Elizabeth Enright

By Susan Burrell

Information on Elizabeth Enright, including biography and bibliography. Check your school of public library for copies of her books. To order her books, visit your local bookstore or find availability information at Amazon Book Company
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[Biography] [Bibliography] [References]

Biography

Have you explored Saturdays, Gone-away Lake, or Thimble Summer? These are just three titles from this "oldie but goldie" author, Elizabeth Enright. She was born to an artistic family in Oak Park, Illinois, a bedroom suburb of Chicago on September 17th of the year 1909. Her mother was a magazine illustrator while her father was a political cartoonist. One might be able to say that Elizabeth was born with charcoal in her blood. In fact, illustration was her original career choice and she honed her skills by studying art in Greenwich, Conn.; Paris, France; and the Parson's School of Design in New York City. Her first book, Kintu: A Congo Adventure, was written around a set of pictures she had to draw. While doing that, she discovered the quirk that all writers discover--that writing brings back memories in fresh and unexpected ways. She eventually exchanged the pen and ink of an artist to the pen of a writer.

Having successfully raised two sons, Elizabeth Enright well understood the interests and reading realm of children. Her stories are for the young, both in age and in mind and draw the reader into the story quickly and completely. Her stories do not hide nor dwell on the pain, conflicts and disappointments of childhood but celebrate the joy, pleasure and love that are families. Over the years, she wrote and self-illustrated books for both adults and children. But it is in her children's books that she lives on.

One of her best loved works is Thimble Summer, her Newbery Medal book. The setting is a Wisconsin farm. During a terrible drought, Garnet Linden, finds a silver thimble to which she attributes all the good things which happen that summer. In reviewing the book, R. A. Hill in Library Journal said,

There is a swift keen characterization, natural conversation,

an almost inspired selection of incident and detail, and rare humor

and skill in the
telling.

Her writing skills have been recognized over the years. In 1939, Thimble Summer was awarded the Newbery Medal. Gone-Away Lake gained three top honors over the years. In 1957 the book received the New York Herald Tribune's Children's Spring Book Festival Award. It was also a 1958 Newbery Honor Book. In 1963, the American Library Association named Gone-Away Lake as the U. S. nominee for the international Hans Christian Anderson Award. One of her two fantasy books, Tatsinda, was an Honor Book in the 1963 New York Herald Tribune's Children's Spring Book Festival. In 1996, Elizabeth herself was awarded a LL. D. degree by Nasson College.

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Bibliography

New editions of her works are coming out soon, so here is a list of all her books. Check them out!

Christmas Tree for Lydia. c1951. Creative Education, 1986. [Baby-Pre-school level]

The Four-Story Mistake. c1942. New York: Puffin, 1997

Gone-Away Lake. c1957. Demco Media, 1990. [Ages 9-12[

Kintu: A Congo Adventure, 1937.

Melendy Family. Buccaneer Books, 1986.

Return to Gone-Away. c1961. San Diego: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1990.
The Sea Is All Around. c1940

Spider Web for Two; A Melendy Maze. c1951. Puffin, 1997; Buccaneer [Ages 9-12]

Tatsinda. c1963. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1991. [Ages 4-8]

Then There Were Five. c1944. New York: Puffin, 1997. [Ages 9-12]

Thimble Summer. c1939. Hardcover: American Libraries, 1985; paper: Dell, 1987. [Ages 9-12]

Zeee. c1965. New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1993. [Ages 4-8]

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References
1. Hill, R. A. "Thimble Summer" in Library Journal, v63, Sept. 15, 1938, p. 704.

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