E. C. Spykman
Encyclopedia
Elizabeth Choate Spykman (b. Elizabeth Choate on July 17, 1896 in Southboro, Massachusetts - d. 1965) was an American
author
known primarily for her children's books
.
Choate married geostrategist and founder of the Department of International Studies at Yale University Nicholas J. Spykman
in her mid-thirties, and had two daughters. In 1955, at the age of 59, she published her first children's book, A Lemon and a Star. Her second, The Wild Angel, was published in 1957. Terrible, Horrible Edie was published in 1960, and her final children's book, Edie on the Warpath, was published posthumously in 1966.
These four books are about the Cares children growing up in Summerton, Massachusetts in the 1910s. They are widely believed to be autobiographical fiction. Virginia Haviland
, writing in The Horn Book
, said of A Lemon and a Star, "A remarkable evocation of turn-of-the-century growing-up in a story with a strong feeling of particular family reminiscence and at the same time of universal childhood . . . Unusually well written."
Spykman also wrote a history of the Westover School in 1959. In this, she wrote of the Westover School architecture, "the building was intentionally kept free from luxury as unsuited to school life and out of harmony with the atmosphere of the village, and the quiet refinement which goes with straightforward simplicity."
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
known primarily for her children's books
Children's literature
Children's literature is for readers and listeners up to about age twelve; it is often defined in four different ways: books written by children, books written for children, books chosen by children, or books chosen for children. It is often illustrated. The term is used in senses which sometimes...
.
Choate married geostrategist and founder of the Department of International Studies at Yale University Nicholas J. Spykman
Nicholas J. Spykman
Nicholas John Spykman was a Dutch-American geostrategist, known as the "godfather of containment." As a political scientist he was one of the founders of the classical realist school in American foreign policy, transmitting Eastern European political thought into the United States...
in her mid-thirties, and had two daughters. In 1955, at the age of 59, she published her first children's book, A Lemon and a Star. Her second, The Wild Angel, was published in 1957. Terrible, Horrible Edie was published in 1960, and her final children's book, Edie on the Warpath, was published posthumously in 1966.
These four books are about the Cares children growing up in Summerton, Massachusetts in the 1910s. They are widely believed to be autobiographical fiction. Virginia Haviland
Virginia Haviland
Virginia Haviland was an authority in children's literature and specialized in fairy tales. She is best known for her Favorite Fairy Tales series, featuring 16 countries....
, writing in The Horn Book
Horn Book Magazine
The Horn Book Magazine, founded in Boston in 1924, is a bimonthly periodical about literature for children and young adults. It began life as a "suggestive purchase list" prepared by Bertha Mahony Miller and Elinor Whitney Field, proprietresses of the country's first bookstore for children, The...
, said of A Lemon and a Star, "A remarkable evocation of turn-of-the-century growing-up in a story with a strong feeling of particular family reminiscence and at the same time of universal childhood . . . Unusually well written."
Spykman also wrote a history of the Westover School in 1959. In this, she wrote of the Westover School architecture, "the building was intentionally kept free from luxury as unsuited to school life and out of harmony with the atmosphere of the village, and the quiet refinement which goes with straightforward simplicity."