Alida Sims Malkus (September 19, 1888 – September 27, 1976) was an American writer of children's books, primarily nonfiction and historical novels "insubstantially tinged with fantasy". She was a Newbery Honor winner.

Biography

Born September 19, 1888, Malkus was the eleventh child out of thirteen living in

Bay City, Michigan Bay City is a city and county seat of Bay County in the U.S. state of Michigan, located near the base of the Saginaw Bay on Lake Huron. As of the 2010 census, the city's population was 34,932, and it is the principal city of the Bay City Metropol ...

, and spent most of her time swimming and riding horses for entertainment. During high school at the age of thirteen she wrote articles for the school newspaper, she also wrote plays and enjoyed putting on productions for her neighborhood friends. Two years later, her mother was not well and had to move to

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

. During her trip she fell deeply in love with the desert and decided to live in

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...

, where she spent a great deal of time with the Native Americans living in the region. This is where she developed her interest in Southwest Native Americans,

Mayan Mayan most commonly refers to: * Maya peoples, various indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica and northern Central America * Maya civilization, pre-Columbian culture of Mesoamerica and northern Central America * Mayan languages, language family spoken ...

ruins and other

pre-Columbian In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era spans from the original settlement of North and South America in the Upper Paleolithic period through European colonization, which began with Christopher Columbus's voyage of 1492. Usually, th ...

civilizations which inspired most of her books. ''The Dark Star of Itza: The Story of a Pagan Princess'' was one runner-up for the 1931

Newbery Medal The John Newbery Medal, frequently shortened to the Newbery, is a literary award given by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), to the author of "the most distinguished contr ...

Works

* '' The Dark Star of Itza: The Story of a Pagan Princess'', illustrated by Lowell Houser (1930) * ''The Spindle Imp and Other Tales of Maya Myth and Folk Lore'', illus. Erick Berry (1931), * ''Eastward Sweeps the Current: A Saga of the Polynesian Seafarers'' (1937) * ''The Silver Llama'' (1939) * ''The Citadel of a Hundred Stairways'' (1941) * ''Constancia Lona'' (1947) * ''The Story of Louis Pasteur'' (1952) * ''The Story of Good Queen Bess'' (1953) * ''We Were There at the Battle of Gettysburg'' (1955) * ''The Story of Winston Churchill'' (1957) * ''Young Inca Prince'' (1957) * ''The Sea and Its Rivers'' (1957) * ''Through the Wall'' (1962) * ''There Really Was a Hiawatha'' (1963) * ''Animals of the High Andes'' (1966) * ''The Story of Jacqueline Kennedy'' (1967) * ''The Amazon: River of Promise'' (1970)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Malkus, Alida 1888 births 1976 deaths American children's writers American young adult novelists Children's non-fiction writers Newbery Honor winners 20th-century American women writers 20th-century American novelists American women children's writers American women novelists Women writers of young adult literature Novelists from New York (state) People from Bay City, Michigan