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Wild Things

I'd argue that Arnold Lobel's story "Alone" had a major impact on James Marshall. "Alone" has Frog going off to contemplate his own great happiness. Toad--the worrier--thinks something is wrong. Toad's anxieties grow, disaster ensues, and Frog repairs all damage by giving a speech about his occasional wish for solitude, and about how being alone is not the same as being angry.

This story seems to have led to Marshall's "The Misunderstanding," and I'd say it also led to "The Secret Club." 

In "The Secret Club," Martha spots George sneaking off. "Where to?" she asks, and George, unwisely, states that he is headed for his secret club. Martha doesn't hear every word in that sentence. "I'll join." And yet: "You can't, it's a SECRET club." And yet: "George, you can let ME join you...."

This goes on and on, until Martha forces her way in. George is seated at a desk, conducting official business as president of the Martha Fan Club. "I hope you learned your lesson," says George, gently. And--sheepishly--Martha nods.

Lobel and Marshall have one theme: We can never really know other people. But the two writers have two approaches to this theme. Lobel presents his evidence in a gentle, realistic way. For Marshall, the emphasis is on the heightened, the comical, the ludicrous.

I like both approaches. (Right now, my heart is really with Marshall.) I do wish that Marshall and Lobel had collaborated on something--anything--before both men died.

*P.S. Correction. I just discovered Lobel's "Alone" came out AFTER "The Secret Club." (Both Lobel and Marshall were publishing in the seventies, with some Martha stories following some Toad stories, and vice versa.) I do know Marshall includes Lobel--explicitly--in the story "The Special Gift." I'd say the current of influence ran both ways.
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