Words and Wonder: Rediscovering Children’s Literature

Drawing from the Harry Ransom Center’s manuscript, art, photography, film, and performing arts holdings, this unique exhibition reexamines the experiences of children as writers and readers and presents the innovative works of early twentieth-century authors and illustrators who imagined fantasy worlds for young readers. Explore the playful creativity and experimentation of young writers during the early modern period alongside examples of juvenilia from several contemporary authors, including Jayne Anne Phillips, Gabriel García Márquez, and Kazuo Ishiguro.

Visitors will also view early twentieth-century magic lantern slides from Aesop’s Fables and Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, celluloid paintings from Walt Disney’s 1951 animated film adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, as well as illustrations from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s Le Petit Prince (1943). The exhibition also highlights the work of book illustrator Arthur Rackham, who reimagined Edgar Allan Poe's collection of suspenseful short stories, Tales of Mystery and Imagination, for a younger audience.