Elizabeth Choate Spykman (b. Elizabeth Choate on July 17, 1896 in

Southborough, Massachusetts Southborough is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. It incorporates the villages of Cordaville, Fayville, and Southville. Its name is often informally shortened to Southboro, a usage seen on many area signs and maps, though ...

- d. August 7, 1965) was an American

author An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...

known primarily for her

children's books A child (plural, : children) is a human being between the stages of childbirth, birth and puberty, or between the Development of the human body, developmental period of infancy and puberty. The legal definition of ''child'' generally refers ...

. Choate married geostrategist and founder of the Department of International Studies at Yale University

Nicholas J. Spykman Nicholas John Spykman (pronounced "Speak-man", 13 October 1893 – 26 June 1943) was an American political scientist who was Professor of International Relations at Yale University from 1928 until his death in 1943. He was one of the founders o ...

(pronounced "Speak-man") in her mid-thirties, and had two daughters. In 1955, at the age of 59, she published her first children's book, ''A Lemon and a Star''. Her second, ''The Wild Angel'', was published in 1957. ''Terrible, Horrible Edie'' was published in 1960, and her final children's book, ''Edie on the Warpath'', was published posthumously in 1966. These four books are about the Cares children growing up in Summerton, Massachusetts in the 1910s. They are widely believed to be

autobiographical fiction An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life. It is a form of biography. Definition The word "autobiography" was first used deprecatingly by William Taylor in 1797 in the English peri ...

Virginia Haviland Virginia Haviland (May 21, 1911 – January 6, 1988) was an American librarian and writer who became an international authority in children's literature. She chaired the prestigious Newbery-Caldecott Award Committee, traveled and wrote extensivel ...

, writing in ''

The Horn Book ''The Horn Book Magazine'', founded in Boston in 1924, is the oldest bimonthly magazine dedicated to reviewing children's literature. It began as a "suggestive purchase list" prepared by Bertha Mahony Miller and Elinor Whitney Field, proprietres ...

'', said of ''A Lemon and a Star'', "A remarkable evocation of turn-of-the-century growing-up in a story with a strong feeling of particular family reminiscence and at the same time of universal childhood . . . Unusually well written." Spykman also wrote a history of the

Westover School The Westover School, often referred to simply as "Westover," is an independent college-preparatory day and boarding school for girls. Located in Middlebury, Connecticut, United States, the school offers grades 9–12. Early History Mary Hilla ...

in 1959.Spykman, Elizabeth Choate, ''Westover'', Middlebury, CT, 1959. In this, she wrote of the Westover School architecture, "the building was intentionally kept free from luxury as unsuited to school life and out of harmony with the atmosphere of the village, and the quiet refinement which goes with straightforward simplicity."

Early life

Elizabeth Choate Spykman was born on July 17, 1896 in Southborough, Massachusetts, the fourth of six children. Her father, Charles Francis Choate, Jr. was a prominent lawyer for leading Boston financial, communications, and railroad companies, as well as a regent for the Smithsonian Institute, with American roots stretching back to 1643. Amongst Spykman's prominent paternal ancestors are

Rufus Choate Rufus Choate (October 1, 1799July 13, 1859) was an American lawyer, orator, and Senator who represented Massachusetts as a member of the Whig Party. He is regarded as one of the greatest American lawyers of the 19th century, arguing over a th ...

, Helen Choate Bell, and uncles

Joseph Hodges Choate Joseph Hodges Choate (January 24, 1832 – May 14, 1917) was an American lawyer and diplomat. Choate was associated with many of the most famous litigations in American legal history, including the Kansas prohibition cases, the Chinese exclusi ...

and

William Gardner Choate William Gardner Choate (August 30, 1830 – November 14, 1920) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Education and career Choate was born in Salem, Massachusetts, the son o ...

. Her grandfather, Charles Francis Choate, Sr. was the lawyer and later director of a railroad company, as well as leader of various Boston financial institutions. Spykman's mother, Louise Burnett, was the 11th of 12 siblings, born in Southborough, Massachusetts, to

Joseph Burnett (educator) Joseph Burnett (1820–1894) was an American educator and businessman. Biography Burnett was born in Southborough, Massachusetts in November 1820 and died there in 1894. He was an innovator in the production of premium vanilla extract in the Unit ...

and Josephine Cutter. Spkyman's childhood home was on the western side of Southborough, an area largely occupied by the homes and properties of various Burnett relatives, with nearby reservoirs built in the 1890's to supply Boston with water, and was much like the setting of her novels.

References

1896 births 1965 deaths American children's writers People from Southborough, Massachusetts {{US-child-writer-stub