Chapter One

Housewife’s Syndrome

“I went in the closet and I cried”: Quoted from an interview Blume did with CBS Sunday Morning (original airdate May 17, 2015). Accessed on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KAAIschIBc.

John Blume was a promising law student: Lee, Judy Blume’s Story, p. 56.

her single most important ambition as “college”: From the 1956 Battin High School yearbook, accessed at the Elizabeth Public Library’s main branch (1 South Broad Street, Elizabeth, NJ 07202) on June 28, 2022.

Judy framed her college diploma: Mentioned in a 2007 commencement speech Blume gave at her alma mater, New York University. Box 122 of the Judy Blume Papers at Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Accessed May 10, 2022.

“Those women weren’t even shopping”: Weidt, Presenting Judy Blume, p. 13.

“the problem that has no name”: Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique (New York: Norton, 1963), p. 15.

“The American housewife—freed by science and the labor-saving appliances”: Ibid., p. 18.

“I feel as if I don’t exist”: Ibid., p. 20.

The “housewife’s syndrome” or “housewife’s blight”: Ibid., pp. 20–21.

“If you want to know about my illnesses, read Wifey”: Weidt, Presenting Judy Blume, p. 118.

“It was another side of my life that I wanted to share”: Ibid., p. 117.

“Ten days later it returned, but much worse”: Judy Blume, Wifey (New York: Berkley Books, 1978). I worked from the 2004 reprint, p. 12.

made fun of her for being jumpy: Lee, Presenting Judy Blume, p. 4.

volunteered in town as an air-raid warden: Ibid., p. 5.

Bloomingdale’s agreed to stock them and they sold for $9 apiece: John Neary, “The ‘Jacqueline Susann of Kids’ Books,’ Judy Blume, Grows Up with an Adult Novel,” People, October 16, 1978. Accessed online: https://people.com/archive/the-jacqueline-susann-of-kids-books-judy-blume-grows-up-with-an-adult-novel-vol-10-no-16.

She wrote one story, called “You Mom, You?”: Box 116 of the Judy Blume Papers at Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Accessed April 28, 2022.

She started carrying around a green-gray three-ring binder: Box 121 of the Judy Blume Papers at Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Accessed May 10, 2022.

Wyndham likely empathized with Judy: “Lecturer Reveals Secrets of Writing Stories—Even Her Own ‘Lucky Break,’ ” Post-Standard, Syracuse, New York, August 21, 1981, p. 9.

For another story, called “The Ooh Ooh Ahh Ahh Bird”: Weidt, Presenting Judy Blume, p. 10.

“He thought it was better than shopping”: Ibid., p. 13.

“All I have to do is buy Judy some paper and pencils and she’s happy!”: Lee, Judy Blume’s Story, p. 64.

At one point, John sent a few of her drafts to his friend: Box 118 of the Judy Blume Papers at Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Accessed May 10, 2022.

“Larry’s mother is crazy!”: Lee, Judy Blume’s Story, p. 65.

the pair danced across the lawn together: Ibid.

The publisher matched Judy with an artist: Hannah Torain, “Mom Keeps Busy Writing Books for Little Children,” Courier News, Central New Jersey, October 10, 1969, p. 15.

“The more I write, the more controversial I’m getting”: Ibid.

Chapter Two

Kiddie Lit

“It was the best $5,000 we ever spent”: Weidt, Presenting Judy Blume, p. 11.

When he moved to New York and his acting career flopped: Neil Genzlinger, “Richard Jackson, Who Had an Ear for Children’s Books, Dies at 84,” New York Times, October 13, 2019. Accessed online: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/13/books/richard-jackson-dead.html.

“These two guys sort of considered themselves pirates”: Interview with Peter Silsbee in Brooklyn, New York, May 27, 2022.

“Books about real kids for real kids”: Ibid., May 27, 2022.

the original manuscript for Iggie’s House “wasn’t very good”: Ibid., May 27, 2022.

“The day he called and said he’d like to meet me”: Diane Roback, “Dick Jackson Remembered,” Publishers Weekly, October 17, 2019. Accessed online: https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-authors/article/81494-dick-jackson-remembered.html.

She took a pill to try to settle it: Lee, Judy Blume’s Story, p. 66.

he was “a stunningly beautiful man”: Sarah Larson, “Judy Blume’s Unfinished Endings,” The New Yorker, April 25, 2023. Accessed online: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/persons-of-interest/judy-blumes-unfinished-endings.

Jackson confessed he wasn’t sure about publishing Iggie’s House yet: Lee, Judy Blume’s Story, p. 67.

“Don’t be so bugged about being a greaser”: S. E. Hinton, The Outsiders (New York: Viking Press, 1967). Accessed electronically via New York Public Library.

“Harriet the Spy was transgressing all over the place”: Telephone interview with Roger Sutton, June 10, 2022.

Shyly, Beth Ellen confesses that she doesn’t “want to be anything at all”: Louise Fitzhugh, The Long Secret (New York: Harper & Row, 1965). I worked from the March 2002 reprint from Yearling Books, pp. 44–45.

Later in The Long Secret, Beth Ellen is acting grumpy: Ibid., p. 94.

“Now, you know the baby grows inside a woman, in her womb, in her uterus?”: Ibid., p. 97–98.

one popular Victorian-era nickname for the uterus was “mother room”: Joan Jacobs Brumberg, The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls (New York: Vintage Books, 1997), p. 36.

“The Long Secret, moreover, observes in so many words”: Carolyn Heilbrun, “And More for Young Readers,” New York Times, November 21, 1965, sec. B, p. 56.

the finished book still “wasn’t up to what became her standard”: PS to RB, May 27, 2022.

“the bumbling, besieged liberal at age eleven”: Kirkus Reviews, April 1, 1970. Accessed through the New York Public Library.

In an afterword to a recent edition of the novel: Judy Blume, Iggie’s House (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2014). The afterword is called “Judy Blume Talks About Writing Iggie’s House.” The original book was published by Bradbury Press in 1970.

“Judy was in my office one day”: Weidt, Presenting Judy Blume, p. 63.