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Elizabeth George Speare (November 21, 1908 – November 15, 1994) was an American writer of children's historical fiction, including two Newbery Medal winners, recognizing the year's "most distinguished contribution to American literature for children". In 1989 she received the Children's Literature Legacy Award for her contributions to American children's literature and one of the Educational Paperback Association's top 100 authors.

Life

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Speare was born in Melrose, Massachusetts to Harry Allan and Demetria (Simmons) George. Her childhood, as she later recalled, was "exceptionally happy" and Melrose was "an ideal place in which to have grown up, close to fields and woods where we hiked and picnicked, and near to Boston where we frequently had family treats of theaters and concerts."

She had an extended family with one brother and many aunts, uncles, and cousins, and most importantly, very loving and supportive parents. Speare lived much of her life in New England, the setting for many of her books.

Speare began writing stories while still in high school. After completing her Bachelor of Arts degree at Smith College in 1930, she earned her Master's degree in English from Boston University and taught English at several private Massachusetts high schools from 1932 to 1936.

In 1936, she met her future husband, Alden Speare, and together they moved to Connecticut where they married and raised two children. Although Speare always intended to write, the challenges and responsibilities of being a mother and wife drained her of any free time. Speare began to focus seriously on literature when her children were in junior high school.

Literary career

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Speare's first published work was a magazine article about skiing with her children. She also wrote many other magazine articles based on her experiences as a mother, and even experimented with one-act plays. Eventually her work saw circulation in Better Homes and Gardens, Woman's Day, Parents, and American Heritage.

Speare's first book, Calico Captive, was published by Houghton Mifflin in 1957. It features a colonial New Hampshire family kidnapped by Native Americans in 1754. The next year she completed her second historical novel, The Witch of Blackbird Pond, which won numerous awards, including the Newbery Medal in 1959. Ideas and inspiration for both books came to Speare while she was researching the history of New England and Connecticut, respectively. She earned her second Newbery Medal in 1962 for her third book, The Bronze Bow. The Sign of the Beaver (1984) was a Newbery Honor winner, and won the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction and the Christopher Award.

Biographer Marilyn Fain Apseloff wrote, “…she is not merely a writer of escapist literature, bringing only the past to her readers; in exploring universal problems and offering timeless values, she offers them hope for the present and the future as well."

In 1989, the Association for Library Service to Children awarded Speare the Children's Literature Legacy Award, which recognizes a living author or illustrator whose books, published in the United States, have made "a substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children". At the time, it was awarded every three years.

Death

Speare died of a ruptured aortic aneurysm on November 15, 1994, aged 85, in Tucson, Arizona.

Works

• Calico Captive (1957)
• The Witch of Blackbird Pond (1958) – Newbery Medal
• The Bronze Bow (1961) – Newbery Medal
• Life in Colonial America (1963)
• The Prospering (1966)
• The Sign of the Beaver (1983) – Newbery Honor

References

1. ^ "Newbery Medal and Honor Books, 1922–Present". ALSC. ALA.
     "The John Newbery Medal". ALSC. ALA. Retrieved November 10, 2023.
2. "Laura Ingalls Wilder Award, Past winners". Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC). American Library Association (ALA).
     "About the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award". ALSC. ALA. Retrieved 2013-06-11.
3. ^ "EPA's Top 100 Authors". Detroit, Michigan: Educational Paperback Association. Archived from the original on 2008-05-08. Retrieved 2008-06-15.
4. "Elizabeth George Speare". Britannica Kids. Retrieved 2024-10-14.
5. "The Witch of Blackbird Pond | ALA". www.ala.org. Retrieved 2024-10-14.
6. "The Bronze Bow | ALA". www.ala.org. Retrieved 2024-10-14.
7. O'Dell, Scott. "www.scottodell.com". www.scottodell.com. Retrieved 2024-10-14.
8. "Christopher Award | Awards and Honors | LibraryThing". LibraryThing.com. Retrieved 2024-10-14.
10. "Children's Literature Legacy Award | Association for Library Service to Children". www.ala.org. Retrieved 2024-10-14.
11. Apseloff, Marilyn Fain (1991). Elizabeth George Speare. Twayne Publishers. p. xii.
12. Sullivan, Ronald (November 16, 1994). "Elizabeth G. Speare, 84, Author Of Children's Historical Novels". The New York Times. New York. Retrieved 2008-06-15. Mrs. Speare is survived by her husband, Alden, and a daughter, Mary Elizabeth Carey of Shaker Heights, Ohio.

External links

• Internet resources for The Sign of the Beaver
• Fact or Fiction: An Analysis of Historical Fiction Literature by Elizabeth George Speare Archived 2005-12-20 at the Wayback Machine

• Children's literature
• New England

• 1908 births
• 1994 deaths
• American children's writers
• American historical novelists
• Children's Literature Legacy Award winners
• Newbery Medal winners
• Newbery Honor winners
• Deaths from aortic aneurysm
• 20th-century American novelists
• American women historical novelists
• 20th-century American women writers
• Novelists from Massachusetts
• Smith College alumni
• Boston University alumni
• Schoolteachers from Massachusetts