Elizabeth George Speare

Born in Massachusetts on November 21, 1908, Elizabeth George loved to read and tell stories from a very young age. As she grew older, among the rich history of New England, she also gained a great knowledge and passion for the past, but it would not be until she had married Alden Speare in 1936, move to Connecticut and raise two children into their teen years that Speare would finally begin to bring her two passions together into writing. Her first works actually had nothing to do with history, but of home and family life in the form of articles in newspapers and magazines. Once, she felt a sense of confidence in her abilities, Speare began to consider writing something larger. Around this time Speare stumbled upon a true story from New England history about a fascinating woman, who she believed would make the perfect heroine for a historical novel. And so the story of The Witch of Blackbird Pond was born! From the first accidental premise, Speare developed a complex story plot and in depth characters appropriate for any audience.

She believed the novel to be quite an accomplishment for a housewife and accidental writer and apparently many others did as well. In 1959, Speare won the Newbery Medal for The Witch of Blackbird Pond and later in 1962, won another for her next novel, The Bronze Bow. Speare also won a Newbery Honor Award in 1983 and the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award in 1989. With all of these amazing accomplishments under her belt, her story is quite amazing to me. It just proves that, unfortunately for all those with fancy degrees in this area, talent in writing is really something that a fortunate few are just simply born with and comes naturally to them. Elizabeth George Speare is just such a person and is a great role model for many people that may not have much experience now in writing, but have wonderful ideas, for any sort of writing, to get their imaginations in gear and create something!

Information gathered from the following websites:
http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/catalog/authordetail.cfm?authorID=4099
http://www.edupaperback.org/showauth.cfm?authid=85
http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/speare.htm