I've been planning to research and write about Youmans for years, but it was a random internet search for her name during a break in the fall semester last year that made me realize that I actually had the tools to do the research at my fingertips. Her name was indexed in The FictionMags Index created by a private user. Till then, I never knew she wrote anything but children's books. A door into an essentially forgotten life was opened.
Beginning with WorldCat, I compiled a complete list of her novels (and their reprints) and the volumes of Book Review Digest
at the university library showed me where to find most of the book
reviews listed on this site. What we didn't have in hard copy in the
library I've requested via Interlibrary Loan over the past six months. A
couple of the reviews were in works so obscure it took several months
for the ILL office to track down copies (when most typically take a
week). My mother gave me several of Youmans's books, inscribed to her,
and I've managed to build a complete library of her novels from online
used and antiquarian book sellers. The Pataskala Public Library once
owned a collection of her works, but donated them to the Granville Historical Society.
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| Love Memorial Library at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Photo credit: David Keyzer |
Neither the Ohio Historical Society, nor the Licking County Historical Society have any information pertaining to Youmans. The West Licking County Historical Society—which covers Pataskala—has published a small amount of information on her, of course, and has been a vital source as I gather material. I plan to visit with some of its members this summer to compile more information. Of especially tremendous insight has been one of Eleanor's friends, who has been kind enough to correspond with me over the last few months, sharing with me her time and valuable memories. The Ohioana Library has a small file on her work, and has been very helpful. The Cartoon Library and Museum at The Ohio State University may have some information as well, since they have the Will Rannells papers, and I will be visiting their repository this summer.
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| July 16, 1914 Cover of Life Magazine, featuring artwork by Will Rannells. |
Because Youmans is one of my relatives (my first cousin, three times removed) I had some insight into her life through genealogical records. In fact, I was able to connect with her great-nephew (my third cousin, once removed) through a genealogical society. He has graciously shared with me some of Eleanor's letters, family histories she authored, a few photos, and even an unpublished short story she wrote for her sister's children.
By extension, a free trial on ancestry.com allowed me to search out newspaper articles on her in a local paper, the Newark Advocate. If only archives of the Pataskala Standard were accessible online! The Pataskala Public Library holds a collection of the newspaper on microfiche. Their machines only allow you to view the articles, however, and not print them. For a while, my mother was serving as my research assistant, scouring the old papers for information on Youmans as I'm now living out-of-state. Eventually, I plan to pay a visit to the Ohio Historical Society where they have a more complete microfiche collection of The Standard and viewers that enable printing.
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| Pataskala Public Library. Photo credit: Kids Linked |
A 1937 Newark Advocate article explains that Youmans got her start when a friend asked her to write copy for Cat Courier, the monthly newsletter of the Cat Fanciers' Association. A magazine in England apparently copied the stories, and "the idea looked too good to discard." There seem to be only three places in the world that have copies of Cat Courier dated during the decades when Youmans would have written for them—New York Public Library, Maryland's National Agriculture Library, and the Jean Baker Rose Memorial Library at the CFA headquarters in New Jersey. Since I don't know specific issues of page numbers, and these newsletters don't include indexes or tables of contents, the only real way for me to find her stories will be to actually flip through the newsletters by hand. Some day! And I would love to figure out which English magazine copied the stories.
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| New York Public Library. Photo credit: PFHLai |
The recent acquisition of digitized texts by Google and now available through Google News has sniffed out even more references to her titles. Periodic internet searches have lead me to online auctions of works containing her stories, including Child Life magazine and a "safety reader" that contextualizes Skitter Cat (a white Persian) and Major (an Airedale) in light of teaching children how to keep pets safe. On my next trip to Minneapolis I plan to peruse the main library's collection of Child Life to see if she published in any other issues.
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| August 1935 Cover of Child Life Magazine |
The mother lode of Eleanor Youmans related library holdings is retained by the Lilly Library at Indiana University in Bloomington. They house the manuscript collection of her Indianapolis based publisher—Bobbs-Merrill, containing approximately 700 pages of correspondence, biographical data, readers' reports, and promotional material pertaining to Youmans. Some day, some day!
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| Lilly Library at Indiana University Bloomington. Photo credit: Vmenkov |
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