John Rowe Townsend

John Rowe Townsend (22 May 1922 – 24 March 2014) was a British children's writer and children's literature scholar. His best-known children's novel is The Intruder, which won a 1971 Edgar Award, and his best-known academic work is Written for Children: An Outline of English Language Children's Literature (1965),[1] the definitive work of its time on the subject.[2][3]

Biography

Townsend was born in Leeds and educated at Leeds Grammar School and Emmanuel College, Cambridge.[4] His popular works include Gumble's Yard, his debut novel published in 1961; Widdershins Crescent (1965); and The Intruder (1969), which won the 1971 Edgar Award for Best Juvenile Mystery from the Mystery Writers of America. In Britain, The Intruder was adapted as a children's TV series starring Milton Johns as the stranger.

Also in Britain, Noah's Castle was filmed by Southern Television, narrated by character Barry Mortimer (Simon Gipps-Kent), and transmitted in seven 25-minute episodes in 1980.

Books

  • Gumble's Yard (1961)
  • Hell's Edge (1963)
  • Widdershins Crescent (1965)
  • Written for Children – an Outline of English Children's Literature (1965)
  • The Hallersage Sound (1966)
  • Pirate's Island (1968)
  • The Intruder (1969)
  • Trouble in the Jungle (1969)
  • Goodbye to Gumble's Yard (1970)
  • A Sense of Story (1971) (Republished as A Sounding of Storytellers (1979)
  • The Summer People (1972)
  • Wish for Wings (1972)
  • Good-night, Prof, Love (1973)
  • Forest of the Night (1974)
  • Noah's Castle (1975)
  • Top of the World (1976)
  • The Xanadu Manuscript – aka The Visitors (1977)
  • Runaways (1979)
  • A Sounding of Storytellers (1979)
  • The Creatures - aka King Creature, Come (1980)
  • The Fortunate Isles (1981)
  • The Islanders (1981)
  • Kate and the Revolution (1982)
  • A Foreign Affair (1982)
  • Clever Dick: The Diary of a Dreadful Child (1982)
  • Dan Alone (1983)
  • Cloudy-Bright (1984)
  • Fame and Fortune (1984)
  • Gone to the Dogs (1984)
  • Tom Tiddler's Ground (1985)
  • The Persuading Stick (1986)
  • Downstream (1987)
  • Rob's Place (1987)
  • The Hidden Treasure (1988)
  • The Golden Journey (1989)
  • Cranford Revisited (1989)
  • Cheer and Groan (1989)
  • The Invaders (1992)
  • Sam and Jenny (1992)

References

  1. ↑ "Written for Children (1965): ...". Fantastic Fiction (fantasticfiction.co.uk). Retrieved 2014-03-27.
      Without change in title date (1965), the text concerns a "revised and updated edition", probably that of May 1996, perhaps with 2003 postscript ("Edition: 6 Sub" at Amazon).
  2. ↑ Hunt, Peter (1990). An Introduction to Children's Literature. Routledge. p. 57.
  3. ↑ Sutton, Roger (26 March 2014). "John Rowe Townsend". The Horn Book (hbook.com). Retrieved 2014-03-27.
  4. ↑ Stephanie Nettell. "John Rowe Townsend obituary". theguardian.com. Retrieved 2014-04-02.



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