VAN STOCKUM | Give Someone a Book by HvS

Give a book by Hilda van Stockum this year. Click on a title in blue below to order from Amazon

For Kids - books by Hilda van Stockum -

Little Old Bear – About an old bear that was blind and thrown away. An elderly lady sews new eyes on the bear so he can see again, and he see boys and girls having fun. He wishes one of them would be his friend. And then...!!! For kids and their grandparents.

Patsy and the Pup – A puppy follows a little girl in Ireland home. She is told she will have to bring the puppy back to the owner. She does this, and has many adventures. She wishes she could have a puppy like this. Another surprise ending, making for a happy little girl and a happy puppy.

Kersti and St. Nicholas – This book was written in 1940, the year that Hitler's troops invaded and occupied Holland. While not about the occupation (which is the subject of two other famed books by van Stockum, The Winged Watchman and The Borrowed House), it's about a girl who persuades St Nicholas to be merciful to the naughty boys and girls because they need love.

King Oberon's Forest – A book recommended by Eleanor Roosevelt (a letter from her is reprinted by permission of her estate). It is about challenges to a forest kingdom posed by progress. Illustrations by Brigid Marlin.

For Teens - books by Hilda van Stockum 

Penengro  – This is the story of a boy who leaves home and becomes part of a Roma caravan in Ireland. Hilda van Stockum tries to help us understand the life of the Roma, who are outcasts in Ireland. There is a love story between Rory and a Roma girl, carefully told and resolved.

Memoirs and Inspirational Books

To Africa with a Dream, by Olga Marlin, daughter of HvS. Olga tells of her life as an educator of young women in Kenya. She went to Kenya with two other young European women with a dream, at a time when European teachers were leaving Kenya because of the Mau Mau drive for independence. Olga became a Kenyan citizen and is still there. This is her story.  (She has also written the story of the parents of one of her co-workers in Kenya.)

A Meaning for Danny, by Brigid Marlin, daughter of HvS. Brigid tells the story of Danny, a boy with both epilepsy and autism. The remedies for one aggravated the symptoms of the other. Brigid seeks meaning for the sadness of Danny's story.

The Box House, by Brigid Marlin, daughter of HvS. This is Brigid's touching story about a neglected girl in England who seeks to replace the mother they never had and provide a home for her young siblings.

Science Fiction
Time Bomber, by Robert Wack, is based on the life of Willem van Stockum, Hilda van Stockum's brilliant brother. A mathematics lecturer at the University of Maryland, Willem volunteered for the RAF as a bomber pilot, having spent many months training pilots in navigation. He flew a Halifax with a crew of six others during the week of D-Day. He knew the lousy odds against his coming home from the war. He is buried in France, shot down on June 10, 1944. Robert Wack puts Willem's story into a sci-fi framework to get across the decisions that Willem had to make.

May 2014 - Boissevain Books Update

Seven Boissevain Books Published so far (Click title to order from Amazon):

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Children's Series 

Pre-School Children and Early Grades (up to 10 years old), by Hilda van Stockum

Little Old Bear, for young children and their grandparents; suburban setting, England.

Patsy and the Pup, for young children who would like to have a puppy; in rural Ireland. 

Kersti and St. Nicholas, Dutch girl charms St. Nick into leaving gifts for naughty kids; rural Holland.

Older Children and Young Adults (7+ years old), by Hilda van Stockum 

Penengro, about gypsies; teaches tolerance and also its limits; Ireland

King Oberon's Forest, life among the animals, environmental message; magical forest setting.

Memoirs/Biography - 

To Africa with a Dream, by Olga Marlin, about her half-century in Kenya

A Meaning for Danny, by Brigid Marlin, about her son with Asperger's; England.

Update, May 2014 - Three More Books in the 2014 Pipeline
1. April 2014 - A Meaning for Danny, by Brigid Marlin co-published with Philadelphia-based Infinity Publishers, has been getting interviews, press coverage and some rave reviews. It tells the story of an autistic boy from the point of view of his mother. Some membership organizations and writers specializing in autism, Asperger's, epilepsy or mental illnesses generally have been ordering the book.

2. May 2014 - Our web site has been redesigned. Next in the Pipeline, Book #8: Time Bomber. The first book in a new series, "Science Fiction/Historical Fiction", is AS OF MAY 17 AVAILABLE ON AMAZON. The book is written by Robert P. Wack.  The first half of the book adheres fairly closely to the biography of Willem Jacob van Stockum (brother of Hilda van Stockum), the first person to have demonstrated to a broad audience how Einstein's equations for his special theory of relativity generate time-like curves and provide a basis for conceptualizing time travel. Van Stockum is the first physicist listed as providing a scientific basis for time travel in David Toomey's synoptic view of the idea of time travel. He was also a bomber pilot in World War II and was shot down over Laval, France during the week after D-Day. The second half of the book explores a "What if?" question about Willem's life. Publicity for this book is being oriented to the 70th anniversary of D-Day.

