Jean Edna Karl was an American book editor who specialized in children's and science fiction titles. She founded and led the children's division and young adult and science fiction imprints at Atheneum Books, where she oversaw or edited books that won two Caldecott Medals and five Newbery Medals. One of the Newberys went to the new writer E. L. Konigsburg in 1968 for From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.
Life
Karl was born and raised in Chicago. She graduated from the Methodist Church-affiliated Mount Union College in 1949 and immediately began work in the book industry, initially at Scott Foresman in Chicago, then at the Methodist Church-owned Abingdon Press in New York City. The founder of Atheneum, Alfred A. Knopf, Jr. personally recruited her in 1961 to establish the Atheneum Books for Young Readers division which she led until she retired. There she started the imprints Aladdin Paperbacks and Atheneum Argo. Atheneum is now part of Simon & Schuster. After retiring in 1985 she continued to edit books almost until her death in 2000. She died at a hospice in Lancaster with no immediate survivors. She was long active in the Children's Book Council which she served as president, and in the Association of American Publishers.
Author
Karl wrote science fiction for children and young adults: a collection The Turning Place and novels Beloved Benjamin is Waiting, But We are Not of Earth, and Strange Tomorrow. She wrote other science fiction under her grandmother's name R. W. Munson. She wrote two important books about children's books: From Childhood to Childhood: Children’s Books and Their Creators and How to Write and Sell Children's Picture Books. Vicki Palmquist at Children's Literature Network credits the former with a "satisfying look into how publishing decisions are made".
Editor
was a suburban mother of three schoolchildren without previous publications when she submitted two manuscripts in 1966; Karl accepted both. Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth was published first, then Mixed-Up Files. They won the Newbery Honor and the Newbery Medal, still the only Newbery recognitions for two books by one author in one year. Konigsburg has called Karl her "forever editor" and "stalwart editor". Without mentioning a name, she explained the editorial process to Scholastic Teacher : Ursula K. Le Guin had published the first Earthsea book with the California small press Parnassus in 1968. The second, third, and fourth books were published by Atheneum in 1971, 1972, and 1990. The Tombs of Atuan earned a Newbery Honor and The Farthest Shore a National Book Award in category young people's literature. Ms. Le Guin lists five other books published by Atheneum, 1976 to 1992 "". Anne McCaffrey had published two Dragonriders of Pern books with Ballantine in 1968 and 1971, and had a contract for one more. Karl hoped to attract more female readers to science fiction by providing the right characters. Around 1974 she solicited "a story for young women in a different part of Pern". McCaffrey worked up a languishing false start as Dragonsong and they contracted for a sequel before it was out in 1976. Dragonsinger and Dragondrums followed in 1977 and 1979.
Awards
Karl oversaw or edited books that won two Caldecott Medals, five Newbery Medals, five Newbery Honors, and one National Book Award. Others won eight Edgar Allan Poe Awards. Caldecott Medal
All these are annual awards. The Edgars recognize mystery in several categories including mystery fiction with subcategories such as short story and juvenile. The Caldecott recognizes one American children's picture book. The Newbery Medal recognizes one contribution to American children's literature, with the Newbery Honor for one or a few more distinguished nominees. The National Book Awards recognize books in four categories including young people's literature.
