Posted by John Wilson on December 09, 2000 at 13:18:31 from 203.96.26.105:
CC is dedicated to “The Skipper of the Titmouse”. AR must have had someone in mind as a model for Tom Dudgeon (and perhaps a model for the Titmouse too?)
Most of the S&A books have a dedication, although the dedications mentioned in Christina Hardyment’s book (pages 33, 80) of SA “to the Six for whom it was written in exchange for a pair of slippers” and PP “to Oscar Gnosspelius” are missing from later editions. SA (and SD) now have the “Author’s Note” written at Haverthwaite May 19, 1958; presumably after the cooling of AR’s friendship with the Altounyans.
But why no dedication to Oscar in PP now? Did the first editions of SD and PD have a dedication?
Christina Hardyment’s book describes the other dedicatees. Eg Aunt Helen C.F.C.A. A1 etc is Helen Boulton, and the heroine of her novel Josephine Crewe is “distinctly Nancyish”.