Bookseller Jewell Stoddard, former co-owner of Cheshire Cat Children’s Books in Washington, D.C., and a senior staff member at D.C.'s Politics & Prose Bookstore, died March 10. She was 92.
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Stoddard grew up in South Carolina, where she developed a love of the woods and of books, her obituary noted, adding that "she insisted on leaving home for Washington, D.C., so she could attend a racially integrated college, American University. Teased for her southern accent, she lost it post haste." She graduated with a B.A. in English Literature.
In 1968, Stoddard began teaching third and fourth grades at Green Acres School, and in 1977 she and three Green Acres colleagues founded Cheshire Cat Children's Books, on Connecticut Avenue south of Chevy Chase Circle. Noting that "book industry experts told the partners a bookstore could not succeed selling children’s books alone," Stoddard's obituary said "the store thrived and became a fixture in Washington, D.C."
Stoddard ran the Cheshire Cat for 22 years before closing and moving her book operation to Politics and Prose. She served on several children’s literature award committees, including for the Caldecott and Newbery Awards. Stoddard joined Politics & Prose as children's buyer in 1999, and worked there until her retirement at 80.
"I don't think we can ever become an integrated society until we have diverse books," she told Shelf Awareness in a 2014 interview. "If children grow up not knowing how others live, not knowing how others are, what their joys are, how can they know what the world is really like? It's critical."
In a tribute, veteran P&P booksellers Ron Tucker and Maria Salvadore wrote, in part: "While many of you may not have known her, Jewell was a force to be reckoned with. She had a lasting impact on the children and teens [C&T] section here at P&P, and on children's bookselling throughout the country. After closing the renowned Cheshire Cat Bookstore (up the street from P&P), one of the first children's only independents in the country, she joined Politics and Prose in 1999. Under Jewell's leadership, and with the encouragement and support of then-owners Barbara and Carla, C&T not only expanded, but upped its game, especially in terms of the depth, diversity and direction of the collection. She gets credit for laying the foundation for so much of what we do today in C&T here at P&P.
"One of my favorite memories of Jewell is an annual event that she brought here from Cheshire Cat. Every spring Jewell would venture into various pastures in the area, and in her own backyard I suspect, to gather large milkweed leaves laden with monarch butterfly eggs on the underside of the leaves. She then would place the leaves in a large container in the middle of C&T, with a netting cover. Within a few days, those eggs hatched caterpillars, which promptly devoured the milkweed (and which Jewell would replenish). After a week or two, the caterpillars would form chrysalises (I hope I got that plural right), which Jewell would attach to the branches of a makeshift tree that she would set up, also in the middle of the room. Children and adults alike would delight in watching the monarch begin to emerge from the chrysalis. It was fascinating to watch the fully emerged monarch spread open its wings to dry them, which could take hours, in preparation for flight."