Roald Dahl published The Gremlins in 1943. He would not publish the second in his long line of very successful children’s books until 1961. Beginning with James and the Giant Peach, Dahl would spend the 1960’s establishing himself as one of the pre-eminent writers of children’s stories, specializing in fable-like adventures with a dark tone and sinister underbelly. By 1970, he’d introduced the world to Charlie and unique candy factory of Mr. Wonka and that utterly fantastic Mr. Fox. Charlie returned in a sequel in 1972 and between 1975 and 1991, Dahl added eleven more titles to his list of book-length stories written for children.
Which brings up the rather fascinating question: why did he pursue a literary career aimed at adults rather than children between 1943 and 1961?
The Gremlins was a success and put his name on the marquee of promising new writers of children’s books. But rather than take advantage of that one-in-a-lifetime opportunity, Dahl chose the path of greater resistance. That which was primarily constructed upon selling short stories to glossy periodicals in which every writer in America wanted to get published. Magazines with wide circulations and name recognition like Saturday Evening Post, The New Yorker, Colliers, Esquire, Ladies Home Journal and Harper’s.
What now? The Ladies Home Journal? What’s that doing in there? For that matter, what is a Roald Dahl story doing in there?
It is a conundrum. Roald Dahl was busy constructing a legacy for himself as “the intellectual Hitchcock” with macabre stories abundant with dark humor and usually featuring an unexpected twist at the end. Dahl in the New Yorker? Sure. Dahl in Esquire? Well, that’s a no-brainer. But Dahl in the Ladies Home Journal? That should be one of his twist endings, not real life. The real surprise is the twist that absolutely nobody saw coming, perhaps even Dahl himself. Just as he suddenly decided not to pursue the open lane afforded by The Gremlins he switched lanes again, almost leaving his fiction for adults behind to go down that road of children’s stories that one assumes he had left so far behind in his rear view mirror that he had no chance of ever finding it again.
But find it, he did. Still, that doesn’t answer the question. Why for so long did it appear that The Gremlins was going to be just a weird anomaly in the career of a big time glossy magazine artiste of the short story? The answer is not obviously and may only be a matter of interpretation, but it only takes one reading of The Gremlins to see that it was inevitable that more fanciful fables and fairy tales for kids lay in Dahl’s future. His first published work of long-form fiction can be read and enjoyed entirely on the level of a child and entirely on the level of an adult. The story does not need to be separated into one or the other. But this was 1943 and the collaboration with Walt Disney to get the book published likely—or perhaps not—cemented Dahl’s perception that the world of creative fiction was not separated by individual genres or word length, but rather just one thing: the age of the reader. Disney made films that everybody paid to see at the local cinema, but ask anyone what kind of movies he made and the answer would invariably be the same. He makes movies for kids. That same mindset was firmly in place in the post-war publishing world.
You could be the author of stories for kids or you could the author of stories for grown-ups. But you can’t be both at the same time. Not equally successful anyway. The only way that a writer for kids could ever also be a respected author for adults was if he was already a successful author for adults. Then, if his first book for kids tanked, he could say it was just a fun little diversion.
The world of 1943 and 1961 might as well have been the world of 1861 and 1943. Everything had changed and the most revolutionary and subversive social changes were right around the corner. Dahl likely saw that coming and he likely realized that the 1960’s was going to be the perfect time to unleash his vision of children’s stories upon kids and parents vastly at odds with kids and parents during the height of World War II.
