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Celebrating: (l.-r.) Jules Feiffer, Jean Marcellino (widow of Fred Marcellino), Michael di Capua and Tor Seidler. |
Last night in the Living Room of Scholastic's SoHo offices, friends, colleagues, authors and artists toasted (and a few roasted) Michael di Capua, celebrating his 50 years in publishing. Jules Feiffer said that when he completed his first children's book, The Man in the Ceiling (1992), he called Maurice Sendak and asked him what to do. Sendak told Feiffer, "There's only one man who can do it: Michael di Capua." When di Capua invited Feiffer into his office, Feiffer said they went through it page by page. "Two and a half hours later, I staggered out," the author recalled. "It took longer to discuss the book than it did to write it." But, he added, "I'd received a tutorial on writing children's books," which he likened to receiving a similar tutorial on screenwriting from Mike Nichols for Carnal Knowledge.
Dick Robinson, CEO and Chariman of Scholastic, whose father founded the company, thanked di Capua for six and a half years of outstanding contributions through the books, authors and artists he's brought into the fold. Roger Straus III, who worked for three decades in his family's business, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, where di Capua began his career, said that what he most closely associates with Michael di Capua is "his passion" for bookmaking.
In his remarks, di Capua quoted poet Randall Jarrell, whom he'd published at FSG: "Words fail me." He expressed his gratitude to both Robinson and Straus, "For in my end is my beginning." Last fall, di Capua won an Eric Carle Honor in the mentor category, and he reiterated last night the promise he made then: "As long as I have my wits about me and my health, I'm sticking around." Here's to another 50 years of Michael di Capua books. --Jennifer M. Brown