Estelle Margaret Swearingen

Charter member Estelle Margaret Swearingen produced two books. One was titled Picinini, The Story of His Adventures Among De White Folks, published in 1917 by H.S. Crocker Co. in San Francisco. The book is dedicated to the children of “Bret Harte School Sacramento.” Her intention, as stated in other sources, was to reveal to children how it feels to be bullied. The other book, titled Pickaninny, was published in1925, but copyrighted by the author in 1917. The publisher was Duffield and Co. in New York. The book was dedicated “to my little son, DeLong Rene Murray. Mother.” Author Ruth Comfort Mitchell wrote a forward. Illustrations were by E.W. Kemble, a native Sacramentan born in 1961, who produced illustrations for Mark Twain’s Huck Finn and later for prominent magazines. Swearingen told stories to the community as part of “Hale’s for Toys” at the holidays in 1926.