This collection consists of textual and audio materials documenting Edna Edwards' interviews with children's literature authors and illustrators. The interviews were conducted in the early 1970s. Some of the interviews were published, while others remain unedited on cassette tape.

Edna Edwards grew up in Kentucky and went to school in Tennessee at Carson-Newman College. She graduated from the University of Kentucky in 1951. She worked as a librarian for Kenwick Elementary School in Fayette County, Kentucky. She received her masters degree in education from UCLA in 1961. Beginning in 1961, Edwards worked as a librarian for Horace Mann Elementary School in Beverly Hills, California. She took a sabbatical leave for a semester during the 1970-1971 school year. In May 1970, she sent letters to about twenty-five authors and illustrators of children's books requesting their participation in making taped interviews. Edwards traveled throughout the United States and Europe to conduct the interviews, usually at the interviewees home. She struggled to find a publisher for the interviews. In 1973, the Center for Cassette Studies in Hollywood, California agreed to publish the tapes. The interviewees included Lloyd Alexander, Nina Bawden, Roald Dahl, Meindert De Jong, Penelope Farmer, Sid Fleischman, Ezra Jack Keats, Elaine Konigsburg, Madeleine L'Engle, Leo Lionni, Myra Cohn Livingston, Mary Norton, Bill Peet, Frances Clarke Sayers, Maurice Sendak, and Brian Wildsmith.

3 boxes (1.63 linear feet)

Materials in the Department of Archives and Special Collections may be subject to copyright. Unless explicitly stated otherwise, Loyola Marymount University does not claim ownership of the copyright of any materials in its collections. The user or publisher must secure permission to publish from the copyright owner. Loyola Marymount University does not assume any responsibility for infringement of copyright or of publication rights held by the original author or artists or his/her heirs, assigns, or executors.

The collection is open for research by appointment with no restrictions under the conditions of the access policy of the Department of Archives and Special Collections, William H. Hannon Library, Loyola Marymount University, 1 LMU Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90045. To schedule an appointment, please call the Department of Archives and Special Collections at 310-338-5710, or email the department: Special.Collections@lmu.edu. As a preservation measure, researchers must use the reference copies of the original audio materials.