Jan 28, 2016 - Sale 2403

Sale 2403 - Lot 139

Price Realized: $ 2,750
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,500
RICHARD WILEY.
"Where We Like to Go." Mixed media with collage on board. 305x406 mm; 12x16 inches. Illustration of characters Mike, Pam, Penny, their father, and Dick and Jane, for the Dick and Jane series story in "New Friends to Know" published by Scott Foresman, 1965. Celluloid onlays with a few corrections and printers' indications, boards with some wash, pencil rules, and placement numbers along margins. Formerly in the collection of a Directing Editor at Scott, Foresman & Company.
Set Alert for Similar Items

Additional Details

Seven editions of the "Dick and Jane" textbooks ran from 1930 to 1965. The widely used and popular schoolbooks featured stories about family and home life and included the well-known characters Dick, Jane, Sally, Spot, Puff and Tim - Sally's stuffed bear.
1965 marked the year of integration into public schools throughout the U.S., and, in response, the publisher of the series, Scott Foresman & Company, introduced an African-American family into the series which included the adolescent aged Mike, his twin sisters, Pam and Penny, and their parents. Interestingly, in 1963, ecclesiastical approval had been given for integrated readers and by 1964, Catholic Schools were using the modernized editions, one year before our public schools.
Despite this progress and Scott, Foresman & Co.'s socially responsible attempt to represent all children in the stories, simultaneous controversy grew over not only the new black family but also over the generally unrealistic characters and their "perfect" American family life. To lessen conflict, the publisher chose to hide the characters on the covers of books that were copywritten in 1965, replacing them with finger-paint art designs. By then, howerver, no resuscitation could save the series and it ceased publication shortly thereafter in 1965. See tagnwag.com/dick_and_jane_books.html.