Of course I have no memory of this. I went to a kind of school and learnt to read when I was four, but all I can remember is the height of the steps I had to climb up to get to my seat – we were on a little platform, and I think the top of the three steps was level with my head. And my mother didn’t keep my books and toys either.
The earliest book I can remember getting as a birthday or Christmas present and reading a lot of, though, is quite interesting: an American poetry anthology for children which appeared in 1957 and I got it then, so I was ten. And I found it is still published today. It had a wonderfully wide selection of poems and was on beautiful thick paper – a luxury in those days – and had modern printing.
Here it is at amazon.com, and you can look inside and see all the contents:
Favorite Poems Old and New: Selected For Boys and Girls [Hardcover]
Helen Ferris Tibbets (Author), Leonard Weisgard (Illustrator)
I still have the book, but in England. I don’t remember a dustjacket, and I don’t remember illustrations, but maybe there were.
And there was another anthology, which cannot have been this one, which contained an English version of a Hölderlin poem: Life Half Lived. I will have to look at my bookshelves again in Upminster to see if that is there too.
Your books are so fancy. Mine was much more mundane, it was called “Unser kleiner Esel Jan” (http://www.amazon.de/Unser-kleiner-Esel-Wuschi-Waschb%C3%A4r/dp/3871792152) and I loved it.
Well, I probably read something like that too, but I’ve forgotten it.
You could blog this, you know!
Excellent summary and points, thank you, Margaret! It was also interesting – and educational – to have the view of a really experienced legal translator during the discussions.
It was nice finally meeting you in person, too, even if we didn’t have much opportunity to talk!
Anke :)
Thanks, Anke. It was good to meet you too. I knew I would one day! I think we spent too much time trying to climb out onto the balcony.
I find the discussions really useful, not necessarily because I can’t keep my own mouth shut.