Malvina G. Vogel is an American adapter of classic literature for young readers, best known for her many abridgements in the long-running Great Illustrated Classics series.
Little is publicly known about her life; her work speaks for itself. For the Great Illustrated Classics - published under the Baronet Books imprint of Waldman Publishing - she retold dozens of the world's best-loved novels in shorter, accessible versions for children, paired with line illustrations, introducing generations of young readers to stories they might not yet be ready to meet in the original.
Her adaptations span adventure, mystery and the gothic: Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, the Sherlock Holmes stories, Alexandre Dumas's The Three Musketeers, Dickens's David Copperfield and A Christmas Carol, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Kipling's The Jungle Book and many more. She also compiled original collections for children, among them The Big Book of Amazing Facts.
Her abridgements - faithful, brisk and kindly made - have long been a gentle first step toward the classics for readers just setting out.
