a year and | a-half of really hard work, but I have finished it and sent it to Mr Dent. It will probably be out about next October, I should think, unless any unexpected difficulties arise.” It’s title is “Golden Forest.” Miss Howes’s achievements have placed her in a very high niche in the temple of literary fame, and afford ample testimony to the fact that it Is not necessary for a New Zealander | to leave our own land to win success. Jv. J. M. New Brighton.