Elizabeth Foreman Lewis (May 24, 1892 – August 7, 1958) was an American children's writer. She received the

Newbery Award 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 ...

and the

Lewis Carroll Shelf Award The Lewis Carroll Shelf Award was an American literary award conferred on several books annually by the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Education annually from 1958 to 1979. Award-winning books were deemed to "belong on the same shelf" ...

Early years and education

Elizabeth Foreman was born in

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

, May 24, 1892. She studied art at the Maryland Institute of Fine Arts from 1909–1910. Of that time, she has said,

My sister and I grew up in a world of books, country life, horses, dogs, and a variety of other pets, a background threaded by colorful strands of wit, hearty laughter, singing, hospitality, and naturally in Maryland, good food. Our chief instruction, beside that of school and church, came from the proverbs in the home. Sometimes I think these brief, pungent expressions of man's age-old wisdom have had more influence than anything else in shaping my life. When editors and secretaries weary of my endless re-writing, they do not guess that I am still at the mercy of ten words which accompanied every girlhood task: 'If worth doing at all, it is worth doing well!'''Newbery Medal Books: 1922–1955'', eds. Bertha Mahony Miller, Elinor Whitney Field, Horn Book, 1955, LOC 55-13968, p.109

She attended a secretarial school in Baltimore from 1916–1917, preparatory to travel to

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

for the Methodist Women's Board. Later in 1917, she received religious instruction at the Bible Seminary in New York.

Career

After her education, Foreman became a

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...

and teacher in China, initially as the associate mission treasurer for the Women's Foreign Missionary Society in

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

(1917–1918). During the next two years, she was a teacher in the schools of

Nanjing Nanjing (; , Mandarin pronunciation: ), alternately romanized as Nanking, is the capital of Jiangsu province of the People's Republic of China. It is a sub-provincial city, a megacity, and the second largest city in the East China region. T ...

, and a district supervisor of schools in

Chongqing Chongqing ( or ; ; Sichuanese dialects, Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), Postal Romanization, alternately romanized as Chungking (), is a Direct-administered municipalities of China, municipality in Southwes ...

. In Nanjing, she taught at two schools – a girls boarding school and a boys academy. She met her husband,

John Abraham Lewis John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second ...

, who was also a Methodist Missionary in the Upper Yangtze for many years. They got married in 1921. They had one son, John Fulton Lewis, who grew up to become a newspaper editor and author. After several years, due to illness, she had to leave China. Once back in the United States, she used her Chinese experiences as inspiration for novels and short stories. Her first book, ''

Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze ''Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze'' is a book by Elizabeth Foreman Lewis that won the Newbery Medal for excellence in American children's literature in 1933. The story revolves around Fu Yuin-fah, the son of a widow from the countryside of western ...

'', based on her time as a director of schools in Chungking (

), won the 1933

and the

in 1960. She died in Baltimore, Maryland.

Publications

* ''Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze'', 1932 * ''Ho-Ming, Girl of New China'', 1934 * ''China Quest'', 1937 * ''Portraits from a Chinese Scroll'', 1938 * ''Test Tubes and Dragon Scales'', 1940, in collaboration with Dr. George C. Basil * ''When the Typhoon Blows'', 1942 * ''To beat a Tiger, One Needs a Brother's Help'', 1956

References

External links

* * * * http://secure.britannica.com/ebi/article-9315041 {{DEFAULTSORT:Lewis, Elizabeth Foreman 1892 births 1958 deaths 20th-century American educators American children's writers American Methodist missionaries Schoolteachers from Maryland 20th-century American women educators Female Christian missionaries Methodist missionaries in China Newbery Medal winners Writers from Baltimore

Early years and education

Career

Publications

See also

References

External links