Esther Forbes

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Esther Forbes (June 28, 1891 - August 12, 1967) was an American biographer, novelist, and children's writer who received both a Pulitzer Prize and a Newbery Medal.

Forbes was born in Westborough, Massachusetts. Her first novel, O Genteel Lady!, was published in 1926 and was made a selection by the then newly formed Book-of-the-Month Club. After attending school in Wisconsin, Forbes served as a member of the editorial staff at Houghton Mifflin Company.

By 1938 Forbes had published a number of books, but it was her 1942 biography Paul Revere and the World He Lived In that put her in the spotlight and subsequently brought her the Pulitzer Prize for History. Her novel Johnny Tremain (1943), about the life of a young apprentice in Boston, in the early 1770s, won the 1944 Newbery Medal and remains one of the most highly acclaimed books for young adults.

Forbes died in 1967, aged 76.

[edit] Resources

• Jack Bales, Esther Forbes: A Bio-Bibliography of the Author of Johnny Tremain, Scarecrow Press, 1998.