E. L. Konigsburg
- This article is about the American author. For many places, mountains, and ships see Königsberg (disambiguation).
| E. L. Konigsburg | |
|---|---|
| Born | Elaine Lobl February 10, 1930 New York City |
| Occupation | Writer, illustrator |
| Language | English |
| Nationality | American |
| Ethnicity | Jewish |
| Citizenship | United States |
| Education | B.A. chemistry, 1952(?) |
| Alma mater | Carnegie Institute of Technology |
| Period | 1967– |
| Genres | Children's novel, short story, picture book |
| Notable work(s) | Father's Arcane Daughter and Newbery Medalists: |
| Notable award(s) | Newbery Medal 1968 From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler 1997 The View From Saturday |
| Spouse(s) | David Konigsburg (1952?) |
| Children | Paul, 1955 Laurie, 1956 Ross, 1959 |
Elaine Lobl Konigsburg (born February 10, 1930 in New York City)[1][2] is an American author and illustrator of children's books and young adult fiction. She is one of five authors to win two Newbery Medals, awarded annually for one contribution to American children's literature.
She submitted her first two manuscripts to editor Jean Karl at Atheneum Publishers in 1966, and both were published in 1967: Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth and From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.[3][4] They made her the only person to win a Newbery Honor (honorable mention) and the Newbery Medal in one year.[a] Konigsburg won her second Newbery Medal in 1997 for The View from Saturday, 29 years later, the longest span between two Newberys awarded to one author.
Contents |
[edit] Biography
Born Elaine Lobl in New York City, Konigsburg grew up in small Pennsylvania towns, the second of three daughters.[1] Elaine was an avid reader although reading was only "tolerated" in her family, "not sanctioned like dusting furniture or baking cookies".[2] She was high school valedictorian in Farrell, Pennsylvania, where there was no guidance counseling and she never heard of scholarships.[2] To earn money for college, she worked as a bookkeeper at a meat plant, where she met David Konigsburg, the brother of one of the owners.[2]
Elaine entered Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh and majored in chemistry, with her "artistic side ... essentially dormant", because she was good at it and the purpose of college was "to become a something—a librarian, a teacher, a chemist, a something".[2] She became the first person in her family to earn a degree.[5] After graduating, Elaine married David, who was then a graduate student in psychology. She started graduate school in chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh (1952 to 1954[2]) but they moved to Jacksonville, Florida after he attained his doctorate. She worked as a science teacher at Bartram School for Girls until 1955; became the mother of three children, Paul, Laurie, and Ross (1955 to 1959[2]); began painting at adult education after two children; and planned for the time they would all be in school.[6]
Konigsburg took the new direction after the family moved to Port Chester in Greater New York (1962[2]), where she continued art lessons and joined the Art Students League.[6] She began to write in the mornings when her third child started school.[6] Her first-published story Jennifer, Hecate was inspired by Laurie's experience as a new girl in Port Chester. Mixed-Up Files was inspired by her children's complaints about a picnic with many amenities of home; she inferred that if they ever ran away "[t]hey would certainly never consider any place less elegant than the Metropolitan Museum of Art."[1]
Konigsburg learned of those first two books' 1968 Newbery Award and honorable mention during her family's move back from Port Chester to Jacksonville.[2] When she composed her autobiographical statement for The Book of Junior Authors (2000), she lived "on the beach in North Florida". The pieces of View From Saturday (1996) had come together when she "left my desk and took a walk along the beach".[1]
Along with chapter books, some of which she has illustrated, Konigsburg is the author and illustrator of three 1990s picture books "featuring her own grandchildren": Samuel Todd's Book of Great Colors, Samuel Todd's Book of Great Inventions, and Amy Elizabeth Explores Bloomingdale's.[1][4]
As of 2002, she had five grandchildren, Samuel Todd and Amy Elizabeth being the eldest children of Laurie and Ross. Husband David Konigsburg died 2001.[4]
[edit] Themes
Many of Konigsburg's stories feature childhood and adolescent struggles that are easy for school-age readers to understand. Often her characters are striving to find the answers to big questions that will help shape their identities. Many of them are based on her own experiences as a child, the observations she made of children while a teacher, and the experiences or observations of her children.[1]
