UPDATE: Other children's authors

Illustration from Hilda T. Skae's Adventue League

Well, if I haven't burnt you out on children's books yet with my series of six posts on girls' school authors recently added to the Overwhelming List, then here are a few more authors of children's fiction added at the same time who, as far as I know, did not ever write school stories.

Sadly, in many cases I have very little information about these authors and their books, so I can't promise that there are great lost treasures here (but there might be!).

I already mentioned CAROL FORREST in my recent post about my embarrassingly compulsive book shopping, and she has also already gone onto my updated War List. She was once incorrectly identified as a pseudonym of Catherine Christian, which you can read about here, and that same article provides a lot of other information about her books as well. Several of her books focus on Guiding, such as The Marigolds Make Good (1937) and Two Rebels and a Pilgrim (1941), the latter of which, about Guides who are fed up with Guiding, sounds like fun. But the one that broke down my resistance was The House of Simon (1942), an intriguing wartime tale of abandoned children making their own home. I have a copy of it on my shelf now, so it's just a matter of finding time for it!

JENNIE CHAPPELL, CATHERINE MARY MACSORLEY, and AMY WHIPPLE all came from Tina's wonderful bookstore pics, which I posted about last year—it just took me forever to finish the update which includes them. They all wrote children's fiction largely with religious themes, though I can't shed light on whether they were among the moralizing authors who tried to teach girls "proper" behavior or whether they were more lightly religious or spiritual in tone, like Elfrida Vipont, whose books I've been enjoying of late. I have to say they sound a bit more like the former than the latter… I also can't help wondering if there is any relationship between Amy and Dorothy Whipple? Just how common a name could Whipple have been? Dorothy's autobiography might shed light, but so far I've not got around to that.

BARBARA WILCOX could be as interesting for her books about farming and rural life as for her children's books, but little information is available about either. She also published cookbooks, so some of you might (?) have come across her.

Potentially of interest for its portrayal of class relations is HILDA T. SKAE's children's mystery, The Adventure League (1907), which is described as the tale of upper-class Scottish kids trying to prove that their working class friend didn't commit the crime. Happily, this one is available for free at Project Gutenberg. (And I just realized that Skae was from Tina's pics as well!)

So far ELSIE KATHLEEN SETH-SMITH is mainly of interest to me for the incredible length of her publishing career—more than 60 years between her first book and her last! But I wonder if some of her historical works might be worth following up on as well. Has anyone come across her?

It seems that PRISCILLA MARY WARNER was quite a successful children's author, though the title that kept coming up was If It Hadn't Been for Frances (1957), which I assume was her most reprinted work (judging from its relative availability). I wonder if any of you far-ranging readers have that one on your shelves?

It's a mixed bag, for sure, but let me know if you particularly recommend any of these authors for my TBR list (or, for that matter, if you specifically do not recommend any of them).

JENNIE CHAPPELL (1857-????) Prolific author of children's (and perhaps adult?) fiction from the 1870s to 1930s; titles include Oughts And Crosses (1886), Those Barrington Boys (1894), The Mystery of Marnie (1906), Holidays at Waverlea (1914), The Lost Doll (1920), and The Changeling (1926).

CAROL FORREST (dates unknown) (pseudonym of Margaret Tennyson) Once incorrectly identified as a pseudonym of Catherine Christian; author of several girls' stories focused on Guiding, such as The Marigolds Make Good (1937) and Two Rebels and a Pilgrim (1941); The House of Simon (1942) is an intriguing wartime tale of abandoned children making their own home.

MARGARET [MACFARLANE] HESKETH MACALPINE (1907-1995) (née Murray, aka Ann Carmichael) More research needed; author of at least three works of children's fiction—The Hand in the Bag (1959), The Black Gull of Corrie Lochan (1964), and Anra the Storm Child (1965)—about which I've found little information.

CATHERINE MARY MACSORLEY (1848-1929) Irish author of Christian-themed fiction for girls; titles include A Steep Road (1894), The Rectory Family (1910), The Road Through the Bog (1923), and The Children's Plan and What Came of it (1934).

ELSIE KATHLEEN SETH-SMITH (1883-1969) (married name Murrell) Biographer and author of historical novels from the 1900s to the late 1960s; historical novels include Friedhelm: A Story of the Fourth Crusade (1905) and Don Raimon (1919); children's titles include The Black Tower (1956), The Coal-Scuttle Bonnet (1958), and Jonah and the Cat (1967).

HILDA T. SKAE (dates unknown) More research needed; author of at least three children's tales, including The Adventure League (1907), a mystery about Scottish children trying to clear a working class friend of a crime, The Campbells of Argyll (1913), and The Haunted House (1930).

DOROTHY MARGARET STUART (1889-1963) (née Browne) Historian, biographer, poet, and novelist; works include early surveys such as The Boy Through the Ages (1926) and bios of Christina Rossetti and George VI, as well as later children's titles, including The Young Clavengers (1947), The Five Wishes (1950), and The Mysterious Mamma (1951).

PRISCILLA MARY WARNER (dates unknown) Children's author from the 1940s to 1960s; her best known title was If It Hadn't Been for Frances (1957); others include Embroidery Mary (1948), Tessie Growing Up (1952), Mr. and Mrs. Cherry (1953), A Friend for Frances (1956), and The Paradise Summer (1963).

AMY WHIPPLE (dates unknown) More research needed; children's author of the early 1900's to 1930's, much of it with religious themes; titles include The Children of the Crag (1913), Winning the Prize (1917), Two Pairs and an Old (1923), Dr. Appleby's Daughters (1925), and Purple-Splendour Island (1933).

GRACE I. WHITHAM (dates unknown) More research needed; author of historical fiction for children and perhaps fiction for adults as well; titles include Sir Sleep-Awake and His Brother (1908), The Nameless Prince (1912), The Guarded Room (1921), Stinging Nettles (1927), and When I Was a King (1937).

HILDA M. WICKSTEED (dates unknown) More research needed; author of three children's books—Titch: The Story of a Dog (1920), Titch & Jock (1922), and Jerry & Grandpa (1930)—as well as a biography of the Unitarian minister Charles Wicksteed (1933), presumably an ancestor.

BARBARA WILCOX (dates unknown) (married name Smith?) More research needed; author of four children's books of the 1940s—Bunty Brown: Probationer (1940), Bunty Brown's Bargain (1942), Bunty of the Flying Squad (1943), and Susan at Herron's Farm (1946)—as well as cookbooks and books about rural life with her future husband.