Collection is open for researchers with no restrictions. Registration with the collection is required.
This collection is protected by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U.S. Code). It is the user's responsibility to verify copyright ownership and to obtain all necessary permissions prior to the reproduction, publication, or other use of any portion of these materials.
This collection was processed with financial assistance from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Elizabeth Jane Coatsworth was born May 31, 1893 in Buffalo, New York. She graduated from Vassar College in 1915, and received a M.A. from Columbia University in 1916. During her childhood and after college, she traveled all over the world. She was in England at the outbreak of World War I, and in 1916-1918 spent thirteen months traveling throughout the Orient. Her love of travel and first-hand knowledge of many different countries would play a role in the creation of many of her books and poems.
Coatsworth began
writing poetry in 1914 and published many poems in magazines, and in 1923
published her first book
For the next forty-five years, Coatsworth continued to write for juveniles and adults, poetry and fiction, as well as some non-fiction. She wrote both historical and contemporary fiction for children and showed a special understanding of the problems a lonely or "different" child can experience in trying to "cope" with life's challenges. She was noted for her ability to be both "storyteller and lyricist" and for her "detailed description and vivid sensory impressions." Her historical fiction has also been cited by critics for its accuracy and strong sense of time and place. She wrote to "instruct" children, but as critics note she was never "pedantic" or lost her respect for them and the value of "commonsense."
Elizabeth Coatsworth received the 1975 Kerlan Award for her contribution to children's literature. She died in Nobleboro, Maine on August 31, 1986.
Elizabeth Jane Coatsworth's papers focus on her work as an author of children's books. The collection contains production material for fifty-three titles, including her autobiography, published between 1930 and 1976. The collection also contains production material for stories and poems published in magazines, as well as unpublished stories, poems, and books. Production material includes holographs, typescripts and carbon typescripts, notes and research material, proofs and dummies. The collection contains a substantial amount of business and personal correspondence to and from Coatsworth, with some to her husband, the author Henry Beston. The collection also contains journals kept by Coatsworth during her travels (many containing poems later published), as well as journals containing stories and other material, scrapbooks, photograph albums, and miscellaneous material.
The collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the University of Minnesota Libraries. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should search the catalog using these headings.
Part of this collection was originally given to Dr. Irvin Kerlan, who in turn donated his collection to the University of Minnesota. Additional material was given to and/or placed on permanent loan by Elizabeth Jane Coatsworth from 1964-1978, with additional material given by her estate in 1987.
Gift of:
Albums of biographical photographs,
All-of-a-Sudden Susan, 1974
American Adventures, 1968
Atlantic Monthly (magazine),
Aunt Flora, 1953
Autobiographical material: Essay,
Autobiographical material: Autobiography,
Autobiographical material: Essay on Writing Newbery Award Winner "The Cat Who Went to Heaven",
Bess and the Sphinx, 1967
Bob Bodden and the Good Ship "Rover", 1968
Bob Bodden and the Seagoing Farm, 1970
Boston Bells, 1952
Cat and the Captain, 1974
Cat Who Went to Heaven, 1958
Cave, The, 1958
Cherry Ann and the Dragon Horse, 1955
Children Came Running, 1960
Christian Science Monitor (newspaper),
Christmas Doll (unpublished),
Correspondence (to and from Coatsworth),
Cricket (magazine): "The Joker", November 1973
Daniel Webster's Horses,
Daisy, 1973
Cricket and the Emperor's Son, 1932
Desert Dan, 1960
Dey of Algiers (unpublished),
