Under Twenty

by May Lamberton Becker (Editor)

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

384 pages, Hardcover

First published July 28, 2007

About the author

May Lamberton Becker (August 26, 1873 - April 27, 1958) was an American literary critic and author.

For more than forty years She wrote a weekly 'Readers Guide', first with the New York Evening Post, then with the Saturday Review of Literature and finally in the weekly book section of the New York Herald Tribune, of which she later became literary editor.

She was well known as a lecturer on literature and drama. She wrote a number of introductions for the Rainbow Classics series of children's books.
Becker was also known as an anthologist, who was responsible for the Golden Tales series (Golden Tales of Our America (1929), Golden Tales of the Old South (1930), Golden Tales of New England (1931), Golden Tales of the Prairie States (1932), Golden Tales of the Far West (1935), Golden Tales of Canada (1938), Golden Tales of the Southwest (1938)), as well as several unrelated collections (Under Twenty (1932), A Treasure Box of Stories for Children (1937), Growing Up With America (1941), The Home Book of Christmas (1941), Youth Replies, I Can: Stories of Resistance (1945), The Home Book of Laughter (1948)). She wrote two biographies for young people, Introducing Charles Dickens (1941) and Presenting Miss Jane Austen (1952), and several books of advice regarding reading (A Reader's Guide Book (1924), Adventures in Reading (1927), Books as Windows (1929), Reading Menus for Young People (1935), First Adventures in Reading (1936, published in England 1937 as Choosing Books for Children), and compiled The Rainbow Mother Goose (1937) and The Rainbow Book of Bible Stories (1948). Five Cats from Siam (1935) and Foreign Cookery (1950) were her other titles.

Reviews

[Bryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a 1930s collection of short stories aimed specifically at girls under twenty, meant to show them a wide variety of ways of being a young woman and to reassure them that they aren't alone in their challenges & triumphs. The stories themselves are definitely a mixed bag; some of them I enjoyed very much, but there were others that had my feminist soul in despair as the characters diminished themselves in order to win male attention and affection, or were taught to value their appearance over their minds and abilities. It was an interesting read, but I can't imagine many teenage girls today would enjoy it unless they are fascinated with past social mores.