Author. She is remembered as an award-winning American author during the 20th century, specializing in fiction and poetry for children and adults. She had a long successful career, publishing over 90 books from 1927 to her autobiography and final book in 1976. Born the daughter of a grain merchant, William Coatsworth and his wife Ida Reed, she was well-educated, attending a private girl's school, Buffalo Seminary; graduating from Vassar College in 1915 as Salutatorian; and earning a Masters in Arts from Columbia University in New York City. Her family traveled to Canada for summers on Lake Erie, and later she traveled to Asia visiting a Buddhist monastery in China and the South Pacific islands of the Philippines. Her travels impacted her writings. After submitting poems to magazines for publication, her first poetry collection for adults, "Fox Footprints", was published in 1923. Her first children's book was "The Cat and the Captain." In 1931 she was the recipient of the prestigious Newbery Medal for Children's Literature for her book "The Cat That Went to Heaven." This book has been in continuous print for the past 75 years. Over 80 of her children's books have been published, including "Away Goes Sally," "Five Bushel Farm," "The White Horse," and "Trudy and the Tree House." A four-book series "The Incredible Tales" was published for adults in the 1950s and tells the story of the "Pedrys," an unusual family living in the forests of northern Maine, who may not be entirely human. After marrying author, Henry Beston in 1929, the couple had two children and the family made their home on Chimney Farm, historic farm property, where they are both buried in a family plot. In 2007 the farm was placed on the National Register of Historical Places. Her papers are archived in the Kerlan Collection at the University of Minnesota and Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine.