The Encyclopedia is basing on the project "Austrian FemaleWriters of Children`s Literature" of the Institute of
Science and Arts (Institut für Wissenschaft und Kunst, Berggasse 17, 1090 Wien) and has been supported by the
Österreichischen Nationalbank (Österreichische Kinder- und Jugendbuchautorinnen, Nr. 8546)
It will contain more than 800 biographies of austrian women, who wrote for young people. The biographical entries
contain the name, pseudonyms, name variations, dates and places of birth and death, as well as professional career
along with a list of publications. Information about religion, name of parents and children, friendships, any awards
and also quotations of the authors about their work are also presented. The individual entries have references to
appropriate source material such as handbooks, encyclopedia, monographs, periodicals and newspaper articles.
The introduction contains a theoretical discussion about the science of biographies of women, about children`s
literature in Austria and a summary of the results and some indications for use.
It is the first time, that such a handbook gives a general view about austrian authors of children`s literature. Until
now there are existing only studies to one person or to one epoch and some articles in scientific periodicals. Most
of them are analysing well-known authors. On the contrary this handbook includes also women who work in other
professions, and therefore are not mentioned in other encyclopedia. It was the intention, to show how many women
have written or are writing now for children and how many of them have contributed to the austrian culture. Some
of the included women are of jewish descent, they often are in danger of being forgotten because they had had
published only very few books before they had to flee or before they were murdered by the Nazi.
The information about all these women originate from published and unpublished books, handbooks, archives,
databases and from cooperation with other institutes and with many of these women, who are still living and who
sendt their curriculum vitae.
This encyclopedia is a contribution to gender studies and shows the enormous achievenent of austrian women, who
often had many problems to solve on their way to be a writer; it is also a contribution to jewish studies and of
course a contribution to the discussion of children`s literature, a theme, which is in austria often dicussed as a
literature 2nd class.
The biographical encyclopedia is usefull for scientists and for all people who are working with children and also for
students who are interested in children`s literature. It should be distributed in libraries and schools.
To informe the readers, portraits of the writers and some illustrations will be included and also some indexes.