Dial, The (magazine): "The End of the World", June 1928
Dog from Nowhere, 1958
Dollar for Luck, 1951
Do-Without Box (unpublished),
Down Half the World, 1968
Down Tumbledown Mountain, 1958
Enchanted: An Incredible Tale, 1951
Fair American, 1940
Fox Friend, 1966
George and Red, 1969
Giant Golden Book of Cat Stories, 1953
Giant Golden Book of Dog Stories, 1953
Giant Golden Book of Dogs, Cats, and Horses: 61 Stories and Poems, 1957
Grandmother Cat and the Hermit, 1970
Hand of Apollo, 1967
Her Life with Henry Beston,
Heron Who Lost His Tail Feathers (unpublished),
Hidden House (unpublished),
Horses: Rhymes and Prose Poems (unpublished),
Indian Encounters: An Anthology of Stories and Poems, 1960
Indian Mound Farm, 1969
Jock's Island, 1963
Jon the Unlucky, 1964
Jon the Unlucky in Discoveries (Scott Foresman textbook),
Kite and the Wind, 1966
Last Fort: A Story of the French Voyageurs, 1953
Lighthouse Island, 1968
Little Haymakers, 1949
Lonely Maria, 1960
Lucky Ones: Five Journeys Toward a Home, 1968
Man Who Was Fond of Pictures (unpublished),
Millie and Spook (unpublished),
Miscellaneous,
Miscellaneous - Journal Pages/Notes,
Miscellaneous - Journals (ca. 1907-1970s),
Miscellaneous - Poetry Notebook,
Miscellaneous - Press Clippings,
Miscellaneous - Scrapbooks,
Miscellaneous -- Writings,
My Weekly Reader [magazine],
New Republic [magazine],
Noble Doll, 1961
Notes for a Midwestern Family (unpublished),
Old Whirlwind: A Story of Davy Crockett, 1953
Peddler's Cart, 1956
Personal Geography: Almost an Autobiography, 1976
Place, The, 1965
Poems (not verified as published),
Poems (unpublished),
Poetry,
Portrait of Nag's Head (unpublished),
Pure Magic, 1973
Riverboat (unpublished),
Ronnie and the Chief's Son, 1962
Runaway Home, 1963
St. Nicholas (magazine): "Kevin and the Mermaid", July 1933
Scarecrow and the King (unpublished),
Scarlet Jacket (unpublished),
Secrets of the Hidden House (unpublished),
Snow Parlor, and Other Bedtime Stories, 1971
Sod House, 1954
Sparrow Bush: Rhymes, 1966
Stolen Goods (unpublished),
Stories for Adults (unable to verify if published),
Stories (not able to verify when or where published),
Stories (not verified as published),
Stories (unpublished),
Story (magazine): "The visit", October 1935
Tales for the Chinese Emperor (not verified as published),
Tales from the Bible and Two Saints (unpublished),
They Walk in the Night, 1969
Travel Notes in Mississippi (unpublished),
Troll Weather, 1967
Village of Witches (unpublished),
Wanderers, 1972
White Room, 1958
Yale Review (magazine): "Bremen's", September 1948
You Say You Saw a Camel?, 1958
Scrapbook of clippings, published works, misc.,
New York: Macmillan, 1974
New York: Macmillan, 1968
New York: Macmillan, 1953
New York: Macmillan, 1967
Champaign, Ill.: Garrard Pub. Co. , 1968
Champaign, IL: Garrard Pub. Co., 1970
New York: Macmillan, 1952
New York: Macmillan, 1974
Ward, Lynd
New York: Macmillan, 1958
New York: Viking Press, 1958
New York: Macmillan, 1955
New York: Golden Press, 1960
New York : Macmillan, 1973
New York: Macmillan, 1932
New York: Viking, 1960
Evanston, Ill: Row, Peterson, 1958
Eau Claire, Wisc.: E,.M. Hale, 1951
New York: Macmillan, 1968
Evanston, Ill.: Row, Peterson , 1958
New York: Pantheon, 1951
New York: Macmillan, 1940
New York: Macmillan, 1966
New York: Macmillan, 1969
New York: Simon & Schuster, 1953
New York: Simon and Schuster, 1953
New York: Simon and Schuster, 1957
New York: Macmillan, 1970
Kingswood Surrey:: World's Work, 1967
New York: Macmillan, 1960
New York: Macmillan, 1969
New York: Viking, 1963
New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1964
W.W. Gage, 1966
London: Hamish Hamilton, 1953
New York: W.W. Norton, 1968
New York: Macmillan, 1949
New York: Pantheon Books, 1960
New York: Macmillan, 1968
New York: Viking, 1961
New York: Macmillan, 1953
New York: Macmillan, 1956
Brattleboro, Vt.: S. Greene Press, 1976
New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1965
New York: Macmillan, 1973
New York: Macmillan, 1962
Evanston, Ill.: Harper & Row, 1963
New York: Grosset & Dunlap , 1971
New York: Macmillan, 1954
New York: Norton, 1966
New York: Norton, 1969
New York: Macmillan, 1967
New York: Four Winds Press, 1972
New York: Pantheon Books, 1958
Evanston, Ill: Row, Peterson, 1958