Ruth Manning-Sanders (21 August 1886 – 12 October 1988) was an English poet and author born in Wales, known for a series of

children's books A child () is a human being between the stages of birth and puberty, or between the developmental period of infancy and puberty. The term may also refer to an unborn human being. In English-speaking countries, the legal definition of ''chi ...

for which she collected and related

fairy tales A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, household tale, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the Folklore, folklore genre. Such stories typically feature Magic (supernatural), magic, Incantation, e ...

worldwide. She published over 90 books in her lifetime

Biography

Childhood

Ruth Vernon Manning was the youngest of three daughters of John Manning, an English Unitarian minister. She was born in

Swansea Swansea ( ; ) is a coastal City status in the United Kingdom, city and the List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, second-largest city of Wales. It forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area, officially known as the City and County of ...

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

, but the family moved to

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shrop ...

when she was three. As a child, she read books and wrote and acted plays with her two sisters. According to a story she tells in the

foreword A foreword is a (usually short) piece of writing, sometimes placed at the beginning of a book or other piece of literature. Typically written by someone other than the primary author of the work, it often tells of some interaction between th ...

to ''Scottish Folk Tales'', she spent her summers in a farmhouse in the

Scottish Highlands The Highlands (; , ) is a historical region of Scotland. Culturally, the Highlands and the Scottish Lowlands, Lowlands diverged from the Late Middle Ages into the modern period, when Scots language, Lowland Scots language replaced Scottish Gae ...

named "Shian", which she says means the place where

fairies A fairy (also called fay, fae, fae folk, fey, fair folk, or faerie) is a type of mythical being or legendary creature, generally described as anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic, found in the folklore of multiple European cultures (including Cel ...

live.

Education

Manning studied

English literature English literature is literature written in the English language from the English-speaking world. The English language has developed over more than 1,400 years. The earliest forms of English, a set of Anglo-Frisian languages, Anglo-Frisian d ...

and Shakespearean studies at

Manchester University The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...

Marriage

After returning from a trip to Italy to recover from an illness that forced her to leave university, she went to Devon where she met English artist George Sanders. They married in 1911, and both changed their names to Manning-Sanders. She spent much of her early married life touring Britain in a horse-drawn caravan and working in a

circus A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, and unicy ...

, a topic she wrote about extensively. The family eventually moved into a cottage in the fishing

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...

Land's End Land's End ( or ''Pedn an Wlas'') is a headland and tourist and holiday complex in western Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, on the Penwith peninsula about west-south-west of Penzance at the western end of the A30 road. To the east of it is ...

, Cornwall. One of their two children, Joan Manning-Sanders (1913–2002), found fame as a teenage artist in the 1920s. Her husband died in an accident in 1953.

Literary career

Manning-Sanders took to publishing dozens of fairy-tale anthologies, mostly during the 1960s and 1970s. She writes in the foreword to a 1971 anthology, ''A Choice of Magic'', that there can't be new fairy tales because they are "records of the time when the world was very young." She rather says that once upon a time is a door through which readers can enter the fairy world and enjoy its magic. Some of Manning-Saunders's fairy-tale compilations include a discursive foreword on the origins of the tales retold. The stories in ''A Book of Dragons'' hail from Greece, China, Japan,

North Macedonia North Macedonia, officially the Republic of North Macedonia, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe. It shares land borders with Greece to the south, Albania to the west, Bulgaria to the east, Kosovo to the northwest and Serbia to the n ...

, Ireland, Romania, Germany and elsewhere. She goes out of her way to say "not all

dragons A dragon is a magical legendary creature that appears in the folklore of multiple cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in Western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depict ...

want to gobble up princesses." The book includes tales of kind and proud dragons, along with savage ones. In her foreword to ''A Book of Witches,'' she offers insight into how she believed fairy tales should usually end, saying: She also notes in the foreword to ''A Book of Princes and Princesses'' that all fairy tales have one thing in common: a happy ending. While many of Manning-Sanders's tales are not commonly known, she includes stories about more famous figures such as Baba Yaga, Jack the Giant-Killer,

Anansi Anansi or Ananse ( ; literally translates to ''spider'') is a character in Akan religion and folklore associated with stories, wisdom, knowledge, and trickery, most commonly depicted as a spider. Anansi is a character who reflects the culture ...

