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Mechanics' Institute

Tarpey-Schwed LGBT Families Children's Book Special Collection

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Feminist Press first edition cover.

External cover image from Open Library or Wikimedia.

Image source

The Dragon and the Doctor

Creator

Barbara Danish

Date

Feminist Press first edition, 1971

Format

Book

A Feminist Press picture book in the collection's small-press publishing cluster.

Feminist PressNonsexist children's booksSmall-press publishingEdition history
Contact About AccessBack to catalog

Overview

The 1971 first edition of The Dragon and the Doctor is a precursor object in the collection. It does not appear to be a lesbian-parent picture book, and that distinction is important. Its significance lies in Feminist Press history: public records and publisher accounts place Barbara Danish's book at the beginning of the press's children's publishing work, and the local catalog reads it as part of a movement to free children from sex-role stereotypes. In the collection, the first edition makes the later expanded edition more meaningful. Visitors can see the difference between early nonsexist children's publishing and later explicit family representation, rather than collapsing those histories into one category. The book's fantasy premise, a sick dragon and a doctor, belongs to a feminist project of changing what kinds of adults and roles children could imagine.[1][2][6]

First-Book Context

The Dragon and the Doctor is important because it sits near the beginning of Feminist Press history. Public publisher records identify the press as founded in 1970, and sources connect this title to the press's earliest book activity. That placement gives the object a historical role beyond its plot. It records a moment when feminist publishing was not only recovering adult women's writing, but also trying to reshape children's books and the assumptions those books carried into classrooms and homes.[6][2][4]

Nonsexist Precursor

The first edition should be read as a nonsexist precursor rather than as direct LGBTQ-family representation. That caution strengthens the page. It lets the collection distinguish between books that explicitly depict lesbian or gay parents and books that helped unsettle the gender assumptions behind older family norms. The doctor figure, fantasy frame, and press mission all matter because they belong to a larger effort to show children adults and possibilities outside narrow sex-role expectations.[1][6][3]

Fantasy And Role

The sick dragon and doctor plot uses fantasy to make care, authority, and expertise available in a different form. A dragon story can look distant from social history, but children's fantasy often trains expectations about who acts, who helps, and who is allowed to solve problems. In this edition, the collection value comes from reading a seemingly odd story through the early Feminist Press project: changing children's literature by changing roles, not by adding a later identity label retroactively.[2][4]

Paired Edition Value

The first edition becomes stronger because the collection also has the 1995 expanded edition. Without the later copy, this item might seem peripheral to LGBTQ-family representation. With the later copy, it becomes an anchor for edition comparison: the same work moves from early nonsexist publishing into a later edition that the local catalog connects to two-mother representation. That pair lets visitors see change inside one title rather than only across unrelated books.[2][3][5]

Timeline

  1. 1970Feminist Press foundedFeminist Press began as a project to recover and publish women's writing.[6]
  2. 1971First Dragon editionThe Dragon and the Doctor appeared in the press's earliest children's publishing context.[4][2]
  3. 1970sLollipop Power contextLollipop Power developed another feminist children's publishing path in North Carolina.[7][8]
  4. 1979When Megan Went AwayJane Severance's Lollipop Power book became a key early lesbian-parent picture book.[9][11]
  5. 1995Expanded Dragon editionThe Dragon and the Doctor returned in an expanded Feminist Press edition.[2][3]
  6. 2020sRecovery through scholarshipRetrospective accounts continue to recover feminist and LGBTQ children's publishing history.[11][12]

Dragon Edition Shelf

The two Dragon records show the difference between an early nonsexist precursor and a later expanded edition.

1971

First edition

Feminist Press precursor object centered on nonsexist children's publishing.

1995

Expanded edition

Later edition that the local catalog connects to explicit two-mother family representation.

Explore Connections

Browse direct links, shared themes, and nearby publication dates.

Linked records

Edition pair

The Dragon and the Doctor

The two Dragon records let the collection show how one Feminist Press title changed across editions.

References [2][3]

Feminist press context

Lollipop Power

Feminist Press and Lollipop Power both challenged gender roles in children's books through small-press publishing.

References [7][8][6]

Early lesbian-parent picture book

When Megan Went Away

When Megan Went Away gives the cluster a later, more explicit lesbian-parent family record.

References [9][11]

Heather comparison

Heather Has Two Mommies

Heather provides a later and more publicly challenged two-mother family title for comparison.

References [13][12]

Shared themes

Feminist Press

The Dragon and the Doctor

A Feminist Press picture book in the collection's small-press publishing cluster.

Nonsexist children's books

Did You Ever?

An early Lollipop Power picture book challenging gendered expectations for children.

Nonsexist children's books

Martin's Father

A Lollipop Power picture book centering nurturing fatherhood and domestic care.

Edition history

Heather Has Two Mommies

A 1989 picture book about a child with two mothers, represented here through its In Other Words first-edition history and later public life.

Nearby dates

Lollipop Power, 1971

Did You Ever?

An early Lollipop Power picture book challenging gendered expectations for children.

Published 1969

I'll Get There. It Better Be Worth the Trip

A landmark 1969 young adult novel, held here with a laid-in Donovan postcard noted in the local catalog.

First published 1973

Black is Brown is Tan

A picture-book poem centered on an interracial family in ordinary domestic life.

1977

How Far Is Berkeley?

A young adult novel set in Berkeley in the early 1970s, preserved here for its communal-household and women's-community context.

Citation

The Dragon and the Doctor. Barbara Danish. Feminist Press, 1971. Tarpey-Schwed LGBT Families Children's Book Special Collection, Mechanics' Institute. Collection ID: KB-032.

Showing Plain text citation format.

Sources

External cover image from Open Library or Wikimedia.

  1. Mechanics Institute local catalog record · catalog
  2. Feminist Press record for The Dragon and the Doctor · publisher
  3. Consortium record for The Dragon and the Doctor · distributor
  4. National Library of Australia record for The Dragon and the Doctor · library
  5. Open Library record for The Dragon and the Doctor · library
  6. Feminist Press history · publisher
  7. UNC finding aid for Lollipop Power records · archive
  8. WUNC feature on Lollipop Power · news
  9. Open Library record for When Megan Went Away · library
  10. National Library of Australia record for When Megan Went Away · library
  11. Mombian retrospective on When Megan Went Away · article
  12. New Yorker article on LGBTQ books for children · article
  13. Lumen profile on LGBTQ children's picture books · education
  14. CiNii record for Lots of Mommies · library
  15. KPIPA metadata for Korean When Megan Went Away · metadata
  16. Aladin hardback record for Korean When Megan Went Away · bookseller
  17. Aladin stapled record for Korean When Megan Went Away · bookseller
  18. Wikimedia Commons portrait of Jane Severance · image