Elizabeth Yates

Elizabeth Yates McGreal (December 6, 1905 – July 29, 2001) was an American writer. She may have been known best for the biographical novel Amos Fortune, Free Man, winner of the 1951 Newbery Medal. She had been a Newbery runner-up in 1944 for Mountain Born. She began her writing career as a journalist, contributing travel articles to The Christian Science Monitor and The New York Times. Many of her books were illustrated by the British artist Nora S. Unwin.

Yates wrote a three-volume autobiography: My Diary – My World (1981), My Widening World (1983), and One Writer's Way (1984).

Biography

Elizabeth Yates was born in Buffalo, New York, the daughter of Harry and Mary Duffy Yates. She was the seventh of eight children. Her father was a farmer, and she developed a love of animals and nature due to her upbringing while her mother contributed to her love of literature and writing.

After her schooling was finished, she moved to Manhattan and began writing book reviews and newspaper articles. In 1929, she married William Henry and the couple moved to England, where they lived for the next 10 years.

The couple returned to the United States in 1939, and settled in Peterborough, New Hampshire. She also served as the Director of the New Hampshire Association for the Blind. Yates' novel, Amos Fortune, Free Man, received the Newbery Medal, the inaugural William Allen White Children's Book Award,

In the 1990s, the New Hampshire Association for the Blind began the William and Elizabeth Yates McGreal Society. Yates had been a previous President of the Board, while her husband was the Association's first Executive Director.

Notable works

Source:

High Holiday (1938) Climbing Higher (1939) Patterns on the Wall (1943) Mountain Born (1943) Amos Fortune, Free Man (1950) A Place for Peter (1952) Rainbow 'round the World: A Story of UNICEF (1954) Prudence Crandall, Woman of Courage (1955) Pebble in a Pool: The Widening Circles of Dorothy Canfield Fisher's Life (1958) The Lighted Heart (1960) Someday You'll Write (1962) Carolina's Courage (1964) Skeezer, Dog with a Mission (1973) My Diary—My World (1981) My Widening World (1983) One Writer's Way (1984)