Snow White "Snow White" is a German fairy tale, first written down in the early 19th century. The Brothers Grimm published it in 1812 in the first edition of their collection ''Grimms' Fairy Tales'', numbered as Tale 53. The original title was ''Sneewittch ...

Hansel and Gretel "Hansel and Gretel" (; ) is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm and published in 1812 as part of ''Grimms' Fairy Tales'' (KHM 15). Hansel and Gretel are siblings who are abandoned in a forest and fall into the hands of a witch ...

Robin Hood Robin Hood is a legendary noble outlaw, heroic outlaw originally depicted in English folklore and subsequently featured in literature, theatre, and cinema. According to legend, he was a highly skilled archer and swordsman. In some versions o ...

and

Aladdin Aladdin ( ; , , ATU 561, 'Aladdin') is a Middle-Eastern folk tale. It is one of the best-known tales associated with '' One Thousand and One Nights'' (often known in English as ''The Arabian Nights''), despite not being part of the original ...

. The dust jacket for ''A Book of Giants'' notes "her wit and good humour. There is not a word wasted."

Death

Manning-Sanders died in 1988 in

Penzance Penzance ( ; ) is a town, civil parish and port in the Penwith district of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is the westernmost major town in Cornwall and is about west-southwest of Plymouth and west-southwest of London. Situated in the ...

, England.

Marcus Crouch Marcus Crouch (12 February 1913 – 24 April 1996) was an English librarian, and an influential commentator on and reviewer of children's books.Sheila Ray. "Obituary: Marcus Crouch", ''Children's Literature Abstracts'', Issues 92-95, Internationa ...

wrote in the February 1989 issue of ''The Junior Bookshelf'', "For many long-lived writers, death is followed by eclipse. I hope that publishers will continue to re-release Manning-Sanders's priceless treasury of folk-tales. We would all be the poorer for their loss."

Books

She worked for two years with Rosaire's Circus in England. Her novel ''The Golden Ball. A Novel of the Circus'' (1954) is said to include parallels with the life of Leon LaRoche, a famed circus performer with Barnum & Bailey Circus from 1895 through 1902. Manning-Sanders was noted as a poet and novelist in the years up to World War II. At least two of her early poetry collections – ''Karn'' and ''Martha Wish-You-Ill'' – were published by the

Hogarth Press The Hogarth Press is a book publishing Imprint (trade name), imprint of Penguin Random House that was founded as an independent company in 1917 by British authors Leonard Woolf and Virginia Woolf. It was named after their house in London Boro ...

, run by

Leonard Leonard or ''Leo'' is a common English language, English masculine given name and a surname. The given name and surname originate from the Old High German ''Leonhard'' containing the prefix ''levon'' ("lion") from the Greek wikt:Λέων#Greek, Λ ...

and

Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer and one of the most influential 20th-century modernist authors. She helped to pioneer the use of stream of consciousness narration as a literary device. Vir ...

. Three of her poems appeared in the 1918 volume "Twelve Poets, a Miscellany of New Verse", which also includes ten poems by Edward Thomas. She won the Blindman International Poetry Prize in 1926 for ''The City'', and was for a time a protégée of the English author

Walter de la Mare Walter John de la Mare (; 25 April 1873 – 22 June 1956) was an English poet, short story writer and novelist. He is probably best remembered for his works for children, for his poem "The Listeners", and for his psychological horror short fi ...

, who spent at least one holiday with the Manning-Sanders family in Cornwall. While living in Sennen, Cornwall, Manning-Sanders was for a time a neighbour of the British writer Mary Butts. The short story "John Pettigrew's Mirror" appeared in the 1951 anthology "One and All – A Selection of Stories from Cornwall," edited by Denys Val Baker. It was republished at least once, in the 1988 anthology "Ghost Stories" edited by

Robert Westall Robert Atkinson Westall (7 October 1929 – 15 April 1993) was an English people, English author and teacher known for fiction aimed at Children's literature, children and Young adult fiction, young people. Some of the latter cover complex, ...

