Elizabeth Yates McGreal (December 6, 1905 – July 29, 2001) was an American writer. She may have been known best for the biographical novel Amos Fortune, Free Man, winner of the 1951 Newbery Medal. She had been a Newbery runner-up in 1944 for Mountain Born. She began her writing career as a journalist, contributing travel articles to The Christian Science Monitor and The New York Times. Many of her books were illustrated by the British artist Nora S. Unwin.[1]

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Yates wrote a three-volume autobiography:[2] My Diary – My World (1981), My Widening World (1983), and One Writer's Way (1984).^{[better source needed]}

Early years and education

Elizabeth Yates was born in Buffalo, New York,[3] the daughter of Harry and Mary Duffy Yates. She was the seventh of eight children. Her father owned a plantation. She had a love of animals and the land, which stemmed from her childhood experiences.^{[citation needed]}

She attended Franklin School, graduating in 1924. Yates then spent a year at Oaksmere, a private school near New York City, founded by mathematician Winifred Edgerton Merrill.[4]^{[better source needed][better source needed]}

Books were an important part of her life. Yates credited her mother for instilling in her a love for books by reading aloud to the family.[5]^{[third-party source needed]} At the age of 12, at the request of her father, Yates read through the whole Bible. This was to become one of her favorite books. Her sister also encouraged her to read, and made a list of recommended books for Elizabeth.[6]^{[self-published source?][self-published source?]}

From an early age, Yates enjoyed writing. In her childhood, she transformed an unused pigeon loft on the family farm into a secret writing place.[7]^{[third-party source needed]}

Career

After her schooling was finished, she moved to Manhattan and began writing book reviews and newspaper articles. In 1929, she married William Henry and the couple moved to England, where they lived for the next 10 years.[3] In 1938, her first book, High Holiday, was an adult novel set in the Swiss Alps.[8]

The couple returned to the United States in 1939, and settled in Peterborough, New Hampshire.[3] They bought a farm, and a discovery of old artwork during the restoration of the farmhouse prompted Yates to write Patterns on the Wall.[4]^{[better source needed]} Personal experience formed the basis of many of Yates' novels. Her passion for the land led her to write The Road Through Sandwich Notch, a book which was influential in preserving that portion of New Hampshire for inclusion in the White Mountain National Forest.[9]^{[self-published source?][self-published source?]}

Yates conducted writer's workshops at the University of New Hampshire, the University of Connecticut, and Indiana University.[10] She also served as the Director of the New Hampshire Association for the Blind.[10]

Yates was widowed in 1963. She died at a hospice in Concord, New Hampshire on July 29, 2001, at the age of 95.[8]

Recognition

In 1943, Patterns on the Wall received the Herald Tribune Award.[11] Yates' novel, Amos Fortune, Free Man, received the Newbery Medal, the inaugural William Allen White Children's Book Award,[8] and the Herald Tribune Award.[10] Mountain Born received a Newbery Honor in 1944, while in 1955 Rainbow Round the World received the Jane Addams Children's Book Award from the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.[10]

In 1970, she was given the Sarah Josepha Hale Award "in recognition of a distinguished body of work in the field of literature and letters".[12]

In the 1990s, the New Hampshire Association for the Blind began the William and Elizabeth Yates McGreal Society.[13] Yates had been a previous President of the Board,[14] while her husband was the Association's first Executive Director.[13]

In 1994, the Concord, New Hampshire Public Library created the Elizabeth Yates Award to honor an individual in the greater Concord area who is actively engaged in inspiring young people to read.[15][16]

Elizabeth Yates' books have been described as "the result of extensive research, a strong underlying belief in God, and a vivid imagination."[17]^{[self-published source?][page needed]}

List of works

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"Someday You'll Write", New York: E.P. Dutton & Co, 1962, Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 62-14706

Compiled or edited

References

Further reading

• Alberghene, Janice M. (1986). "Diary of a Dream: Triumph of the Creative Spirit of Elizabeth Yates". In Butler, Francelia; Rotert, Richard (eds.). Triumphs of the Spirit in Children's Literature location - Hamden, CT. Library Professional Publications.
• Trudell PM, Margaret. Elizabeth Yates: A Biography and Bibliography of Her Works (Authorhouse, 2003)

External links

• Elizabeth Yates at Library of Congress Authorities, with 80+ catalog records (mainly as 'Yates, Elizabeth, 1905–', previous page of browse report)