Naomi Lewis was a British poet, essayist, literary critic, anthologist and reteller of stories for children. She is particularly noted for her translations of the Danish children's author, Hans Christian Andersen

Hans Christian Andersen

Hans Christian Andersen was a Danish author, fairy tale writer, and poet noted for his children's stories. These include "The Steadfast Tin Soldier," "The Snow Queen," "The Little Mermaid," "Thumbelina," "The Little Match Girl," and "The Ugly Duckling."...

, as well as for her critical reviews and essays.

Born in Great Yarmouth

Great Yarmouth

Great Yarmouth, often known to locals as Yarmouth, is a coastal town in Norfolk, England. It is at the mouth of the River Yare, east of Norwich.It has been a seaside resort since 1760, and is the gateway from the Norfolk Broads to the sea...

 to a Latvian Jewish father who was a herring exporter, she was the second of four siblings. Her mother was a talented artist and musician. Due to the antisemitism of the 1930s, the family took the mother's surname, Lewis. They moved to London's Red Lion Square in 1935, into the block of flats in which Naomi was to reside until her death. Having studied at the local Great Yarmouth High School

Great Yarmouth High School

Great Yarmouth VA High School is a coeducational comprehensive school on Salisbury Road in the town of Great Yarmouth in the English county of Norfolk. It educates about 1000 11 to 16 year old pupils, the age of entry having decreased from twelve to eleven in 2008. The school does not have a sixth...

, Naomi then went on to win a scholarship to read English at Westfield College

Westfield College

Westfield College was a small college situated in Kidderpore Avenue, Hampstead, London, and was a constituent college of the University of London from 1882 to 1989. The college originally admitted only women as students and became coeducational in 1964. In 1989, Westfield College merged with Queen...

, University of London

University of London

-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...

.

Following a number of jobs working as a teacher and a copywriter, she started her career as a writer after the Second World War by entering the weekly competitions run by the New Statesman

New Statesman

New Statesman is a British centre-left political and cultural magazine published weekly in London. Founded in 1913, and connected with leading members of the Fabian Society, the magazine reached a circulation peak in the late 1960s....

. Quickly noticed by her contemporaries as an intelligent and insightful critic, she went on to produce regular articles for the New Statesman, as well as for The Observer

The Observer

The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...

, The Times Literary Supplement

The Times Literary Supplement

The Times Literary Supplement is a weekly literary review published in London by News International, a subsidiary of News Corporation.-History:...

, the New York Times and the Listener. Her first published work, A Visit to Mrs. Wilcox (1957) included a selection of these articles and won immediate acclaim, becoming a Book Society recommendation.

Over the sixty years of her literary career, Naomi Lewis produced a vast number of works; as a reviewer, an anthologist and as a poet in her own right. Notable amongst these was A Footprint on the Air (1983) an anthology of nature verse named after her own poem and Messages (1985), a celebrated collection of poetry which included three of her own original poems: The Wolf said to Francis (under the pseudonym A. G. Rochelle), Counsel and Creatures of Early Morning. In 2000, Messages was chosen by the U.K's first Children's Laureate, Quentin Blake

Quentin Blake

Quentin Saxby Blake, CBE, FCSD, RDI, is an English cartoonist, illustrator and children's author, well-known for his collaborations with writer Roald Dahl.-Education:...

, as one of his fifty favourite books (The Laureate's Party, Random House). Naomi herself was particularly fond of the 1993 publication The Mardi Gras Cat, in which she presented a carefully selected gallery of feline personalities, each immortalised in poetry.

Naomi Lewis taught poetry appreciation and creative writing at London's City Literary Institute for many years, and due to popular demand went on doing so well past the official age of retirement. Some of the poems produced in that class were included in Messages, alongside lifelong favourites Robert Browning

Robert Browning

Robert Browning was an English poet and playwright whose mastery of dramatic verse, especially dramatic monologues, made him one of the foremost Victorian poets.-Early years:...

, Stevie Smith

Stevie Smith

Florence Margaret Smith, known as Stevie Smith was an English poet and novelist.-Life:Stevie Smith, born Florence Margaret Smith in Kingston upon Hull, was the second daughter of Ethel and Charles Smith. Contemporary Women Poets...

 and Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson

Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was an American poet. Born in Amherst, Massachusetts, to a successful family with strong community ties, she lived a mostly introverted and reclusive life...

. She also lectured periodically at the South Place Ethical Society

South Place Ethical Society

The South Place Ethical Society, based in London at Conway Hall, is thought to be the oldest surviving freethought organisation in the world, and is the only remaining Ethical society in the United Kingdom...

