East Quogue Historical Society
P.O. Box 174 East Quogue New York
Before J.K Rowling introduced us to the boy who lived, Tolkien took us to Middle Earth, and Dorothy got lost in OZ; children were delighted by stories of The Brownies. Their antics recorded on the pages of the books and comic strips written by Palmer Cox.
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When he was a child, his step mother filled the long hours of childhood in the cold Canadian winters with stories of the Brownies of her homeland Scotland’s lore. As an adult these little sprites came back to him as inspiration for children’s books. The stories were first published as a comic strip, then later books and even a stage production, in terms of sales he was the J.K Rowling of his day. He was, for a time the bestselling author in English speaking countries.
With this success, companies started using his drawings to sell their products, he finally was able to fight the copy right infringement and practically invented licensing contracts as we know them today, Walt Disney was quoted as saying that it was this example he used when he created his
Mickey Mouse Franchise.
Cox was born on April 28, 1840 in Granby, Canada, as a young man he moved to California and worked as a mechanic, while there he joined the Coast Guard and obtained US Citizenship.
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He first became published while in California. He then moved to New York where he focused on writing about his Brownies and their many adventures.
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During his time in New York, he would winter in East Quogue. He would work from this location, he liked it because it was on the water, and quieter then the city, but within a close enough proximity to the city that he could still get his work submitted.
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The children of the town adored him and he would entertain them, filling their cold winter hours and imaginations of their childhood with stories of well-meaning, albeit sometimes misguided, sprites called Brownies just as his stepmother filled his.
Eileen Payne, Mary Fuller, Ruth McLean, Eleanor Papinvan, Elizabeth Smith, Phillis Gould, Alice. Palmer Cox, in the background.
The County Review January 17, 1919
The County Review March 7, 1919
The County Review May 23, 1919
The County Review
The New York Times March 4, 1906
One of the hotels that Palmer Cox stayed at was the Pine View House.
This is what it looked like in 1910.
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle June 5, 1910
When asked about his time in East Quogue:
A Poem Written by Palmer Cox
Books By Palmer Cox
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The Brownies: Their Book
The Brownies Merry Adventures
Another Brownie Book
Bugaboo Bill (An Ariel Book)
Brownies at Home
Brownies Year Book
Queer People with Wings and Strings
The Brownies Many More Nights
The Brownies Abroad
Frontier Humor
Brownies & Other Stories
The Brownies & Prince Florimel
The Brownies Through the Union
The Brownies Around the World
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