SPEARE, ELIZABETH GEORGE
1908-November 15, 1994
Author
Autobiographical sketch written for the 1963 Biography from More Junior Authors:
I was born in Melrose, Massachusetts, which seems to me 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. Every summer we went to the shore, where we stayed on a hill with a breathtaking view of the ocean, with fields and daisies and blue-berries, and lovely secret paths through the woods, but, except for my small brother, not another young person anywhere. As I grew older I realized that those lonely summers had been a special gift for which I would always be grateful. I had endless golden days to read and think and dream, and it was then that I discovered the absorbing occupation of writing stories.
I went on writing stories all through high school, but I never again had much time to be alone. I went to Boston University and on to graduate school, and then I taught in Massachusetts high schools. I very much enjoyed teaching English because it was a wonderful opportunity to share the books that I loved and because it was always a thrill to watch some girl or boy discover for the first time the enchantment of reading and writing. I spent vacations as a camp counselor and traveled for one summer in Europe.
In 1936 I married Alden Speare and came to live in Connecticut. Alden, Jr., was born in 1939, and Mary in 1942, and for a good many years I was absorbed in camping in summer and skiing in winter, in dressing dolls and making costumes and being a den mother and a Brownie leader. One of the happiest things I did was to introduce to my children the stories I had loved in my own childhood. Once in a while I would catch a story of my own peeking out of a corner of my mind, but before I found time to sit down with a pencil and paper it would have scurried back out of sight. When both children were in junior high I found myself alone again for long hours of the day, and gradually the ideas began to come creeping out of the corners. I wrote articles for women's magazines about the things our family had done together, and I experimented with one-act plays.
A few years ago I discovered a wonderful little book written in 1807 by a woman who had been captured by Indians in the French and Indian War. With her had been her younger sister Miriam, about the age of my own daughter, and I began to dream about the adventures this girl might have had. My first long novel, Calico Captive, published in 1957, was the result.
The second book, The Witch of Blackbird Pond, was written about an imaginary girl who lived in my own town of Wethersfield, Connecticut, in 1687 when people believed in witches. In the year and a half that I spent in writing this book Kit Tyler and her imaginary family and friends came to seem very real to me, and when this book won the Newbery Medal in 1959 I was happy to know that they had made so many friends for themselves.
Biographical Statement:
In 1962 Mrs. Speare was awarded the Newbery Medal a second time for her third book, The Bronze Bow, published in 1961.
Additional citations:
Obituary; Biography Today (ISSN: 1058-2347) v4 102-10 S 1995
Obituary; School Library Journal (ISSN: 0362-8930) v41 23 Ja 1995
Obituary; Publishers Weekly (ISSN: 0000-0019) v241 31 N 28 1994
Obituary; New York Times (Late New York Edition) (ISSN: 0362-4331) D24 N 16 1994
Obituary; The New York Times Biographical Service (ISSN: 0161-2433) v25 1769 N 1994
McElmeel, Sharron L. 100 most popular children's authors; biographical sketches and bibliographies. Libraries Unlimited 1999
Something about the author, v83; facts and pictures about authors and illustrators of books for young people. Gale Res. 1996
Biography today, 1995 annual cumulation; profiles of people of interest to young readers. Omnigraphics 1996
Cosgrave, Mary Silva. Elizabeth George Speare; The Horn Book (ISSN: 0018-5078) v65 465-8 Jl/Ag 1989
Speaking for ourselves, too; more autobiographical sketches by notable authors of books for young adults. National Council of Teachers of English 1993
Major authors and illustrators for children and young adults; a selection of sketches from Something about the author. Gale Res. 1993
Something about the author, v62; facts and pictures about authors and illustrators of books for young people. Gale Res. 1990
Newbery and Caldecott medalists and honor book winners; bibliographies and
Profile of Elizabeth George Speare copyright © H.W. Wilson Company.
Reprinted by special arrangement with the publisher.
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