Marni Hodgkin

Marion "Marni" Hodgkin, Lady Hodgkin (28 November 1917 – 11 March 2015) was an American children's book editor. She was regarded as one of the notable and influential children's book editors of the 1960s. She was the daughter of Francis Peyton Rous and wife of Alan Lloyd Hodgkin, both Nobel Prize winners. Early life Born Marion Rous in New York City, she was the eldest of three daughters of the American pathologist Francis Peyton Rous, winner of the 1966 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, and his wife, Marion de Kay. She studied at the Dalton School in New York City, and Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania. Career Hodgkin's career as a children's book editor started in New York, working for Viking Press. She then worked for Rupert Hart-Davis in London. Hodgkin became Children's Book Editor at Macmillan Publishing Company, which she joined in 1966. Until her arrival, Macmillan had never had a children's literature department, even though its authors included Lewis Carroll and Rudyard Kipling. Picture books that she edited included Kevin Crossley-Holland's The Green Children (1969) and Graham Oakley's Church Mouse series. She rejected Roald Dahl's work twice. She retired from Macmillan in 1978 when her husband was named master of Trinity College, Cambridge.