Top Five Great Rabbits in Literature
by Ernie on 08/11/07 at 11:34 am
A longtime E-Verser sends in “Top Five Great Rabbits in Literature”:
5. The Watership Down rabbits
4. The Rabbits’ Wedding rabbits
3. Peter Rabbit
2. The Velveteen Rabbit
1. Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom
Ernie’s commentary: I must say I agree with the number one slot on this list. The Rabbit Quaternary by John Updike—Rabbit, Run, Rabbit Redux, Rabbit is Rich, and Rabbit at Rest—made Andy and Ernie’s Top 100 Cool Novels as well (forthcoming). It’s also the only adult work on this list (and oh, is it ever adult). The Velveteen Rabbit was published in 1922 and remains a collected and beloved children’s book to this day. Peter Rabbit, of course, is Beatrix Potter’s most famous character (my favorite is Tom Kitten). I’ve always found her watercolor illustrations far superior to the patchy narratives she invented to accompany them. I’m happy to see The Rabbits’ Wedding on the list. It is a little-known children’s book published in 1958 by Garth Williams, best known for his illustrations for Charlotte’s Web, Stuart Little, and the Laura Ingalls Wilder Little House series. It describes a wedding between a black and a white rabbit. It caused something of a stir at the time (it is now largely forgotten), as it was seen as a work that promoted miscegenation. It was banned in many schools, particularly in the American south.
Finally, the poor Watership Down rabbits. The book was written by Richard Adams and has remained a classic, a story about rabbits forced from their warren by development and the travails they experience on their journey to find a promised land, a safe new home. I recently discovered that Watership Down is a very real geographical feature in England, currently owned by Andrew Lloyd Webber, who has promised to protect the down and its rabbit inhabitants. The book was made into a successful 1978 animated movie, featuring music by Art Garfunkel (rearranged by Angela Morley and Malcolm Williamson). Please send in additions to this list, if you can think of any.
Ernie
Nov 8th, 2007
Here is the obituary of a librarian who refused to take the Rabbits’ Wedding off the library shelves when asked to do so:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=980CE5D91F3DF93AA15756C0A9669C8B63
Emily W. ReedEmily W. Reed, who in 1959 enraged Alabama segregationists by allowing a book about a fuzzy white rabbit marrying a fuzzy black rabbit onto the shelves of the state’s central library, died on May 19 at a retirement community in Cockeysville, Md. She was 89.
The confrontation came as blacks were fighting to be allowed in public libraries throughout the South and a segregationist in Florida was demanding that ”The Three Little Pigs” be removed from library shelves because the pigs were depicted in different colors. Such disputes, mirroring the struggle for access to schools and public libraries, were widely covered in the press.
In Ms. Reed’s case, the book in question was ”The Rabbits’ Wedding,” written and illustrated by Garth Williams and published by Harper & Brothers in 1958. The book, which described a moonlit wedding attended by all the animals of the forest, was intended for children 3 to 7 years of age.
The book was attacked by The Montgomery Home News, a publication of the Montgomery, Ala., chapter of the White Citizens Council, on the ground that it promoted racial integration.
In response, Ms. Reed, who was the director of the Alabama Public Library Service Division, which lent books to local libraries throughout the state, ordered the book to be put on the agency’s reserve shelves. This meant that local librarians visiting Montgomery could get the book by requesting it, but could not find it on the open shelves.
Harpers issued a statement from Mr. Williams saying the book had ”no political significance.”
”I was completely unaware that animals with white fur, such as white polar bears and white dogs and white rabbits, were considered blood relations of white human beings,” Mr. Williams said.
He added that his tale of rabbits ”was not written for adults, who will not understand it because it is only about a soft, furry love and has no hidden messages of hate.”
Ms. Reed said at the time that she liked the book and that her action was not tantamount to banning it. In an interview with The New York Times, she said that some local libraries in Alabama continued to put the book on their open shelves but that the state agency had some difficulty with it.
State Senator E. O. Eddins of Marengo County, who led the fight against Mr. Williams’s book, said Ms. Reed had refused to answer when he asked her if she believed in racial integration. She said this had nothing to do with running the library service.
A measure was then introduced in the Alabama Legislature to require the state library chief to be a native of Alabama and a graduate of the University of Alabama or Auburn University. That would have disqualified Ms. Reed, who was born in Ashville, N.C. But in 1960 she left Alabama to become coordinator of adult services for the Washington, D.C., library system.
Emily Wheelock Reed grew up in Indiana and graduated from Indiana University. She worked in libraries in Detroit, Hawaii and Louisiana and taught library science at the University of Florida before becoming Alabama’s library director in 1959.
After six years with the Washington library system, Ms. Reed moved to Baltimore, where she was coordinator of adult services at the Enoch Pratt Free Library until she retired in 1977.
She was cited for her work in Alabama by the American Library Association, and this year received the scroll of honor from the Freedom to Read Foundation.
Flemo
Nov 8th, 2007
Some other famous literary rabbits can be found at http://personal.uncc.edu/jvanoate/animals/rabbits.htm. Some of the links don’t work and doesn’t look like it’s been updated in a while but a good resource for the bunny fans.
David Hegarty
Nov 9th, 2007
Just wanted to correct the facts regarding the music for WATERSHIP DOWN. You say “The book was made into a successful 1978 animated movie, featuring music by Art Garfunkel (rearranged by Angela Morley and Malcolm Williamson).”
The wonderful score for this movie was actually written by Angela Morley (except for the first five minutes, which were written by Malcolm Williamson). Mike Batt wrote the two-minute song that was SUNG by Art Garfunkle.