3. June 2014 - After Time Bomber, Boissevain Books will be publishing Book #9, the third book in its Memoir/Biography series, The Box House, by Brigid Marlin. It is based on a true story about a young girl in a family in England with a mother who virtually abandons her children. The girl takes responsibility for the raising of her younger siblings, and creates a secret home for them out of cardboard boxes in a vacant lot.

4. July 2014 - Boissevain Books returns to keeping in print books by Hilda van Stockum - Book #10, reprinting Andries, is in production.

5. August 2014 - We again plan to participate in the Children's Fair at the East Hampton Library, on August 10. Also, we will move into production two more books (Books #11 and #12) for adults: (1) The influence of Oxford and Cambridge alumni on the 13 original American colonies (Biography), and (2) A biography of Will Woodin, FDR's first Treasury Secretary.

6. September 2014 - The Board of Boissevain Books meets again in Ottawa, where two members of the Board reside.

Boissevain Books 2013 Annual Meeting

Boissevain Books LLC is meeting at 28 Third Avenue in Ottawa this weekend. The publishing company was created in 2007 to keep in print and exploit rights to the books of Hilda van Stockum, who died in 2006. The rights to her many books and artworks was left to her children, with her son Dr. John Tepper Marlin as executor and trustee. He has collected all the copyrights and other evidence of title and for succession purposes has assigned them to Boissevain Books LLC, with one-sixth of shares owned by each of the six beneficiaries of Hilda van Stockum's will.

In pursuit of its mission, Boissevain Books LLC has achieved since HvS's death the following:
1. In conjunction with CreateSpace, it has republished the following four books by Hilda van Stockum that were out of print: "Little Old Bear", "Patsy and the Pup", "Penengro" and "Kersti and St. Nicholas". With CreateSpace it has also published a second edition of "To Africa with a Dream" by Dr. Olga Marlin.
2. In conjunction with Infinity Publishing, it has republished the following book written by Hilda van Stockum: "King Oberon's Forest". It has also published "A Meaning for Danny" written and illustrated by Brigid Marlin. Two additional books are under contract and prepaid to be published with Infinity Publishing.
3. A contract has been signed to publish a second edition of "In Apple Blossom Time", by Dr. Robert Wack, which is a fictionalized story revolving around the life of Dr. Willem van Stockum, brother of Hilda van Stockum and pioneer in the translation of Einstein's special relativity equations into time-travel concepts.
4. Additional titles are in the pipeline, including "The Box House" by Brigid Marlin.
5. Rights to translation of "A Day on Skates" into Japanese were successfully negotiated and the book was received well in Japan.
6. For the first time ever, one of Hilda van Stockum's books was in 2013 translated into her native Dutch. Her book "The Borrowed House" was translated as "Het Gestolen Huis", a less forgiving title.
7. Boissevain Books LLC maintains several web sites, including www.hildavanstockum.com and www.boissevain.us.
8. Boissevain Books LLC updates several blog sites, including www.boissevainbooksLLC.blogspot.com, www.writers4kids.blogspot.com (with biographical and other data on writers of children's books), www.hildavanstockum.blogspot.com, and www.nyctimetraveler.blogspot.com.

One issue before the Board of Directors is the extent to which Boissevain Books LLC should add more original titles to its list, especially in the memoir/biography genre, and how these books should be marketed. As mentioned above, Boissevain Books LLC has published the second edition of "To Africa with a Dream" by Dr. Olga Marlin and "A Meaning for Danny" by Brigid Marlin. (These and all other books published by Boissevain Books LLC are available on www.Amazon.com by searching on the name of the book and, if disambiguation is needed, the author.)

The first meeting of the Board of Directors of Boissevain Books LLC was at 771 Fireplace Road in East Hampton, NY, in August 2012. This weekend is the second annual meeting. The members of the Board, listed in age order, are: Ms. Brigid Marlin, Dr. Randal Marlin, Dr. John Tepper Marlin and Alexander Marlin. Half of the beneficiaries are personally represented.

The Board of Directors meeting will take up the following issues:
1. Approval of 2012 minutes by Dr. Randal Marlin.
2. Legal issues - LLC status (under the laws of the State of New York). The operating agreement picking up from Hilda van Stockum's will and providing for succession. Ownership of rights. Role of the Board of Directors.
3. Editorial issues - titles published in 2012-13 and new titles in the pipeline. Separation of children's books from other titles - new division, company?
4. Marketing issues - marketing plan for children's books and other books.
5. Financial issues. Operating results for 2012. Sales data for 2013.
6. Next meeting - location and date.