Frugal Generosity: M.B Goffstein

I actually like the simplicity and cleanliness of January, with the holiday light and flash packed away for another year. Trees are stripped of leaves so you can see the true shapes of their branches against the gray sky. Homey meals of braised cabbage and thick soups simmer on the stove. It seems like a good time of year to focus on the Queen of Minimalism, M.B(rooke) Goffstein [1940-2017].

I was in Powell’s Books buying last-minute Christmas gifts when I dipped into the vintage books looking for a present for myself. I found it in a used paperback copy of The First Books by M.B Goffstein. When my daughter was little, we read Goffstein’s Fish for Supper many bedtimes. The simple story, the minimalist black and white line drawings, the intrepid woman out catching her dinner and cooking it every day; we read it over and over and never got tired of it.

Until I bought The First Books, I’d never read anything else by her [and I didn’t even know for sure it was a “her” but the M.B stands for Marilyn Brooke, and she went by Brooke most of the time]. It turns out there’s a whole weird and funny world of her work for you.

She pairs clean and simple lines with repeated ritual, as in Fish for Breakfast

I like how there are chores to do, but let’s not spend too much time on them

or in A Picnic for Sophie (the image at the top is also from this story)

The focus on simple ritual is also present in work like in Two Piano Tuners:

and Goldie the Dollmaker, preparing her studio for the day:

Just as there are days when only a feast of spicy, complex ingredients and colors will do, so there are days when a simple, clear broth, an order of Nong’s khaoi man gai (IYKYK), or a crisp green apple pared thinly and eaten slice by thin slice are the most satisfying bites. Goffstein is the latter; restrained, and ritualistic with the repetition adding up to more than the sum of its parts.

Thankfully, the NYRB reissued two books in 2021, Brookie and Her Lamb and Fish for Supper, with the editor Susan Baba saying about Goffstein’s work:

What’s remarkable is how she managed to compress an entire philosophy into a single line — or two lines rather, the line of the drawing and the line of the text. Simplicity, humor, compassion, self-reliance but also care, curiosity and pleasure. We tend to think of frugality as a negative trait, as the opposite of generosity, but Brooke’s work demonstrates the possibility of a generous frugality, a paradoxically pleasurable parsimoniousness, a concentration of purpose and feeling whose generosity comes from its being shared with the reader. Her books provide models for a sustainable, and sustaining, life. 

She was also a teacher of children’s book writing and illustrating at Parsons School of Design and the University of Minnesota’s Split Rock summer programs. She left a lovely document on How to Write and illustrate a Picture Book, which includes this advice:

When you have your text, say it over and over until the rough edges are worn smooth.

Recite it to yourself in the mirror.

The book must be separate from you.

Maybe because of the simplicity of her drawings and the way the books can be read without words, her books always sold well in foreign rights and though many of her books are out of print in the US, there is an amazing line of merchandise based on her work for sale in Japan. Please, if you are headed to Tokoyo, will you bring me back a Goldie doll or a Brookie and Her Lamb t-shirt?

She worked until the end. In her Publisher’s Weekly obituary, her husband of 30 years, publisher David Allender: “Goffstein will have one final published book. “It will be a limited edition entitled Brooke’s Last Words,” he said. “It’s drawn from conversations with visitors at the Regional Hospice in Danbury, Connecticut during the last two months of her life. There will be 77 copies printed, for each year she was on earth, and available at the memorial service on January 21.”

Goffstein’s family made this request in her obituary from the Minnesota Star Tribune:

“In lieu of flowers please create something beautiful for the people around you or buy and read the book of your choice.”

Seems like a very good resolution for the New Year as well.