Background

Elizabeth Yates was born on December 6, 1905, in Buffalo. She was a daughter of Harry and Mary (Duffy) Yates.

Education

In 1924, Elizabeth Yates graduated from Franklin School in Buffalo. Then she studied at an Oaksmere private school in Mamaroneck, near New York City.

Career

Elizabeth Yates began her writing career while living in Europe, where she wrote travel articles for American newspapers such as the New York Times. Her first book, High Holiday, a novel for adults, was published in 1938. Thereafter followed a prolific writing career.

In addition to writing, Yates served as a staff member for various writers' conferences, such as those at the University of Connecticut, the University of Indiana, and the University of New Hampshire, as a lecturer, and as the Director of the New Hampshire Association for the Blind.

Yates wrote more than twenty-one books for adults and children, including Mountain Born (1943), Patterns on the Wall (1943), A Place for Peter (1953), Prudence Crandall, Woman of Courage (1955), and Carolina's Courage (1964), as well as an autobiographical trilogy. Her most recent book, Open the Door (1999), includes prose and poetry selections.

Achievements

• Elizabeth Yates is best remembered as an author of children’s books. She earned great acclaim in 1950 with her children’s book Amos Fortune, Free Man, based on the true story of an African prince who becomes a slave in America and later gains his freedom. The book won a John Newbery Award in 1951. Yates also wrote over fifty other books.
  
  During her career, Yates received seven honorary degrees and many other literary awards.

Works

More photos

• audiobook

  • Nearby

    (This warm, inspiring story set in a rural New England vil...)

    1947

• book

  • Sound Friendships: The Story of Willa and Her Hearing Dog

    (Sound Friendships is the story of Willa Macy, who lost he...)

    1987
  • Pixie Folklore & Legends

    (A collection of Cornish folktales features the lore of th...)

    1995
  • American Haven

    (In American Haven, a historical fiction by Elizabeth Yate...)

    1941
  • Amos Fortune, Free Man

    (A Newbery Medal Winner When Amos Fortune was only fifteen...)

    1950
  • Sarah Whitcher's Story

    (Little Sarah wanders away from her family's cabin into th...)

    1971
  • The Journeyman

    (The Journeyman by award-winning author Elizabeth Yates is...)

    1990
  • Carolina's Courage

    (Carolina's Courage by award-winning author Elizabeth Yate...)

    1964
  • Mountain Born

    (A boy in a family of sheep farmers raises a black lamb to...)

    1943
  • The Next Fine Day

    (The Next Fine Day is historical fiction by award-winning ...)

    1962
  • High Holiday

    (A Story of the Swiss Alps for Boys and Girls.)

    1938
  • Climbing higher 1938
  • Hans and Frieda in the Swiss Mountains 1939
  • Around the year in Iceland 1942
  • Wind of Spring 1945
  • Brave Interval 1952
  • Pebble in a Pool: The Widening Circles of Dorothy Canfield Fisher's Life 1958
  • The Road Through Sandwich Notch 1973

Personality

Elizabeth Yates was active as an environmentalist. One of her books, ''The Road Through Sandwich Notch'' helped to discourage the development of that part of the White Mountains and to turn it into a national forest. She donated her Peterborough home, along with 45 acres of land, to the State of New Hampshire and the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests.

Connections

On November 6, 1929, Yates married William McGreal.

Father:

Harry Yates

(30 November 1869 - 1956)

Mother:

Mary (Duffy) Yates

Spouse:

William James McGreal

(29 July 1888 - December 1963)

References

• Contemporary Authors New Revision Series In response to the escalating need for up-to-date information on writers, Contemporary Authors New Revision Series (Volume 198) brings researchers the most recent data on the world's most popular authors.
  2010