, where she was a long-time member. Among the various subjects were talks on her favourite children's authors Hans Christian Andersen

Hans Christian Andersen

Hans Christian Andersen was a Danish author, fairy tale writer, and poet noted for his children's stories. These include "The Steadfast Tin Soldier," "The Snow Queen," "The Little Mermaid," "Thumbelina," "The Little Match Girl," and "The Ugly Duckling."...

 and Andrew Lang

Andrew Lang

Andrew Lang was a Scots poet, novelist, literary critic, and contributor to the field of anthropology. He is best known as a collector of folk and fairy tales. The Andrew Lang lectures at the University of St Andrews are named after him.- Biography :Lang was born in Selkirk...

 and the Italian author and holocaust survivor Primo Levi

Primo Levi

Primo Michele Levi was an Italian Jewish chemist and writer. He was the author of two novels and several collections of short stories, essays, and poems, but is best known for If This Is a Man, his account of the year he spent as a prisoner in the Auschwitz concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Poland...

, whose work she championed from its first publication in the UK.

In her private life, Lewis was a vegan and a committed animal rights defender. Opposed to all forms of animal mistreatment, she once complained in a letter to the Evening Standard

Evening Standard

The Evening Standard, now styled the London Evening Standard, is a free local daily newspaper, published Monday–Friday in tabloid format in London. It is the dominant regional evening paper for London and the surrounding area, with coverage of national and international news and City of London...

, "What moral right have humans to lay on sensitive creatures the sufferings of their own vanity, greed and cowardice, and a host of various sins?" Due to her habit of rescuing stray cats and injured pigeons around her Bloomsbury neighbourhood she was featured on the BBC programme London Identities and made the subject of a national newspaper article.

Naomi Lewis was honoured with the Eleanor Farjeon Award

Eleanor Farjeon Award

The Eleanor Farjeon Award is made for distinguished service to the world of British children’s books and is given to someone whose commitment and contribution is deemed to be outstanding. Founded in 1966, it is presented annually in memory of the celebrated author Eleanor Farjeon...

 for services to children’s literature in 1975 and by her election as Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature

Royal Society of Literature

The Royal Society of Literature is the "senior literary organisation in Britain". It was founded in 1820 by George IV, in order to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". The Society's first president was Thomas Burgess, who later became the Bishop of Salisbury...

in 1981.

As an author

• A Visit to Mrs. Wilcox (for adults; essays), Cresset Press (London, England), 1957.
• The Butterfly Collector (Author of verse text), illustrated by Fulvio Testa, Anderson (London, England), 1978, Prentice-Hall (New York, NY), 1979.
• Leaves (Author of verse text), illustrated by Fulvio Testa, Andersen (London, England), 1980, Peter Bedrick (New York, NY), 1983.
• Once upon a Rainbow, illustrated by Gabriele Eichenauer, Cape (London, England), 1981.
• Come with Us (poems), illustrations by Leo Lionni, Andersen (London, England), 1982.
• Marco Polo and Wellington: Search for Solomon (With Janice Thompson), Cape (London, England), 1982.
• Puffin (With Deborah King), Cape (London, England), Lothrop (New York, NY), 1984.
• Swan (With Deborah King), Cape (London, England), Lothrop (New York, NY), 1985.
• A School Bewitched (based on Edith Nesbit's Fortunatus Rex, or The Mystery of the Disappearing Schoolgirls), illustrated by Errol Le Cain, Blackie (London, England), 1985.
• The Stepsister, illustrated by Allison Reed, Hutchinson (London, England), Dial Books (New York, NY), 1987.
• Johnny Longnose (With James Kruess) (picture book with poetry by Lewis), illustrated by Stasys Eidrigevicius, North-South Books (New York, NY), 1989.
• The Mardi Gras Cat (poetry), Heinemann (London, England), 1993.

Works retold by Naomi Lewis

• The Three Golden Hairs: A Story from the Brothers Grimm, illustrated by Francoise Tresy, Hutchinson (London, England), 1983.
• Jutta Ash, Jorinda and Joringel (based on Jorinde und Joringel by the Brothers Grimm), Andersen (London, England), 1984.
• Stories from the Arabian Nights (and author of introduction), illustrated by Anton Pieck, Methuen (London, England), Holt (New York,NY), 1987.
• Cry Wolf and Other Aesop Fables, illustrated by Barry Castle, Methuen (London, England), Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1988.

