Ruth Sawyer (1880 - 1970)

Genre: Children's Literature

Ruth Sawyer (nee Ruth Durand) was born in Boston on 5 August 1880 and raised in New York but summered in Maine and eventually moved to Hancock, Maine, where she died on 3 June 1970 after a long and prolific writing career. She studied folklore and storytelling a Columbia University (B.S. 1904), and began the first storytelling program for children at the New York Public Library. Sawyer married physician Albert Durand, and their daughter Margaret (Peggy) married Robert McCloskey.

Sawyer's most common story was a folktale retelling or a Christmas story. She won the Newbery Medal in 1937 for her book Roller Skates and was awarded the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal in 1965 for her contribution to children's literature. In addition to the children's books below, Sawyer also wrote The Way of the Storyteller (1942/1976), a handbook for storytellers.

Sawyer's books include:

• The Primrose Ring (1915; ill. Fanny Munsell)
• Seven Miles to Arden (1916)
• This Way To Christmas (1916/1952; ill. Maginel W. Barney)
• Doctor Danny (1918; ill. J. Scott Williams)
• Leerie (1920; ill. Clinton Balmer)
• Folkhouse: The Autobiography of a Home (1932)
• Roller Skates (1936/1995; ill. Valenti Angelo; Newbery winner)
• Gallant: The Story of Storm Veblen (1936)
• The Year of Jubilo (1940; ill. Edward Shenton)
• The Least One (1941; ill. Leo Politi)
• The Long Christmas (1941; ill. Valenti Angelo)
• This is the Christmas, a Serbian Folktale (1945)
• Old Con and Patrick (1946; ill. Cathal O'Toole)
• The Christmas Anna Angel (1949; ill. Kate Seredy)
• The Little Red Horse (1950; ill. Jay H. Barnum)
• The Gold of Bernardino (1952)
• Maggie Rose, Her Birthday Christmas (1952; ill. Maurice Sendak)
• Journey Cake, Ho! (1953/1982; ill. Robert McCloskey)
• A Cottage For Betsy (1954; ill. Vera Bock)
• The Enchanted Schoolhouse (1956; ill. Hugh Troy)
• The Year of the Christmas Dragon (1960; ill. Hugh Troy)
• Dietrick of Berne and the Dwarf King Laurin (1963)
• Daddles, the Story of a Plain Hound-Dog (1964; ill. Robert Frankenberg)
• Joy to the World: Christmas Legends (1966/1969; ill. Trina S. Hyman)
• My Spain: A Storyteller's Year of Collecting (1967)
• The Remarkable Christmas of the Cobbler's Sons (1994; told by Ruth Sawyer, ill. Barbara Cooney)

The College of St. Catherine Libraries (MN) maintains an archive of some of Ruth Sawyer's books, letters, manuscripts, recordings, etc.


Last Update: 07/30/2007

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