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22 “НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, ЛИСТОПАД 2009 Marie Halun Bloch and Her Contributions to American Literature by Roxolana Yarymovych Marie Halun Bloch, a Ukrainian American author of children’s books, was born in Komarno, Western Ukraine, into the family of Rudolf Halun and Sofia Pelensky Halun. She came to the United States as a small child before WWI and was ed u cated in the public schools of Evanston, Illinois. From early childhood, she planned to be a writer. While working on her undergraduate degree at Northwestern University in Evanston, she met her husband to be Don Beaty Bloch, who was her i n structor of English literature. Her husband encou r aged her to continue her studies, and she eventually earned a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Chicago . During the 1930s, Marie Halun Bloch worked as an economist for the United States D e partment of Labor, helping to complete and write a study of family economy. Although Bloch studied economics and worked as an economist, literature and literary compositi on were her favorite subjects. In fact, M a rie Halun Bloch made a name for herself mostly in the American children’s and young readers’ liter a ture, but it was not until her daughter Hilary was born that she started writing children’s stories. Her first chil dren’s book was Danny Doffer , which was published by the children’s magazine Jack and Jill in 1946. Her next book Big Steve, The Double - Quick Tunnelman , did not come out until 1952. Besides writing and reviewing books, Marie Halun Bloch also worked on t ranslations. Among these was Ukrainian Folk Tales illustrated by Ja c ques Hnizdovsky and published in 1964. She r e membered some of these folktales from her chil d hood but she felt it was necessary to first find these tales in books. She searched libraries in the Untied States, Canada, and Europe, and eventually she found what she was looking for. She translated the original collections of Ukrainian ethnographer Ivan Rudchenko, which were published in 1869 and 1870 in Kyiv and the works of Maria Lukiyanenko, h ist o rian and teacher, which were published in 1947 in Germany. Like many folk tales, these animal stories were created by adults purely for their own ente r tainment and not, as with fables, for the purpose of demonstrating some moral truth. (In 1999, Hipp o c rene Books brought Ukrainian Folk Tales back into print for a whole new generation of readers.) The illustrator of these tales, Jacques Hnizdovsky, came to this country after WWII and was a disti n guished and well - known artist within and beyond the Ukrainia n community. His works hang in a number of museums, including the Boston Museum and the Cleveland Museum. He was a keen observer of nature and his illustrations complement the fol k tales extremely well. In 1969, Marie Halun Bloch also translated an old Uk rainian folktale from the collection by Ivan Rudchenko. Entitled Ivanko and the Dragon, the book was illustrated by Yaroslava Surmach Mills, who also heard the story of Ivanko as a child. Yaroslava, who was born in New York and reared in the old world atmo sphere of her father’s Ukra i nian book shop SURMA, specialized in reverse glass painting in a stylized folk manner depicting scenes of old Ukraine. In 1983, Marie Halun Bloch translated an account (by Andrew Dubovy) of early Ukrainian immigrants in North D akota — Pilgrims of the Pra i rie. She thus provided an opportunity for the chil d ren of immigrants who settled in North Dakota in the late 1800s to learn about their roots. Many of her other books also had Ukrainian themes. Marya of Clark Avenue is partially autobiographical and tells the story of a child of immigrants who has problems with integrating her Ukrainian heritage and parentally imposed traditions with her Amer i can surroundings, education, and culture. Bloch deals with similar conflicts in Aunt Amer ica ( an American Library Association Notable Book) and The Two Worlds of Damayan . In these two books the conflict is between the Ukrainian home env i ronment and the russification of Ukraine during S o viet times. Displaced Person deals with the tribul a tions o f World War II Ukrainians before they were liberated by the American forces in Germany. The young hero of this story and his father flee Co m munist Ukraine, via Nazi Germany, and finally a r rive in the American occupied zone of Germany. In this story the aut hor shows her keen sensitivity and understanding of a child’s psyche, showing an Видання C оюзу Українок A мерики - перевидано в електронному форматі в 2012 році . A рхів C У A - Ню Йорк , Н . Й . C Ш A.
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