. Her story, "The Goblins at the Bath House" from ''A Book of Ghosts and Goblins'' was read by

Vincent Price Vincent Leonard Price Jr. (May 27, 1911 – October 25, 1993) was an American actor. He was known for his work in the horror film genre, mostly portraying villains. He appeared on stage, television, and radio, and in more than 100 films. Price ...

on an LP entitled "The Goblins at the Bath House & The Calamander Chest," published by Caedmon in 1978 (TC 1574). She began collecting fairy tales into collections in 1966 with the publication of ''A Book of Dragons''. She wrote seven more fairytale collections titled ''Giants Dwarfs, Witches, Wizards, Mermaids, Ghosts and Goblins'' and ''Princes and Princesses.'' These collections were illustrated by Robin Jacques. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, she published two collections titled ''A Book of Devils and Demons'' and ''Gianni and The Ogre''. Robin Jacques also illustrated ''A Book of Devils and Demons.''

Selected volumes

"A Book of ..." series

These 22 anthologies or collections were published by Methuen (Dutton in the US) and illustrated by Robin Jacques. *'' A Book of Giants'', 1962 *''A Book of Dwarfs'', 1963 *''A Book of Dragons'', 1964 *''A Book of Witches'', 1965 *''A Book of Wizards'', 1966 *''A Book of Mermaids'', 1967 *''A Book of Ghosts and Goblins'', 1968 *''A Book of Princes and Princesses'', 1969 *''A Book of Devils and Demons'', 1970 *''A Book of Charms and Changelings'', 1971 *''A Book of Ogres and Trolls'', 1972 *''A Book of Sorcerers and Spells'', 1973 *''A Book of Magic Animals'', 1974 *''A Book of Monsters'', 1975 *''A Book of Enchantments and Curses'', 1976 *''A Book of Kings and Queens'', 1977 *''A Book of Marvels and Magic'', 1978 *''A Book of Spooks and Spectres'', 1979 *''A Book of Cats and Creatures'', 1981 *''A Book of Heroes and Heroines'', 1982 *''A Book of Magic Adventures'', 1983 *''A Book of Magic Horses'', 1984 The Library of Congress reports also a 1970 anthology compiled by Manning-Sanders, ''The Book of Magical Beasts'', published by T. Nelson and illustrated by

Raymond Briggs Raymond Redvers Briggs (18 January 1934 – 9 August 2022) was an English illustrator, cartoonist, graphic novelist and author. Achieving critical and popular success among adults and children, he is best known in Britain for his 1978 story ...

"Modern and ancient poems and short stories from around the world about make-believe beasts.".

Other volumes

*''The Pedlar'', 1919 (verse) *''Karn'', 1922 (verse) *''Pages from the History of Zachy Trenoy Sometime Labourer in the Hundred of Penwith'', 1922 (verse) *''The Twelve Saints'', 1926 *''Martha Wish-You-Ill'', 1922 (verse) *''The City'', 1927 (verse) *''Waste Corner'', 1927 *''Selina Pennaluna'', 1927 *''Hucca's Moor'', 1929 *''The Crochet Woman'', 1930 *''The Growing Trees'', 1931 *''She Was Sophia'', 1932 *''Run Away'', 1934 *''Mermaid's Mirror'', 1935 *''The Girl Who Made an Angel'', 1936 *''Children by the Sea'', 1938 (published in United States as ''Adventure May Be Anywhere'') *''Elephant The Romance of Laura'', 1938 *''Luke's Circus'', 1939 *''Mystery at Penmarth'', 1941 *''The West of England'', 1949 (non-fiction) *''Swan of Denmark: The Story of Hans Christian Andersen'', 1949 (non-fiction) *''Seaside England'', 1951 (non-fiction) *''The

River Dart The River Dart is a river in Devon, England, that source (river), rises high on Dartmoor and flows for to the sea at Dartmouth, Devon, Dartmouth. Name Most hydronyms in England derive from the Common Brittonic, Brythonic language (from which ...

