It’s the birthday of Mary Mapes Dodge (1831 – 1905), known as the author of the children’s classic, Hans Brinker: or, The Silver Skates (1865) and the first editor of perhaps the most influential children’s magazine ever in the universe, St. Nicholas—a magazine that published the works not only of many famous authors and poets, but of children who became famous later.

Mary Elizabeth Mapes, born in New York City, married a lawyer at 20 and was widowed with two young sons by 27. She began writing to support them, and by 1868 was working as an editor as well. In 1873, Scribner’s hired her as the founding editor of St. Nicholas, and she set the bar high, creating a magazine meant to be a sanctuary for children but also meant to challenge them. The magazine published work by top-notch contemporary authors and poets such as Mark Twain, Jack London, L. Frank Baum, Louisa May Alcott, A.A. Milne, Robert Louis Stevenson, Rudyard Kipling, and many others.

Perhaps more importantly, in 1899 St. Nicholas established the St. Nicholas League, dedicated to publishing the work of children. Every month the magazine held contests for various kinds of writing, art work, and puzzles, and awarded gold and silver badges to the winners. (Children who won both gold and silver badges were given cash awards and named “honor members.”) The magazine published the winners and as many submissions as it could. Get a load of the children who submitted work, although *not* always in the area they became famous for: F. Scott Fitzgerald sent in a photograph (Oct. 1910); Edward Estlin Cummings a drawing (August 1905); Theodore Roethke sent in prose (Feb. 1924). Eleven-year-old E.B. White got a silver badge for his essay, “A Winter Walk” (June 1911). Ten-year-old Eudora Alice Welty won a silver badge for a drawing (Aug. 1920). Henry R. Luce, who grew up to be one of the most powerful magazine magnates in American history, wrote the cutest little letter in July 1908 about where he was growing up in China. One of the most frequently published children in the magazine was Edna St. Vincent Millay, who had seven poems published and was listed in the honor roll a dozen times. Millay received a cash prize and wrote a sweet letter thanking the magazine for its encouragement, saying, “I am sorry to grow up and leave you.” (How adorable is that.)

Mapes Dodge died in 1905 but the magazine continued until the early 1940s; it declined in quality and character in its final years. However, if you are a parent today, you probably know Cricket Magazine, which was founded in 1973 to be a “new St. Nicholas.” And another popular children’s magazine, Highlights, also publishes readers’ submissions of drawings, prose, and poetry. (Ahem. My own six-year-old just submitted a poem to Highlights for the first time. It is entitled “The Silly Monkey” and if the good people at Highlights have any sort of clue at all they will recognize him as one of the brilliant literary minds of his generation. That’s what Mommy thinks. Yes she does.)

Have a terrific Friday—rejoice! It’s Friday!—and stay scrupulously honest to the data.