The collection documents the author's early career as a poet and
his later career as an authority on children's customs, toys, games, and
nursery rhymes.
Leslie Daiken, author and educator, was born in Dublin in 1912. He
graduated from Trinity College, Dublin, and lived thereafter in London.
Daiken's early poetry and short fiction appeared in periodicals and anthologies
such as
Choice, The Dublin Magazine, The New English Weekly,
Goodbye, Twilight,and
New Irish Poetry. In 1944 Daiken compiled
They Go, the Irish, an anthology in which
contributors attempted to evoke the spirit of the Irish war effort. Daiken
published a monograph of his own verse,
Signatures of All Things, the following
year.
After these literary endeavors, Daiken turned to the study of children's
customs, games, nursery rhymes and toys. His post-graduate thesis was titled
“A Comparative Study of Nursery Literature” (1943). Daiken also wrote
Children's Games Throughout the Year (1949),
Children's Toys Throughout the Ages (1953),
Let Us Play in Israel (1950),
Teaching Through Play (1954),
The Lullaby Book (1959),
Out Goes She! (1963), and
World of Toys (1963). In “Boys and Girls Come Out to Play,” “Sticks and Stones,” “The English Nursery
Rhyme,” “The Feast of St. Stephen” and “Tinsel, Holly and Tinklebell,” Daiken explored
the same subjects for radio and television. “Three Outcasts,” a radio play, dramatizes
the stereotypes found in children's rhyme; another radio play, “The Circular Road,”
explores a child's bereavement in the
Jewish-Irish community.
London Pleasures for Young People was
written as a children's guidebook. His film,
One Potato, Two Potato, which documents
contemporary children's street rhyme, won an award at the 1958 Festival mondial
du film in Brussels. Inspired by his interest in the history of toys, Daiken
also founded the Toy Museum of Britain.
Leslie Daiken died in 1964.
Scope and Contents
The papers of Leslie Daiken, 1935-1963, document his early career as a
poet and his later career as an authority on children's customs, toys, games,
and nursery rhymes. The collection has been arranged into two series,
Correspondence, 1936-1963 (0.5 boxes) and Works, 1935-1963 (3.5 boxes). The
Correspondence series reflects Daiken's and his circle's literary and political
concerns as well as the character of his friendships. The Works series consists
of Daiken's manuscripts for his early book of verse and his later books,
articles, radio and television productions, and documentary film.
