Writer, storyteller, fairy tale collector. Ruth Sawyer was born in Boston, MA to Francis Milton Sawyer and his wife Ethalinda J. Smith. She was the youngest of 5 children. The family moved to New York City in 1881 where her father worked as an importer. She had an Irish story-telling nanny named Johanna who in part was responsible for her life-long love of stories of all kinds. Ruth's experiences of growing up in New York City would later be the inspiration for her Newbery Award-winning children's book, "Roller Skates," the story about an independent little girl named Lucinda who skates around the city making friends with an assortment of people. When her family lost much of their wealth, they moved to a summer cottage in Maine and lived off the land. Ruth would later use this experience in her autobiographical children's novel "The Year of Jubilo." As a young woman, Ruth travelled to Cuba to teach storytelling to children orphaned during the Spanish-American War. She later studied folklore and storytelling at Columbia University. She married an ophthalmologist, Albert C. Durand and raised two children. Her son-in-law, Robert McCloskey also was a children's book author. She died a couple months short of her 90th birthday.
Writer, storyteller, fairy tale collector. Ruth Sawyer was born in Boston, MA to Francis Milton Sawyer and his wife Ethalinda J. Smith. She was the youngest of 5 children. The family moved to New York City in 1881 where her father worked as an importer. She had an Irish story-telling nanny named Johanna who in part was responsible for her life-long love of stories of all kinds. Ruth's experiences of growing up in New York City would later be the inspiration for her Newbery Award-winning children's book, "Roller Skates," the story about an independent little girl named Lucinda who skates around the city making friends with an assortment of people. When her family lost much of their wealth, they moved to a summer cottage in Maine and lived off the land. Ruth would later use this experience in her autobiographical children's novel "The Year of Jubilo." As a young woman, Ruth travelled to Cuba to teach storytelling to children orphaned during the Spanish-American War. She later studied folklore and storytelling at Columbia University. She married an ophthalmologist, Albert C. Durand and raised two children. Her son-in-law, Robert McCloskey also was a children's book author. She died a couple months short of her 90th birthday.
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