Roald Dahl killed in WW2

Thande

Donor
Roald Dahl famously crashed while transporting a plane from Egypt to Libya to refuel in 1940, requiring plastic surgery afterwards and claiming that it was this 'knock on the head' that changed his personality and turned him into a writer. What if he had died out there? What would be the effect on childrens' literature of no Roald Dahl?
 
Roald Dahl famously crashed while transporting a plane from Egypt to Libya to refuel in 1940, requiring plastic surgery afterwards and claiming that it was this 'knock on the head' that changed his personality and turned him into a writer. What if he had died out there? What would be the effect on childrens' literature of no Roald Dahl?

A lot poorer. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Witches, ect. are very institutional in children's literature.

I dunno...maybe Brian Jaques or someone else like him fills the void?
 
This would be bigger than children's literature. A few butterflies:
-No gremlins becoming popular. (Roald Dahl helped introduce the concept of Gremlins to the US in a small book that nearly got made into a Disney cartoon- if WB hadn't beat him to it.)
-Dahl spied on the US in WWII. While he wasn't the only spy, he did relay quite a bit of information on various people. (Including an incident where he stole a manuscript of Henry Wallace's and returned it in under an hour- after having a copy made for London.)
-Dahl helped invent a shunt for hydrocephalus patients.
-Dahl wrote numerous other works, and did at least two screenplays. ("Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" and "You Only Live Twice".)
 
Wow...resurrected a two-post thread from early 07! Orville, you're a master necromancer. Dahl would be proud! :D

Hmmm...was there anything like dark creepy Gothic kiddie lit in that era before Dahl? Or did he "reintroduce" it?
 

Thande

Donor
Hmmm...was there anything like dark creepy Gothic kiddie lit in that era before Dahl? Or did he "reintroduce" it?

Traditional fairytales are pretty grim (notice how I avoid the opportunity for a pun there) but what Dahl did was different and new.
 
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