Dangerous Life of Miners Reflected in Children's Books

People throughout the United States were riveted by the plight of nine Pennsylvania miners who were trapped more than 200 feet below the surface for three days in July. The story was so remarkable that the Walt Disney Co. bought the rights to the miners' story.

The accident and the dramatic rescue were stark reminders of the perils faced every day by miners, and the worry and anxiety felt by miners' families every time they go to work. More than 50 years ago, author Alvena Seckar wrote three children's books dealing with the lives of miners and their families; it is striking how many of the same concerns expressed in her books are still relevant today.

Seckar, whose parents were immigrants from Slovakia, and whose father and stepfather were both miners, was born and raised in the coal fields of West Virginia and Pennsylvania. By the time she was 12 years old, Seckar had lived in 22 different mining communities.

An accomplished painter, Seckar turned to writing children's books as another outlet for her creativity. She emphasized the individual worth and potential of each child, regardless of national origin or economic circumstance, a theme also evident in her painting.

"Zuska of the Burning Hills," Seckar's first book, was an Honor Book in the Herald Tribune's Spring Festival of Books in 1952, and was placed on the New York Times' list of the hundred best books published for children in 1952. Seckar says that this book, which describes a Slovak immigrant family living in the soft coal region, is more or less autobiographical.

The book paints a vivid picture of Zuska's life: Walking home from school past piles of burning slag, rolling out dough for noodles, helping her mother care for the boarders. Zuska also worries about the mine closing, miners recently rescued from a cave-in, and new shoes for Easter. This book underscores the dignity and integrity of mining families. Seckar's next book, "Trapped in the Old Mine," was published in 1953, and is a science fiction story for young children. It deals with ventilation and respiration problems, dramatized by an actual incident in an abandoned mine shaft.

Andy Marshak and his little sister Lena often wait anxiously at the mouth of the mine shaft for the safe return of their father and the canary Zlaty. On the first day of the mine's reopening after a dangerous explosion, Andy tried to make his cousin Pete understand that the mine is no place to play. But the warning is wasted on Pete when Andy's dog Vulko discovers the opening to an abandoned shaft.

This conversation between Pete and Andy hints at the dangers inherent in entering a mine:

"Then the boys went outside and sat on the back porch.

'I'd like to go into a mine,' said Pete. 'Bet it's fun.'

'I guess it is -- except when the dynamite goes off and maybe the roof caves in -- or maybe the air shaft gets blocked.'

Pete was quite surprised to learn that his cousin had never been inside one and that visitors were not allowed in Coal Patch Mine Number Eight. 'But isn't there some way we can get into a mine?' he asked. 'Can't we find a way to explore it?'"

"Misko," a lively and heartwarming story, came out in 1956. While it takes place in the midst of stripping operations in the hard coal region, it also deals with diversity, featuring a multi-cultural neighborhood and a boy with cerebral palsy.

Life in the eastern mining settlements brings undue care and responsibility to young Misko Verna. It provides a backdrop for dignity and compassion that allows him to find beauty and strength amid the bleak physical conditions characterizing his day-to-day existence.

"Although these books were written and published over half a century ago, the topics they deal with and the places they portray are still pertinent today," says Marie Bolchazy, owner of Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, the company that is once again reissuing the books. The "new" books feature Seckar's own artwork as illustrations. Seckar's canvasses represent a realistic treatment of the physical world as it encompassed miners and their families -- the slag heaps, the stripped earth, the row-on-row houses, the burning slag, the coal dirt, the noisy and ugly tipples and the pervasive drabness all appear in her work. Bolchazy notes that Seckar was ahead of her time. "She explored social injustice, promoted ethnic and racial tolerance, raised environmental consciousness and celebrated cultural diversity in her stories -- themes that are now compelling issues for our media and school curricula."

Seckar now lives in Pompton Lakes, New Jersey, where she continues to paint despite a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis in 1964.

Visit Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers at www.bolchazy.com for more information on these noteworthy books.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For more information or to request review copies contact Marie Bolchazy at latin@bolchazy.com, by phone at(847)526-4344 (x22) or by fax at(847)526-2867.