Joseph Slate: Finding His Niche in Children's Literature

by Megan Brower
Undergraduate Communication student and writing intern

I Want to be Free, one of many children’s books authored by alumnus Joseph Slate, says as much about the man who wrote it as it does about the young slave boy it depicts. Naturally gifted in prose, Slate surmounted writing challenges with ease, but always longed for a task that was as creatively demanding as it was intellectually so.

Slate flanked by The Daily interim Editor in Chief Vicky Yan, left, and graduating Managing Editor Erinn Unger.

“I was born a writer,” insisted Slate during an interview, “but always believed, as with Ernest Hemingway and others, I would be more skilled if I learned my craft in newspaper reporting.” A 1951 UW Communication graduate, Slate served as editor of the UW Daily and was the recipient of the UW Top-Flight award in journalism.

Slate began his early career as a stringer for The Seattle Times, reporting news of the University. He was immediately hired after graduation, and began writing obituaries. Reflecting on his work with the Times, Slate appreciated the opportunity for growth, but his artistic side still hungered for a more inventive challenge. “It was a good beginning for me,” commented Slate, “because I learned to perfect stripped-down, objective prose.”

Taking note of his reporting skills and inherent knack for storytelling, the Foreign Broadcast Information Service, (FBIS), recruited Slate to edit CIA reports of foreign broadcasts. This position, which gave him a deep insight on propaganda, distinguishing shifts in policy, and cross-cultural relations, was still not satisfying to him: “That work, though interesting, did not fulfill my nagging creative need, and I began to wonder if I had taken the wrong turn.”

He was relocated first to Santa Rosa, Calif., and then to Tokyo. Discouraged and bored, Slate took up drawing and painting, artistic outlets which, for him, were second only to writing. Two years later, he was accepted to Yale’s Bachelor of Fine Arts program.

Quickly he realized that the artistic road would present itself with its own challenges. “At Yale, my early frustration with design problems,” explained Slate, “threw me back on my fundamental nature, which was writing.”

Years of journalism had instilled Slate with a comfort in his ability to write, a feeling he had not yet acquired in his art. “I knew then I would have to combine my writing and my art, but I had no idea how,” admitted Slate, “I had to get my degree and find a job.”

Somewhere along the way, a former student noted the connection between Slate’s artistic ability and writing skills, and urged him to fuse the two into a career of authoring children’s books. “It was a lucky accident,” he recalled, “I followed his advice, and once I began seeing them, I was hooked.”

One night, he poured out his memories about the death of his sister, Rose, who died at the age of 17, into a picture book. “I sent it off to The New Yorker, “explained Slate, “and—lo and behold!—they bought it!” The initial success sparked a lifelong pursuit of writing children’s books, and a confidence that synthesized his writing and art skills into a creative career.

Slate’s works range from the silly, The Mean, Clean, Giant Canoe Machine, to the profitable, Miss Bindergarten Goes to Kindergarten, which won Delaware’s Blue Hen Award in 1977, but his affinities still lie with his debut book. “I am partial to my first, The Star Rocker,” Slate said when asked which publication is his favorite. “Your baby is your baby.”

Slate has donated a great deal of his time serving the public through Staff Development for Educators, an education group in Vermont that runs workshops for elementary school teachers throughout the country. He was awarded the Outstanding Educator of America Award in 1973, and received the Outstanding Maryland Author Award in 2001, among many other prestigious honors.

At 81, Slate is still very active in philanthropy: “My wife and I donate to hospitals and universities, and a favorite charity of ours, the Smile Train, which restores the faces of children with cleft palates.”

And he still writes.