메건이 떠났을 때

Overview

The Korean edition of When Megan Went Away gives the collection a striking afterlife record. The English original appeared through Lollipop Power in 1979 and is often identified by specialists as one of the earliest picture books to depict lesbian-parent family life. The Korean edition, published in 2023, shows that the work did not remain only a recovered artifact for scholars and collectors. It entered a new language and publishing context more than forty years later. That movement changes how visitors can read the original. What began as a small-press feminist book about a child and mother after Megan's departure became a transnational object, with Korean metadata and bookseller records documenting renewed circulation. The item is therefore valuable as both translation and recovery history.^{[9][11][15][16]}

Translation Afterlife

The Korean edition is important because it changes the time scale of When Megan Went Away. The original was a small-press 1979 picture book with limited circulation; the 2023 edition makes it a contemporary translation object. That afterlife is not merely a bibliographic footnote. It shows that early lesbian-parent picture books can return to public view through translation, scholarship, and new publishing programs long after their first printings became difficult to find. The new edition turns recovery into circulation.^[9][15][16]

Recovery History

When Megan Went Away has often been recovered through specialist writing rather than through broad popular memory. Mombian and educational sources identify the book's early place in LGBTQ picture-book history, while Korean records show a later publishing route. The Korean copy turns recovery into an object visitors can see: not only an article about a lost or scarce book, but a new edition carrying the story into another language, readership, and present-tense circulation.^[11][13][15]

Grief Across Language

The original story is unusual because it begins after Megan has gone away. Unlike later affirmation books centered on intact households, it asks a child reader to sit with separation, sadness, and repair. That emotional structure is part of what travels in translation. The Korean edition therefore extends not only lesbian-parent representation, but a particular emotional form: a family story organized around loss and conversation rather than simple celebration.^[9][11][16]

Edition Details To Verify

Public Korean records identify a hardback ISBN and a stapled-edition ISBN, while the local catalog notes a Korean-language edition with a new postscript. Those details should be resolved against the physical copy. The public record can still identify the item as a 2023 Korean edition, but format and supplementary-material claims matter for researchers. The uncertainty is productive: it points to exactly where local object inspection can add value beyond online metadata alone.^{[15][16][17][1]}

Timeline

1. 1979Original publicationLollipop Power published When Megan Went Away.^[9][10]
2. 1980sLimited circulationThe book's later history is marked by scarcity and specialist recovery rather than broad trade circulation.^[11]
3. 2023Korean editionKorean metadata records the publication of 메건이 떠났을 때.^[15]
4. 2023Hardback and stapled recordsAladin lists both hardback and stapled records, requiring physical-copy confirmation.^[16][17]
5. 2025Retrospective recoveryMombian highlighted the book's early place in lesbian-parent picture-book history.^[11]
6. 1970s-2020sEdition shelf spanThe collection can connect the 1979 original and 2023 Korean edition across more than four decades.^[9][15]

When Megan Edition Shelf

The original and Korean edition show small-press publication and later translation recovery.

Citation

메건이 떠났을 때. Jane Severance; illustrated by Tea Schook. Banwon, 2023. Tarpey-Schwed LGBT Families Children's Book Special Collection, Mechanics' Institute. Collection ID: KB-160.

Sources

Cover image from Aladin.

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