Marni Hodgkin | |
|---|---|
| Born | Marion Rous 28 November 1917 New York City, US |
| Died | 11 March 2015(2015-03-11) (aged 97) Cambridge, England |
| Alma mater | Swarthmore College |
| Occupation | Children's book editor |
| Years active | 1950–1978 |
| Employer | Macmillan Publishers |
| Spouse | Alan Lloyd Hodgkin |
| Children | 4 |
| Parent(s) | Francis Peyton Rous Marion de Kay |
Marion "Marni" Hodgkin, Lady Hodgkin (28 November 1917 – 11 March 2015) was an American children's book editor. She was regarded as one of the notable and influential children's book editors of the 1960s.[1][2] She was the daughter ofFrancis Peyton Rous and wife ofAlan Lloyd Hodgkin, bothNobel Prize winners.
Born Marion Rous in New York City, she was the eldest of three daughters of the American pathologistFrancis Peyton Rous, winner of the 1966 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, and his wife, Marion de Kay.[3][4][5] She studied at theDalton School in New York City, andSwarthmore College in Pennsylvania.[6]
Hodgkin's career as a children's book editor started in New York, working forViking Press. She then worked forRupert Hart-Davis in London.[6]
Hodgkin became Children's Book Editor atMacmillan Publishing Company, which she joined in 1966. Until her arrival, Macmillan had never had a children's literature department, even though its authors includedLewis Carroll andRudyard Kipling.[4][6] Picture books that she edited includedKevin Crossley-Holland'sThe Green Children (1969) andGraham Oakley'sChurch Mouse series.[7] She rejectedRoald Dahl's work twice.[7] She retired from Macmillan in 1978 when her husband was named master ofTrinity College, Cambridge.[6]
She was a successful writer of children's literature in her own right, includingYoung Winter's Tales,Student Body (1950), andDead Indeed (1955).[4] The last two were detective stories, based on her time at Swarthmore College and Viking Press, respectively.[6]
She marriedAlan Lloyd Hodgkin in 1944; they had met while he was working at the Rockefeller Institute in 1938.[7][8] They had three daughters and one son.Jonathan Hodgkin became a molecular biologist at Cambridge University. Deborah Hodgkin is a psychologist.[4] Her husband, Alan Lloyd Hodgkin, won the Nobel Prize for Physiology in 1963.[6]
She died on 11 March 2015 at the age of 97 inCambridge, England.[6]