First-edition children's books donated to Arne Nixon Center

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University Communications - 5241 N. Maple - Fresno, CA 93740-8027 - 559.278.2795

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 12, 2008

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The Arne Nixon Center for the Study of Children’s Literature at California State University, Fresno, has received 140 books illustrated by Robert Lawson and William Pène Du Bois, valued at more than $35,000.

The donation from Michael Cart, a longtime friend of supporter of the Arne Nixon Center,
includes a first edition of Lawson’s “Four and Twenty Blackbirds,” a 1938 Caldecott Medal Honor Book; and Du Bois’ first book “Elisabeth the Ghost Cow,” published in 1936.

Cart is an author, Booklist columnist, librarian, literary talk show host and leader in the American Library Association. As president of the Young Adult Library Services Association, he helped to establish the Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature.

As a founding member of the Arne Nixon Center’s governing board, Cart helped plan the center and now contributes to the center with a major, ongoing donation of his papers and books.