'', 1951 (non-fiction) *''The English Circus'', 1952 (non-fiction) *''Mr. Portal's Little Lions'', 1952 *''The Golden Ball: A Novel of the Circus'', 1954 *''Melissa'', 1957 *'' Peter and the Piskies: Cornish Folk and Fairy Tales'', 1958 *''A Bundle of Ballads'', 1959 *''Circus Boy'', 1960 *'' Red Indian Folk and Fairy Tales'', 1960 *''Animal Stories'', 1961 (non-fiction) *'' Birds, Beasts, and Fishes'', 1962 (editor, an anthology of natural history poetry) *''The Smugglers'', 1962 *'' The Red King and the Witch: Gypsy Folk and Fairy Tales'', 1964 *'' Damian and the Dragon: Modern Greek Folk-Tales'', 1965 *''The Crow's Nest'', 1965 *''Slippery Shiney'', 1965 *''The Extraordinary Margaret Catchpole'', 1966 (fictionalised biography) *''The Magic Squid'', 1968 *''Stories from the English and Scottish Ballads'', 1968 *'' The Glass Man and the Golden Bird'', 1968 (Hungarian Folk and Fairy Tales) *'' Jonnikin and the Flying Basket: French Folk and Fairy Tales'', 1969 *''The Spaniards Are Coming!'', 1969 *'' Gianni and the Ogre'', 1970 *''A Book of Magical Beasts'', 1970 (editor) *'' A Choice of Magic'', 1971 *''The Three Witch Maidens'', 1972 *''Festivals'', 1973 *''Stumpy A Russian Tale'', 1974 *''Grandad and the Magic Barrel'', 1974 *''Old Dog Sirko: A Ukrainian Tale'', 1974 *''Sir Green Hat and the Wizard'', 1974 *'' Tortoise Tales'', 1974 *''Ram and Goat'', 1974 *'' Young Gabby Goose'', 1975 *'' Scottish Folk Tales'', 1976 *'' Fox Tales'', 1976 *''The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse Aesop's Fable Retold'', 1977 *''Robin Hood and Little John'', 1977 *'' Old Witch Boneyleg'', 1978 *''The Cock and the Fox '', 1978 *''Boastful Rabbit'', 1978 *'' Folk and Fairy Tales'', 1978 *''The Haunted Castle'', 1979 *''Robin Hood and the Gold Arrow'', 1979 *''Oh Really, Rabbit!'', 1980 *''Hedgehog and Puppy Dog'', 1982 *''Tales of Magic and Mystery'', 1985 *'' A Cauldron of Witches'', 1988

References

Sources and further reading

Thomson Gale Gale is a global provider of research and digital learning resources. The company is based in Farmington Hills, Michigan, United States, west of Detroit. It has been a division of Cengage since 2007. The company, formerly known as Gale Research a ...

, ''Contemporary Authors'' (2004) *M. S. Crouch, ''The Junior Bookshelf'', February 1989 *Biographic material culled from introductions and dust jackets of several of Manning-Sanders' books *

John Clute John Frederick Clute (born 12 September 1940) is a Canadian-born author and critic specializing in science fiction and fantasy literature who has lived in both England and the United States since 1969. He has been described as "an integral part ...

and John Grant, ''

The Encyclopedia of Fantasy ''The Encyclopedia of Fantasy'' is a 1997 reference work covering fantasy fiction, edited by John Clute and John Grant (author), John Grant. As of November 2012, the full text of ''The Encyclopedia of Fantasy'' is available online, as a compani ...

'' (1999 updated paperback edition) *Theresa Whistler, ''The Life of Walter de la Mare'' (2004) *Nathalie Blondel (Editor), ''The Journals of Mary Butts'' (2002) *Donna Elizabeth Rhein, ''The handprinted books of Leonard and Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, 1917–1932'' (master's thesis)
Lawrence Finn's page about Joan Manning-Sanders

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Manning-Sanders, Ruth 1886 births 1988 deaths 19th-century English people 19th-century English women 20th-century English novelists 20th-century English poets 20th-century English women writers Alumni of the Victoria University of Manchester Anglo-Welsh women poets British women children's writers Collectors of fairy tales English children's writers English folklorists English women non-fiction writers English women novelists English women poets Writers from Swansea English women centenarians British folklorists British women folklorists British women science fiction and fantasy writers