A monograph study of letters written by children and published in the North American-Icelandic children’s newspaper Sólskin (Engl. Sunshine) between 1915 and 1918. I have previously published digital transcriptions and my own English translations of these same letters in the e-book Letters from the North American-Icelandic Children’s Newspaper Sólskin (2023). This book, which was edited and contains a foreword by Birna Bjarnadóttir of the Vigdís International Center for Multiculturalism and Intercultural Understanding, provides background details, offers cultural and historical context, and traces some of the major recurring themes found in the letters of the so-called “Sunshine Children.” Through their letters, the Sunshine Children added their own layers of experience and understanding to the discourse of what it meant to be a North American-Icelander in the early part of the 20th century.
Read more about the book on the Hin kindin website. Copies can be purchased online or in person from Eymundsson or Bóksala stúdenta in Iceland and from the New Iceland Heritage Museum in Gimli, Manitoba.
Click here to listen to an interview I did about the book for the CBC Weekend Morning Show (Manitoba).
And, click here to read an interview, conducted by Jason Doctor of Icelandic Roots, about my research on the letters of the Sunshine Children.
The design studio OT.Melsted was awarded a Gold Medal in the category of Book Cover Design at the 2024 Icelandic Society of Graphic Designers Awards [FÍT verðlaunin 2024] for their cover design of my book.
Christopher W. E. Crocker 