Louey Chisholm

Louise Charlotte Steinitz was born in 1863, the daughter of German and Scottish parents.^[3] Her father was Reverend J. J. Steinitz.^[5] She was educated in Dollar and Edinburgh.^[3]

She married Edwin Chisholm Jack, a publisher, on 28 June 1894.^[5] He encouraged her interest in poetry and storytelling for children.^[3] The couple lived in Edinburgh, where Louise was active in the Edinburgh Poetry Club, and the local branch of the Scottish Association for the Speaking of Verse.^[3] They had a house built for them by Robert Lorimer, moving later to a terrace house in Morningside.^[3] Her close friends included art historian James Caw, writer Herbert Read, and artist Henry John Lintott.^[3] The Scotsman described her as "a woman of exceptional gifts of understanding, of poetic apprehension, and quick sympathy".^[3]

As Louey Chisholm, she edited two volumes of fairytales: In Fairyland (1904) and The Enchanted Land (1906).^[3] These were illustrated by Katherine Cameron, and were successful.^[3] Also in 1906, she published Golden Staircase, an anthology of poetry for children.^[3] Chisholm subsequently conceived the Told to the Children^[6] and Shown to the Children series which, according to The Scotsman, "had a great vogue, and became, and continued, for many years a model of what such things might and could be".^[3] She credited the success of the books to their illustrations.^[7] Told to the Children included works by Lena Dalkeith and Janet Harvey Kelman.^[8] The Shown to the Children series included works on animals, flowers, birds, the sea-shore, the farm, trees, nest and eggs, butterflies and moths, stars, gardens, and bees.^[9]

In 1910, The Bookman described Chisholm as:

an excellent hand at the retelling of familiar fairy tales... While retaining the spirit and poetry of the stories, she contrives to express them in language suitable for the comprehension of a youthful audience...^[10]

The couple's daughter, Marie Winifred Jack (1895–1988), was the subject of a portrait by Henry John Lintott, exhibited at the RSA Annual Exhibition of 1920.^[1]

Louise Charlotte Jack died on 28 October 1948.^[3][11] She left money to The Thistle Foundation, Edinburgh Old People's Welfare Council, Mothers’ Welfare Clinic, and St Saviour's Child Garden, Canongate, Edinburgh.^[12]

• In Fairyland (1904)
• Told to the Children Series, edited by Louey Chisholm (1905–1909)^[13]
• Shown to the Children Series, edited by Louey Chisholm (from 1906)
• The Enchanted Land, with pictures by Katharine Cameron (1906)
• The Golden Staircase: Poems and Verses for Children, chosen by Louey Chisholm, with Pictures by M. Dibdin Spooner (1907)
• Simple Susan, re-told by Louey Chisholm (1910)
• Wordsworth Thoughts, selected by Louey Chisholm (1910)
• Nursery Rhymes, chosen by Louey Chisholm, with pictures by F.M.B. Blaikie (1911)
• Nursery Rhymes, chosen by Louey Chisholm, and Fables, re-told for children by Lena Dalkeith (1940)