Especially her characters are "softly comfortable on the outside and solidly uncomfortable on the inside".[5] Teaching at Bartram, she learned that supposed "spoiled young women who had it all [actually] had all the creature comforts of the world, but ... were just as uncomfortable inside as I was when I was growing up."[2] Later she realized that her own children were middle-class suburban kids with comforts unlike her own. She has written about "their kind of growing up, something that addressed the problems that come about even though you don't have to worry if you wear out your shoes whether your parents can buy you a new pair, something that tackles the basic problems of who am I?"[2]
She has told Scholastic Teachers, "The essential problems remain the same. ... the kids I write about are asking for the same things I wanted. They want two contradictory things. They want to be the same as everyone else, and they want to be different from everyone else.They want acceptance for both."[6]
[edit] Works
Konigsburg is the author of all these books and is also the illustrator as noted ( "illustr. ELK").[b] Father's Arcane Daughter is sometimes her favorite book and Eleanor of Acquitaine is her character she would most like to meet.[6]
- 1967 Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth, illustr. ELK —1968 UK title, Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, and Me
- 1967 From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, illustr. ELK
- 1969 About the B'nai Bagels, illustr. ELK
- 1970 (George), illustr. ELK —1974 UK title, Benjamin Dickenson Carr and His (George)
- 1971 Altogether, One at a Time, short story collection[6]
- 1973 A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver, illustr. ELK, historical novel featuring Eleanor of Aquitaine[6]
- 1974 The Dragon in the Ghetto Caper, illustr. ELK
- 1975 The Second Mrs. Giaconda, historical novel featuring Leonardo da Vinci[6] —also published as The Second Mrs. Gioconda[citation needed]
- 1976 Father's Arcane Daughter —later published as My Father's Daughter[citation needed]
- 1979 Throwing Shadows, short story collection[1]
- 1982 Journey to an 800 Number —1983 UK title, Journey by First Class Camel
- 1986 Up from Jericho Tel
- 1990 Samuel Todd's Book of Great Colors, picture book illustr. ELK
- 1991 Samuel Todd's Book of Great Inventions, picture book illustr. ELK
- 1992 Amy Elizabeth Explores Bloomingdale's, picture book illustr. ELK
- 1993 T-Backs, T-Shirts, COAT, and Suit
- 1998
TalkTalk: A Children's Book Author Speaks to Grown-ups, nine lectures and speeches[2]
- 1996 The View from Saturday
- 2000 Silent to the Bone
- 2004 The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place
- 2007 The Mysterious Edge of the Heroic World
[edit] Adaptations
Beside audiotape recordings, four books have been adapted and produced as movies or plays.[b]
- From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Franweiler: 1973 film starring Ingrid Bergman (Cinema 5), released 1974 as "The Hideaways" (Bing Crosby Productions); 1996 film starring Lauren Bacall released on television.
- Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth: 1973 television movie "Jennifer and Me" (NBC)
- The Second Mrs. Giaconda: 1976 production of a play (Jacksonville FL)
- Father's Arcane Daughter: 1990 television movie "Caroline?" (Hallmark Hall of Fame)
[edit] Awards
- Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth: 1968 Newbery Honor
- From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler: 1968 Newbery Medal, 1968 Lewis Carroll Shelf Award; 1970 William Allen White Children's Book Award[1]
- The View from Saturday: 1997 Newbery Medal
- 1999 Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award from Carnegie Mellon University[1]
Throwing Shadows (1979 short story collection) was nominated for the American Book Award.[1]
[edit] Notes
- ^ Award dates 1968. The Newbery Honor was initiated for the 1970/71 cycle and Newbery Honors for books published before 1970 were named in retrospect.
- ^ a b The biographical essay "E(laine) L(obl) Konigsburg 1930-" identifies all the works illustrated by Konigsburg herself, the alternative titles of UK editions, the adaptations listed here, and audio recordings not listed here.
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Konigsburg, E. L." Autobiographical statement from Connie Rockman, ed., Eighth Book of Junior Authors and Illustrators Wilson, 2000 (ISBN 0-8242-0968-0). CMS Library Information Center. Coleytown Middle School. Westport, Connecticut. Retrieved 2011-12-06.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "E(laine) L(obl) Konigsburg 1930-". CMS Library Information Center. Coleytown Middle School. Westport CT. Retrieved 2011-12-06.
- ^ "Jean Karl, 72; A Publisher Of Books For Children" (obituary). 3 April 2000. Eden Ross Lipson. The New York Times. Retrieved 2011-10-21.
- ^ a b c Mixed-Up Files, 35th anniversary ed., Afterword.
- ^ a b c d e f g h "E. L. Konigsburg, Interview Transcript". No date. Scholastic Teachers. scholastic.com. Retrieved 2011-12-05.
- Citations
- Konigsburg, E.L. (2002). From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. Aladdin Books. ISBN 0-689-71181-6. "With a 35th anniversary afterword from the author." The Afterword includes reproductions of Jean Karl's July 21, 1966 letter to Mrs. Konigsburg about the Mixed-Up Files manuscript, and a two-page "sequel" to that book which Konigsburg wrote for the 1968 Newbery awards banquet.