Works translated by Naomi Lewis

• South from the Red Sea by Haroun Tazieff, Lutterworth Press (London, England), 1956.
• Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales (and author of notes and introduction) Hans Christian Andersen, illustrated by Philip Gough, Puffin (London, England), 1981.
• Hans Christian Andersen, The Wild Swans, illustrated by Angela Barrett, E. Benn (London, England), Peter Bedrick (New York, NY), 1984.
• The Flying Trunk and Other Stories from Hans Andersen, Andersen (London, England), Prentice-Hall (New York, NY), 1986.
• My Magic Cloth: A Story for a Whole Week by Heide Helene Beisert, illustrated by Beisert, North-South Books (London, England, and New York, NY), 1986.
• Wedding Birds by Jutta Ash, (adapted from a traditional German song), Andersen (London, England), 1986.
• Hans Christian Andersen, The Swineherd, illustrated by Dorothee Duntze, North-South Books (New York, NY), 1987.
• Hans Christian Andersen, The Snow Queen (and author of introduction), illustrated by Angela Barrett, Holt (New York, NY), 1988.
• Proud Knight, Fair Lady: The Twelve Lais of Marie de France (and author of introduction), illustrated by Angela Barrett, Viking (New York, NY), 1989.
• The Frog Prince, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, illustrated by Binette Schroeder, North-South Books (New York, NY), 1989.
• The Tale of the Vanishing Rainbow by Siegfried P. Rupprecht, illustrated by Jozef Wilkon, North-South Books (New York, NY), 1989.
• Hans Christian Andersen, The Nightingale (and author of introduction) illustrated by Josef Palecek, North-South Books (New York, NY), 1990.
• Three Kings by Kurt Baumann, illustrated by Ivan Gantschev, North-South Books (New York, NY), 1990.
• Hans Christian Andersen, Thumbelina, North-South Books (New York, NY), 1990.
• Hans Christian Andersen, The Steadfast Tin Soldier, illustrated by P. J. Lynch, Andersen (London, England), 1991, Harcourt (San Diego, CA), 1992.
• The Hungry One: A Poem by Kurt Baumann, illustrated by Stasys Eidrigevicius, North-South Books (New York, NY), 1993.
• Puss in Boots by Charles Perrault, illustrated by Stasys Eidrigevicius, North-South Books (New York, NY), 1994.
• Hans Christian Andersen, The Emperor's New Clothes (and author of introduction), illustrated by Angela Barrett, Walker (London, England), Candlewick Press (Cambridge, MA), 1997.
• Elf Hill: Tales from Hans Christian Andersen, illustrated by Emma Chichester Clark, Frances Lincoln (London, England), 1999.
• Hans Christian Andersen, The Snow Queen, illustrated by Christian Birmingham, Walker Books (London, England), 2007.
• Hans Christian Andersen, The Little Mermaid, illustrated by Christian Birmingham, Walker Books (London, England), 2009.

Works anthologised by Naomi Lewis

• Christina Rossetti (poems) (and author of introduction), E. Hulton (London, England), 1959.
• The Best Children's Books of . . ., six annual volumes, Hamish Hamilton (London, England), 1963-69.
• Emily Bronte, A Peculiar Music (poems), (and annotator and author of introduction) Bodley Head (London, England), Macmillan (New York, NY), 1971.
• Fantasy Books for Children (short essays on over two hundred books)(and annotator), National Book League (London, England), 1975, new edition, 1977.
• Edith Nesbit, Fairy Stories (and author of introduction and notes), illustrated by Brian Robb, E. Benn (London, England), 1977.
• The Silent Playmate (and author of notes and introduction) (collection of doll stories), illustrated by Harold Jones, Gollancz (London, England), 1979, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1981.
• A Footprint on the Air: An Anthology of Nature Verse (compiler and contributor), illustrated by Liz Graham-Yool, Hutchinson (London, England), 1983.
• Messages: A Book of Poems(Contributor and author of essay), Faber & Faber (London, England), 1985.
• Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Grimms' Fairy Tales, illustrated by Lidia Postma, Hutchinson (London, England), 1985, published as The Twelve Dancing Princesses and Other Tales from Grimm, Dial Books (New York, NY), 1986.
• William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream, illustrated by Sylvie Monti, Hutchinson (London, England), 1988.
• Classic Fairy Tales to Read Aloud (Author of introductory accounts of each story), illustrated by Jo Worth, Kingfisher (New York, NY), 1996.
• Rocking Horse Land and Other Classic Tales of Dolls and Toys, illustrated by Angela Barrett, Candlewick Press (Cambridge, MA), 2000.

Essays by Naomi Lewis

• Twentieth-Century Children's Writers, St. James Press (New York, NY), 4 volumes starting 1978.

Introductions by Naomi Lewis

• King Arthur by Henry Gilbert, Robin Hood, by Louis Rhead, and eight other books in the 'Henry Holt Little Classics' series.
• The Eleanor Farjeon Book: A Tribute to her Life and Work, 1881-1965, illustrated by Edward Ardizzone. Hamish Hamilton 1966.
• East o' the Sun and West o' the Moon, translated by George W. Dasent, illustrated by P. J. Lynch, Candlewick Press (Cambridge, MA), 1995.
• The Fairy Tale of My Life by Hans Christian Andersen, Cooper Square Press, 2000.