Presented By: Residential College
Public Lecture: Billy Whiskers Bashes His Way into History
Marilynn S. Olson, Professor and Director of Advanced Studies in English at Texas State University
JFK’s Favorite Childhood Series Defined America For Millions!
Billy introduced ideas about America and freedom to children at a transitional period in the nation’s history. Frances Trego Montgomery’s series (1902-1930, reissues in 1960s) was an enormously influential illustrated series contemporary with the Oz books, as well as with America’s rise to world leadership, and social unrest over race and immigration. Montgomery’s relentlessly destructive male goat, the favorite childhood reading of Joe, Jack, and Bobby Kennedy, raises questions about the nation’s defining role, as well as the influence of childhood reading on children who become presidents.
Billy introduced ideas about America and freedom to children at a transitional period in the nation’s history. Frances Trego Montgomery’s series (1902-1930, reissues in 1960s) was an enormously influential illustrated series contemporary with the Oz books, as well as with America’s rise to world leadership, and social unrest over race and immigration. Montgomery’s relentlessly destructive male goat, the favorite childhood reading of Joe, Jack, and Bobby Kennedy, raises questions about the nation’s defining role, as well as the influence of childhood reading on children who become presidents.
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