Scott O’Dell: A Literary Tale

Dorsa O’Dell (left), chats with Anne Hubbell prior to her talk at the Julian Library.

By Bobbi Zane

Dorsa O’Dell sat primly at the front of the room as she related the story of her late husband, Scott O’Dell, a prize-winning author of 39 children’s books who lived with Dorsa at historic Stoneapple Farm on Pine Hills Road.

Even after his death 16 years ago, Scott O’Dell continues to be one of the most read authors of children’s literature. Although O’Dell, born and raised in Los Angeles, had worked for years in the movie industry and as a journalist, his writing career really blossomed when he married Dorsa in 1948 and moved to Julian in the mid-1950s.

Dorsa O’Dell, also an author and journalist, well into her 90s, continues to be active in the Julian community.

About 50 of her many Julian friends attended her talk on Nov. 16 at the Julian Library. The program was arranged by new librarian Jon Noland as part of a series of programs devoted to Native American Heritage Month.

Island of the Blue Dolphin is one of O’Dell’s most recognized works.

Scott O’Dell’s novel, “Island of the Blue Dolphins,” was the first modern novel to have a Native American heroine and is now required reading at many elementary schools.

He wrote the book in the late 1950s, while he and Dorsa O’Dell were living in Julian. The book captured the prestigious Newberry Award for the most distinguished children’s book of 1960.

Scott O’Dell was working for the old Los Angeles Daily News in 1947 when he and Dorsa met.

“He was the handsomest person I’d ever seen,” is how she described her encounter with Scott O’Dell at a book auction to which she’d been invited. “It was love at first sight!”

The romance flourished. The couple was married the next year and by 1956 had moved to Julian, where they lived in Whispering Pines while trying to figure out how they could purchase Stoneapple Farm and renovate the 1890s packing house into a comfortable home.

The decade of the 1950s was a time of turmoil in the Los Angeles newspaper business. The left-leaning Daily News folded in 1950, leaving Scott O’Dell, by then an editor at the paper, without a job. Eventually, both O’Dells got jobs at the upstart Mirror, published by The Los Angeles Times to replace the dead Daily News. Dorsa O’Dell wrote a daily advice to the lovelorn column — not under her own name,

of course.

Her popular column was read regularly by thousands until one day in a controversial move, the paper fired her in order to make room for a hot new advice columnist who went by the name “Dear Abby.” Dorsa O’Dell returned to the Mirror briefly in another capacity and remained there until that paper was folded into The Los Angeles Times in late 1958.

Meanwhile, Scott O’Dell was trying to work on novels. He published one in 1958 with modest success and limited royalties. His next project turned out to be the big break he was seeking.

Initially rejected by several publishers and Scott O’Dell’s agent, “Island of the Blue Dolphins,” based on the true-life adventures of a 12-year-old Native American who lived alone on San Nicolas Island off the coast of Santa Barbara for 18 years, hit the bookstores in 1960.

“The book was well reviewed,” Dorsa O’Dell recalled in her talk, “but it didn't top the best seller list in The New York Times.”

Dorsa O’Dell’s library talk was one of a series sponsored by the Friends of the Julian Library. All of Scott O’Dell’s books are available at the library, according to librarian Jon Noland.

Cutline: Dorsa O’Dell and Anne Hubbell share a joyful moment before her talk at the Julian Library.

Photo by Bobbi Zane