Fay B. Kaigler Children's Book Festival
The Fay B. Kaigler Children's Book Festival is an annual book festival that was founded in 1968 and is sponsored by The University of Southern Mississippi. History Early years In 1968, Dr. Warren Tracy, chairman of the Library Science Department and university librarian for The University of Southern Mississippi, saw his vision for a children’s literature conference come to life. The university, under the leadership of Dr. William D. McCain, and the Library Science department hosted the Conference on the Writing, Illustrating, and Publishing of Children's Books, the first of what soon became the annual Children's Book Festival. Two years earlier, Dr. Lena de Grummond, professor of Library Science, with Dr. Tracy’s blessing, had begun to procure early children's books to support the Library Science program. She spent countless hours writing to authors and illustrators of contemporary children’s books to acquire original material for the library. Contributions of artwork and manuscripts flowed in from across the United States and Canada. Today, more than 1200 authors and illustrators are represented in the de Grummond Children's Literature Collection. In his original vision for a children's literature conference, Dr. Tracy saw the conference as a way to highlight the de Grummond Collection. That