Gregory Maguire, author of Wicked, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, and Mirror, Mirror, opened the ALA Auditorium Speaker Series with a very personal talk “Playing with Stolen Property.” Readers of his books know that he reuses characters from old children’s literature in writing new stories. His roots for storytelling childhood go back to when he led siblings in playing parts from The Wizard of Oz and Peter Pan in the back yard. Maguire’s life began with a tragedy, the death of his mother in childbirth, and later he nearly let his infant brother die under the porch when the gang gave the baby the role of the Wicked Witch of the East. It’s a story you ought to hear. He presented his life as a narrative shaped by nature and nurture. His father was a journalist and his stepmother a poet. He was meant to write.

Maguire is not alone in using old characters. Hans Christian Andersen took characters and plots from folklore, as did Maurice Sendak. Maguire salutes both of these predecessors in books this fall. His first book reworks a tribute to Sendak, showing how in Where the Wild Things Are Sendak drew inspiration from Sendak’s own early work. The other book is a Christmas story that he wrote for National Public Radio retelling the classic The Little Match Girl. He read the initial chapter while showing his illustrations for Matchless.

As Maguire spoke I thought about copyright. No one reuses recent characters from other authors these days without tempting legal restraint. As a result, characters from the distance past are reborn and continue to be the A team of children’s literature. Perpetual copyright may freeze the development of Curious George, Babar, and Mickey Mouse. They’ll never become folklore.

Maguire began and ended saying what an honor it was to speak to librarians. The love feast continued after the microphone was turned off, as librarians lined up for words and photos with Maguire. It was sweet.