MAKE WAY FOR MR. McCLOSKEY
Creator of 'Ducklings' dies: Robert McCloskey was 88 (Michael J. Bailey, 7/1/2003, Boston Globe)
Robert McCloskey, whose storytelling and drawing talents made him a cherished guest at bedtime stories for generations of families, died yesterday at his home in Deer Isle, Maine. He was 88.
His second book was first in fame. In ''Make Way for Ducklings,'' Mr. McCloskey told the tale of Mr. and Mrs. Mallard and their quest to find a safe place to raise their eight hatchlings. In doing so, Mr. McCloskey gave readers a duck's-eye view of Boston: of flying over the State House and Louisburg Square, of swimming in the Charles River and Public Garden pond, of waddling along Mount Vernon Street. [...]
According to an interview with The New York Times in the early 1990s, the author finished a story of Mr. and Mrs. Mallard and their brood of ducklings, with such names as Tom, Dick, and Harry. And Genevieve.
Mr. McCloskey didn't think it was much of a story, but he showed it to his editors at Viking Press. They told him the story was fine and he should go ahead with the illustrations. But, they said, he needed to rename those ducklings - the names he had chosen were too adult.
In creating the illustrations, Mr. McCloskey took a page from naturalist John Audubon, but in a most peculiar setting. He bought four mallards and for weeks let them run free in his apartment in New York. He would crawl next to them, at their level, to see how they waddled; he would plop them in the bathtub to see how they swam. After running out of patience - and Kleenex, according to Mr. McCloskey - he freed the ducks and finished his illustrations.
Annoyed at the suggestion to change the ducklings' names, Mr. McCloskey used in his final manuscript alphabetical nonsense names, from Jack and Kack to Pack and Quack.
To the post-war generation of baby boomers, these names would become as much a part of their childhood lore as Paul Bunyan and Oliver Twist were to generations before them.
Posted by Orrin Judd at July 1, 2003 10:15 AM
