Poet, Children's Author. She authored around 25 best-selling works for young readers. Raised in Yarmouth of a rather poor family, she discovered poetry at about six, read voraciously, and earned a scholarship to London University. After graduation she worked as a copywriter, and taught at a finishing school in Switzerland, eventually landing on the staff of "New Statesman and Nation", where she quickly gained a following as an essayist and reviewer. (Noted both for her perfectionism and passion for privacy, she often kept editors waiting outside her flat in Red Lion Square for her to slide pages to them under the door). She wrote and published poetry (from around 1947), with the 1957 "A Visit to Mrs. Wilcox" her best known "adult" work; after 1960, Miss Lewis was to devote herself to children's books. Over the years, she produced such titles as: "The Silent Playmate" (a 1979 work about dolls), "Messages" (1985), "The Mardi Gras Cat" (1993, and the 2000 "Rocking Horse Land". In 1981, she published a much-acclaimed translation of the works of Hans Christian Anderson. Miss Lewis was a gifted teacher, running a popular night class in creative writing at the City Literary Institute for 40 years. She received the 1975 Eleanor Farajean Prize for children's literature, and was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1981. Attempting her autobiography as a haiku, she wrote: "Here I sit knee-deep in paper, not a piece to write on. That's my life story".
Poet, Children's Author. She authored around 25 best-selling works for young readers. Raised in Yarmouth of a rather poor family, she discovered poetry at about six, read voraciously, and earned a scholarship to London University. After graduation she worked as a copywriter, and taught at a finishing school in Switzerland, eventually landing on the staff of "New Statesman and Nation", where she quickly gained a following as an essayist and reviewer. (Noted both for her perfectionism and passion for privacy, she often kept editors waiting outside her flat in Red Lion Square for her to slide pages to them under the door). She wrote and published poetry (from around 1947), with the 1957 "A Visit to Mrs. Wilcox" her best known "adult" work; after 1960, Miss Lewis was to devote herself to children's books. Over the years, she produced such titles as: "The Silent Playmate" (a 1979 work about dolls), "Messages" (1985), "The Mardi Gras Cat" (1993, and the 2000 "Rocking Horse Land". In 1981, she published a much-acclaimed translation of the works of Hans Christian Anderson. Miss Lewis was a gifted teacher, running a popular night class in creative writing at the City Literary Institute for 40 years. She received the 1975 Eleanor Farajean Prize for children's literature, and was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1981. Attempting her autobiography as a haiku, she wrote: "Here I sit knee-deep in paper, not a piece to write on. That's my life story".
Bio by: Bob Hufford
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
Explore more
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
