Margot Benary-Isbert
Encyclopedia
Margot Benary-Isbert was a German-born children’s author known for her "depictions of humane, realistic characters."
, Germany. She attended the College St. Carolus and the University of Frankfurt. She worked as a secretary at the Museum of Ethnology and Anthropology
in Frankfurt, Germany from 1910–1917. She married Wilhelm Benary in 1917. They settled in Erfurt, living in an old family farm house in the country. While her husband attended to the family business, she raised Great Danes.
. In 1948 she wrote Die Arche Noah (The Ark). Post-war Germany became a common theme in most of her works.
In 1952 she moved to the United States
, where she worked as a writer until her death in 1979. She received American citizenship in 1957.
Benary-Isbert is known for her "depictions of humane, realistic characters". A reviewer for the Times Literary Supplement wrote that, "Benary's people are people; they are solid, real characters and their lives and their hopes and their sorrows matter to the reader." Her narratives are admired for being richly detailed and of a consistently high quality, perhaps higher than many other books in the same genre of the time.
Margot Benary-Isbert died on May 27, 1979, in Santa Barbara, California
.
Life in Germany
Benary-Isbert was born in SaarbrückenSaarbrücken
Saarbrücken is the capital of the state of Saarland in Germany. The city is situated at the heart of a metropolitan area that borders on the west on Dillingen and to the north-east on Neunkirchen, where most of the people of the Saarland live....
, Germany. She attended the College St. Carolus and the University of Frankfurt. She worked as a secretary at the Museum of Ethnology and Anthropology
Museum der Weltkulturen
The Museum of World Cultures is an ethnological museum in Frankfurt, Germany. Until 2001 it was called the Museum of Ethnology .-History:...
in Frankfurt, Germany from 1910–1917. She married Wilhelm Benary in 1917. They settled in Erfurt, living in an old family farm house in the country. While her husband attended to the family business, she raised Great Danes.
World War II
When the Russians took over Germany, she fled to the apartment of a friend in West GermanyWest Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
. In 1948 she wrote Die Arche Noah (The Ark). Post-war Germany became a common theme in most of her works.
In 1952 she moved to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, where she worked as a writer until her death in 1979. She received American citizenship in 1957.
Writing
Most of Benary-Isbert's books were written and published originally in German; some were later translated into English and published again.Benary-Isbert is known for her "depictions of humane, realistic characters". A reviewer for the Times Literary Supplement wrote that, "Benary's people are people; they are solid, real characters and their lives and their hopes and their sorrows matter to the reader." Her narratives are admired for being richly detailed and of a consistently high quality, perhaps higher than many other books in the same genre of the time.
Margot Benary-Isbert died on May 27, 1979, in Santa Barbara, California
Santa Barbara, California
Santa Barbara is the county seat of Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Situated on an east-west trending section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coast of the United States, the city lies between the steeply-rising Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean...
.
Awards
- First prize at the New York Herald Tribune's Spring Book Festival in 1953 for ‘’The Ark’’
- Jane Addams Children's Book Award from the Women's International League for Peace and FreedomWomen's International League for Peace and FreedomThe Women's International League for Peace and Freedom was established in the United States in January 1915 as the Woman's Peace Party...
in 1957 for ‘’Annegret und Cara’’
Works (English titles)
- Rowan Farm (1954)
- The Ark (1953)
- The Long Way Home (1959)
- Blue Mystery (1957)
- Dangerous Spring (1961)
- Under a Changing Moon (1964)
- These Vintage Years (1968)
- Castle On the Border (1956)
- The Wicked Enchantment (1955)
- A Time To Love (1962)
- The Shooting Star (1954)