Teachers & Writers Collaborative
Winner
Anna Sopko, San Francisco, CA, “Writing Standards: Finding One’s Way with Words”
Finalists
Sarah J. Gardner, Davenport, IA, “Three Writers, Imagination, and Meaning”
Jeff Kass, Ann Arbor, MI, “In Search of a True Word”
Cheryl Pallant, Richmond, VA, “Gifting Poems: Getting Students to Read Poetry Closely”
Barbara Roether, San Francisco, CA, “Pride and Prejudice on the Barbary Coast”
Read all the essays selected for the Bechtel Prize here.
The Bechtel Prize is endowed by the Cerimon Fund in honor of Louise Seaman Bechtel (1894-1985). Editor-critic, author, and teacher of young children, Bechtel was the first person to head a juvenile book department established by an American publishing house. During her fifteen-year tenure as managing editor at the Macmillan Company (1919-1934), Bechtel shepherded production of more than 600 new books, marking a milestone in the growth and development of American literature for children. “Louise Seaman Bechtel had a contagious conviction of the importance of books for children,” said her close contemporary Virginia Haviland.
A noted critic, Bechtel was the children’s book review editor for the New York Herald Tribune from 1949 to 1957, and a frequent contributor to the Saturday Review and the New York Times. During her long career, Bechtel also amassed an incomparable collection of children’s books. Her collection (later donated to Vassar College and the University of Florida) exceeded 3,500 volumes, among them rare folk tales; Asian and African legends; Greek mythology; Aesop’s fables; tales from Shakespeare; and the work of early 20th century book illustrators such as Arther Rackham, Kate Greenaway, and Boris Artzybasheff.