The Perils of Early Genius

1960s paperback cover

Thanks to a non-librarian friend, I came across this article in Lapham's Quarterly:  Vanishing Act.  It tells the story of Barbara Follett, a child author in the 1920s, and how her early celebrity and true talent wasn't enough to give her a happy life.  Definitely food for thought for all of us librarians who work with talented teenagers.  The article even has quotes from Anne Carroll Moore, the well-known doyenne in children's librarianship who created the children's room at NYPL.