Chris Van Allsburg's birthday

Today is the birthday of children's author and illustrator Chris Van Allsburg, (books by this author) born in Grand Rapids, Michigan (1949). He's the author of the children's books Jumanji (1981) and The Polar Express (1985).

J M Barrie's Birthday

Today is the birthday of the creator of Peter Pan and Wendy, J. M. (James Matthew) Barrie was born in Angus, Scotland on May 9, 1860. Barrie first wrote about Peter Pan in a book of children's stories called The Little White Bird (1902). Two years later, he produced the play Peter Pan, the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up (1904), which included the well-known story about Peter, Wendy and Captain Hook. Even though he'd produced many successful plays before, Barrie became obsessed with the production of Peter Pan. He rewrote the script more than twenty times. It was one of the most expensive productions ever attempted at that time, since it required the construction of harnesses and wires so that the actors could appear to fly around the stage.

Barrie's tale continues to inspire storytellers of all kinds, from Geraldine McCaughrean's Peter Pan in Scarlet and Johnny Depp's Finding Neverland.

Lewis Carroll's Birthday

Lewis Carroll was born on January 27, 1832 in Daresbury, North West England. Born Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, Lewis Carroll took orders in 1861 and lived all his adult life in Oxford, as a Lecturer in Mathematics and Logic at the University of Oxford. The character of Alice in his famous children's books is based on Mary Liddell, the daughter of the Dean of Christ Church College, for whom he invented Alice's
Adventures in Wonderland whilst on a boat trip on the River Thames. If you're interested in Alice's tales, you may be interested in The Annotated Alice: Definitive Edition with Tenniel's famous illustrations and annotations by Martin Gardner.

Author Birthdays

To my embarrassment, I forgot to check my list of author birthdays and have missed two recently, but have caught the third today ! Here there are, in chronological order:

Robert C O'Brien, author of (amongst others) Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH (Review), which won the 1972 Newbery Medal and was a childhood favourite of mine, was born on January 11, 1918.

I found out just too late in the day, yesterday, that Robert Cormier, author of The Chocolate War in 1974, which apparently became one of the fifty most frequently banned books in America's public libraries and schools in the 1990s, was born on January 17, 1928. I must confess I've never read The Chocolate War, but having learnt that fact about its banning, I'm curious to read it, just to find out why...

Finally, 18 January 1882 saw the birth of A A Milne, creator of Winnie the Pooh. I don't recall reading Winnie as a child, but somewhere I possess a copy of Winnie the Pooh: Complete Collection of Stories and Poems, which I read with great curiosity when I was in my 20s.

J R R Tolkien's birthday

I'm starting a new item on my Blog this year - I shall be commemorating (where I know them) the birthdays (and sadly death days) of various children's writers (and illustrators).

And today it's the birthday of John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, who was born in South Africa (1892). He was a professor of Philology, the study of the derivation of languages, at the University of Oxford. He was fluent in classical Greek and Latin, Old Norse, Old English, medieval Welsh and Anglo-Saxon, and an ancient form of German called Gothic, amongst other ancient European languages. He was so interested in the structure of language that he decided to invent an entire language of his own. He even invented a new alphabet to write in that language, and when he began writing The Lord of the Rings, he gave that new language to the Elves,
calling it "High Elvish." He later said, "I wrote Lord of the Rings to provide a world for the language. ... I should have preferred to write the entire book in Elvish." (Letters)