Dedicated

A collection of interesting dedications and art made for an audience of one.

[this-is-dedicated]

“For the boy I was, the book I could not find.”

The dedication page of Ed Emberley's Drawing Book of Animals

[this-is-dedicated]

Think about your audience. Some of the best stories that incorporate levity were originally crafted with the intention of pleasing very particular people, often children (Alice in Wonderland, Winnie the Pooh). One of the reasons MacDonald claimed to write ‘for the childlike’, I think, is because children are more willing to engage dialogically and spontaneously with stories. Maybe try writing a story for a cousin, niece, godson or other child. In addition to forcing you to think outside of yourself, it will also make you think carefully about each word and sentence and give you an impetus for brevity.

Daniel Gabelman (via)

[this-is-dedicated]

Don’t make stuff because you want to make money — it will never make you enough money. And don’t make stuff because you want to get famous — because you will never feel famous enough. Make gifts for people — and work hard on making those gifts in the hope that those people will notice and like the gifts.

John Green

[this-is-dedicated]

E.E. Cummings, No Thanks

[this-is-dedicated]

My first stepfather used to say that what I didn’t know would fill a book. Well, here it is.

Tobias Wolff, This Boy's Life

[this-is-dedicated]

My purpose was to say things to my children one doesn't have the time to say. I wanted them to know I wasn't always their mother. I was a girl, I had best friends, we did stupid things together. I was on a bus with my friend once eating dog bones so people would look at us. I wanted them to know.

Ilene Beckerman on why she wrote her book, Love, Loss, and What I Wore

[this-is-dedicated]

To my daughter Leonora, without whose never-failing sympathy and encouragement this book would have been finished in half the time.

P.G. Wodehouse, The Heart Of A Goof

[compendium-of-chaos]

[this-is-dedicated]

Neil Gaiman's dedication page in Anansi Boys

[theworld-isquiet-here]

[this-is-dedicated]

“For no one” (Blake Butler's dedication in his novel, There Is No Year)

[this-is-dedicated]

**John Steinbeck's dedication to his editor, Pascal Covici, in _East of Eden_** While writing _East of Eden_, Steinbeck warmed up by writing a letter to his friend and editor in his notebook. These letters are collected in [_Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters_](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0140144188/wwwaustinkleo-20/ref=nosim/). You can read the last letter in the batch over at _Letters of Note_. As for the dedication, here's some info from [Oprah.com](http://www.oprah.com/oprahsbookclub/Fast-Facts) (of all places, I know): >[Steinbeck] often mentioned the things he was tinkering with or building around the house. At one point, Pat asked Steinbeck to make him a box; Steinbeck joked that the only specification was that Pat shouldn't be able to fit inside it. > >When Steinbeck finished _East of Eden_, he placed his 250,000 word manuscript into a mahogany box he had carved and sent it to Pat. The note he placed on top became the dedication page of the novel. There's a book about the friendship called [_Steinbeck and Covici_](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0930751361/wwwaustinkleo-20/ref=nosim/).

[this-is-dedicated]

[**C.S. Lewis's dedication page for _The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe_**](http://www.lib.udel.edu/ud/spec/exhibits/lewis/narnia.html) >All of the Narnia books except _The Last Battle_ were dedicated to children. In the dedication of _The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe_, Lewis tenderly addresses Lucy Barfield, adopted daughter of friend and fellow Inkling Owen Barfield. Lucy as an adult spent much of life hospitalized but tried to answer the letters children, inspired by the dedication, wrote to her. Read more about Lucy [here](http://cslewis.drzeus.net/forums/viewtopic.php?p=123706#p123706).

[austinkleon]

Ronald Searle, Les Très Riches Heures de Mrs Mole

47 jewel-like drawings by Ronald Searle made for his wife, Monica, each time she underwent chemotherapy. On New Year’s Eve 1969, Monica Searle was diagnosed with a rare and virulent form of breast cancer. Each time she underwent treatment, Ronald produced a Mrs Mole drawing ‘to cheer every dreaded chemotherapy session and evoke the blissful future ahead’. Filled with light and illuminated in glowing colours, the drawings speak of love, optimism and hope. Like the mediaeval illuminated manuscripts such as the 15th-century Les Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, to which the title of this book refers, the 47 drawings are on an intimate scale and were never intended for publication.

When asked about the drawings, Searle said, “I have only my talent for drawing, so I drew.” Here’s a little more about them:

Prior to the cancer shock the couple had bought a decrepit house in the south of France and, despite her illness, Monica continued to devote her time making this house a home.

Devastated with his wife’s diagnosis Ronald did the only thing he knew how to do to cheer her up. .. draw.

Before every chemotherapy session he gave his wife a painting. Monica was depicted as a mole, a very happy mole celebrating life in their new home. (The Mole idea came after their discovery of a large celler that they made into a cosy room)

‘Everything about them had to be romantic and perfect,’ says Ronald. ‘I drew them originally for no one’s eyes except Mo’s, so she would look at them propped up against her bedside lamp and think: “When I’m better, everything will be beautiful.”

Searle died last week at 91.

(Images via bluedoorbooks)

[this-is-dedicated]

Dedication page of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures Under Ground

[this-is-dedicated]

This album is dedicated to all the teachers that told me I'd never amount to nothing.

The Notorious B.I.G., “Juicy”

[this-is-dedicated]

Photograph of Alice Liddell by Lewis Carroll, 1858 From The Writer's Almanac:

When he was 24 years old, a new dean arrived at the school where Carroll worked, and the dean brought his three daughters, Lorina Charlotte, Edith, and Alice. Carroll befriended the three girls and began spending a lot of time with them. In July of 1862, while floating in a rowboat on a pond, he came up with the story of a girl's adventures in a magical world underground, and told it to the three girls. Carroll always remembered that day. Late in his life, he wrote: "I can call it up almost as clearly as if it were yesterday — the cloudless blue above, the watery mirror below, the boat drifting idly on its way, the tinkle of the drops that fell from the oars, as they waved so sleepily to and fro, and (the one bright gleam of life in all the slumberous scene) the three eager faces, hungry for news of fairy-land ..."

Alice begged him to write the stories down, and a few months later, he did. The book was illustrated by a well-known cartoonist named John Tenniel, and it was published in 1865. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, along with its sequel, Through the Looking-Glass, became one of the most popular children's books in the world.

[robdelaney]

This is the dedication from my new book.

[austinkleon]

Delaney wins. (Although he needs to learn to always link to his book!)

[explore-blog]

In the end all books are written for your friends.

Gabriel García Márquez