Rachel Field
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Rachel Lyman Field (September 19, 1894 New York City – March 15, 1942 Los Angeles, California) was an American novelist, poet, and author of children's fiction. She is best known for her Newbery Medal–winning novel for young adults, Hitty, Her First Hundred Years, published in 1929.
She won the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award twice, in 1958 for Prayer for a Child and in 1961 for Hitty, Her First Hundred Years.
Time Out of Mind won one of the inaugural National Book Awards: the Most Distinguished Novel of 1935, voted by the American Booksellers Association.[1][2]
[edit] Life
Field was a descendant of David Dudley Field. She grew up in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. As a child, she contributed to the St. Nicholas Magazine. She was educated at Radcliffe College. Her book Prayer for a Child was a recipient of the Caldecott Medal for its illustrations by Elizabeth Orton Jones.
According to Ruth Hill Vigeurs in her introduction to Rachel Field's children's book Calico Bush, published in 1931, Field was
fifteen when she first visited Maine and fell under the spell of its 'island-scattered coast'. Calico Bush still stands out as a near-perfect re-creation of people and place in a story of courage, understated and beautiful.
Field was also a successful author of adult fiction, writing the bestsellers Time Out of Mind (1935), All This and Heaven Too (1938), and And Now Tomorrow (1942). She is also famous for her poem-turned-song "Something Told the Wild Geese". Field also wrote the English lyrics for the version of Franz Schubert's Ave Maria used in the Disney film Fantasia (film). Field married Arthur S. Pederson in 1935, with whom she collaborated in 1937 on To See Ourselves. In 1938 one of her plays was adapted for the British film The Londonderry Air. She also wrote a story about the nativity of Jesus Christ titled "All Through the Night".
She moved to Hollywood, where she lived with her husband and two children.[3] She died at the Good Samaritan Hospital on March 15, 1942, of pneumonia following an operation.
[edit] Bibliography
- Prayer for a Child, fiction
- Something Told the Wild Geese, poem-turned-song
- The Londonderry Air, drama
- All Through the Night, nativity story
- 1924, The Pointed People, poetry
- 1924, Six Plays, drama
- 1926, Taxis And Toadstools, poetry
- 1926, Eliza And The Elves, fiction
- 1927, The Magic Pawnshop, fiction
- 1927, The Cross-Stitch Heart And Other One-Act Plays, drama
- 1928, Little Dog Toby, fiction
- 1929, Hitty, Her First Hundred Years, fiction
- 1931, Calico Bush, fiction
- 1932, Hepatica Hawks, fiction
- 1933, Just Across The Street, fiction
- 1934, Branches Green, poetry
- 1934, Susanna B And William C, fiction
- 1934, God's Pocket, fiction
- 1935, Time Out Of Mind (novel), fiction
- 1937, To See Ourselves [with Arthur PEDERSON], fiction
- 1938, All This and Heaven Too, fiction
- 1940, Fantasia (Ave Maria Lyrics)
- 1942, And Now Tomorrow, fiction
[edit] References
- ^ "Books and Authors", The New York Times, 1936-04-12, page BR12. ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times (1851-2007).
- ^ "Lewis is Scornful of Radio Culture: ...", The New York Times, 1936-05-12, page 25. ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times (1851-2007).
- ^ Newbery Medal Books: 1922-1955, eds. Bertha Mahony Miller, Elinor Whitney Field, Horn Book, 1955, LOC 55-13968, p.77-85
[edit] External links
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