Eleanor Noyes Johnson (1909 - 2004)

Genre: Children's Literature

Lorna, as she is known by her family and close friends, was a native of Newburyport, Massachusetts. She was a 1932 University of New Hampshire graduate, had a master's degree from New York University, and taught for many years (1959-1974) at the former Westbrook Junior College (now the Portland campus for the University of New England.) The Maine Women Writers Collection at UNE houses an Eleanor Noyes Johnson Collection (1956-1991; 22 folders), with manuscripts, correspondence, and clippings. Johnson also taught for 10 years at Stephans College in Missouri and for 4 years at Oldsfield School in Washington.

Her books, all juvenile titles, are: Mountaintop Summer (1959), a story of a professor's family with lots of ideas and little money who make a deserted cabin in the Colorado mountains their summer home and a place for their father to recuperate; Buffington Castle (1962); Armitage Hall (1965), the story of a girl at boarding school, who spends much time with a favorite horse; King Alfred the Great (1966), a biography for young people on the life of the English King Alfred; Mrs. Perley's People (1970), an amusing story of an eccentric woman, Helen Mewer Perley, who operates an unusual animal farm in Maine; Pirate, The Lighthouse Cat (1986); Whistle Him In: The Story of a Maine Seal (1985); and The Wishing Year (1997), the story of a 10-year-old girl growing up in 1920s Newburyport, Mass. She was also an accomplished artist in oils and pastels.


Last Update: 06/04/2007

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