SOURCE: "Puppet's Progress," in The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 225, No. 4, April, 1970, pp. 88-91.

In the following essay, Bacon discusses the cultural and literary impact of Pinocchio.

What manner of man—or woman—sits down and deliberately writes a book for children? One would suppose that he or she would have had some firsthand experience with youngsters, coupled with a keen sense of what is suitable, pleasant, and instructive. But three of the greatest writers for children, whose contribution stands unquestioned, were all eccentric bachelors.

If we study the lives of Hans Andersen, Lewis Carroll, and Carlo Collodi, we find it impossible to picture them as fathers, or even baby-sitters. Hans Andersen was a wandering minstrel of a man, a gawky, sensitive crybaby, scarcely to be trusted to cross a street alone. Lewis Carroll was an intense neurotic, obsessed with night fears, a nervous stutterer, who had difficulty sustaining the...