.
Collection Overview
Abstract
Author. The collection includes speeches, correspondence, book reviews, articles, autobiography, manuscript, memoir, newspaper clippings, and biography. [See also the Campus Titles Database.]
Biographical Note
Meindert DeJong is the award-winning author of many classic books for children, including the Newbery Medal-winning The Wheel on the School and the Newbery Honor-winning Along Came A Dog, Shadrach, and The House of Sixty Fathers. DeJong (4 March 1906 - 16 July 1991) was born in the village of Wierum, Friesland, the Netherlands. His family immigrated to the United States in 1914. He attended Christian secondary schools and Calvin College, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and entered the University of Chicago, but left without graduating.He held various jobs during the Great Depression, and it was at the suggestion of a local librarian that he began writing children's books. While working toward becoming a full-time writer, Meindert held such diverse jobs as college professor, a gravedigger, a mason, a tinsmith, a sexton, and a bricklayer. He wrote several books before joining the US Army Air Corps during World War II serving in China. In 1962 DeJong was the first American author to win the International Hans Christian Andersen Award for his contributions to literature for young people; that year’s award was designated to be for an author’s entire works. On 6 July 1933, he married Hattie Overmeirer; they divorced in 1963. He moved to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, and on 17 November 1978 married Beatrice DeClaire McElwee (d 11/17/1978). In 1968, they moved to Chapel Hill, NC, and in 1973 to Allegan, Michigan. In 1989, he married Gwendolyn Jonkman Zandstra. He died in Allegan.
Box and Folder Listing
Browse by Series:
[Series 1],
[
Series 2: Photographs],
[
All]
- Series 1
- Box 1
- Folder 1: Awards and acceptance speeches --- 1954-1972
- Folder 2
- Item 1: Correspondence --- 1942-1975
- Item 2: Correspondence with Otto Wierenga --- 1962-1991
- Folder 3: Information regarding Meindert De Jong's will --- 1984
- Folder 4: Book jackets and information regarding books donated to the Calvin College and Calvin Theological Seminary Library --- 1991
- Folder 5: The Memoir, Grand Rapids Christian High School yearbook --- 1924
- Folder 6: Writings --- 1925-1928
- Folder 7: Writings --- 1956-1972
- Folder 8: Writings about M. De Jong --- 1928-1959
- Folder 9: Writings about M. De Jong --- 1960-1969
- Folder 10: Writings about M. De Jong --- 1971-1991 and undated
- Folder 11: Book reviews --- 1955-1971
- Folder 12: Bibliographical material --- undated
- Folder 13: Registration of birth --- 1906
- Folder 14: Stories for publication: "Death of a Dog," "Contact," and "Dirt in the House" --- 1933-1935
- Folder 15: "For the Love of the Word," The Horn Book Magazine, 569-577 [annotated and signed] --- Sept/Oct 1984
- Box 2
- Item 1: Distinguished Alumni Award, plaque --- 1975
- Item 2: The Hans Christian Andersen Award Medal, certificate --- 1962
- Item 3: Diploma of Merit from the Hans Christian Andersen Award --- 1960
- Item 4: Award of the Children's Book Committee of the Child Study
- Item 5: Association of American, certificate --- 1956
- Item 6: The National Book Award, certificate
- Item 7: Perfume bottle in case that had belonged to his mother (with documentation)
- Box 3
- Folder 1: Letters to brother, David --- 1943-1944
- Folder 2: Letters to E. Austin --- 1943-1944
- Folder 3: Letters to Gerald Elliott --- 1966-1971
- Folder 4: Correspondence --- 1986-2010
- Folder 5: Childhood autobiography by De Jong/Hartzell: When I Was a Kid --- 1989
- Folder 6: Love in Old Age: A Memoir of Meindert De Jong, by Judith Hartzell --- 1992
- Folder 7: Ruger, Hendrika, "The Image of Netherlands in Children's Literature." Canadian Journal of Netherlandic Studies: 81-106 --- Spring 1980
- Folder 8: Harms, Richard H., "Meindert & David De Jong." Michigan History Magazine --- Sept/Oct 1993
Browse by Series:
[Series 1],
[
Series 2: Photographs],
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