E. L. Konigsburg

Elaine Lobl Konigsburg (born February 10, 1930) is an American author and illustrator of children's books and young adult fiction. She is the only author to win the Newbery Medal and a Newbery Honor in the same year (1968), with her second and first books respectively: From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler and Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth. Konigsburg won a second Newbery Medal in 1997 for The View from Saturday, 29 years later, the longest span between any two Newberys awarded to one author.

Biography

Born Elaine Lobl in New York, Konigsburg grew up in small towns in Pennsylvania, the second of three daughters. ^[1] As a child, Konigsburg was an avid reader even though reading was not strongly encouraged by her family.^[2]

As valedictorian, she graduated high school in Farrell, Pennsylvania, and worked briefly as a bookkeeper in a wholesale meat plant to earn money for college. There she met the brother of one of the owners who would later become her husband, David Konigsburg. ^[3] Konigsburg enrolled in Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh, and earned a degree in chemistry, becoming the first person in her family to graduate from college.^[4]

After graduating, she married David Konigsburg, a graduate student in psychology. She entered graduate school in chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh, but after her husband attained his doctorate, they moved to Jacksonville, Florida, where Konigsburg worked as a science teacher at a school for girls. There she began to think about a new direction for her talents and also became the mother of three children, Paul, Laurie, and Ross. ^[5] This new direction would begin after the family moved to Port Chester, New York, and she started art lessons and then began writing. Her first novel Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth was inspired by her daughter's experiences moving to a new home. ^[1]Along with being a very accomplished chapter book writer, Konigsburg is also the author and illustrator of picture books. Her three published pictures books are Samuel Todd's Book of Great Colors,Samuel Todd's Book of Great Inventions, and Amy Elizabeth Explores Bloomingdale's^[2]

Inspiration

Konigsburg is known to write stories that reflect adolescent struggles with which school-age children can easily relate. Her books often deal with children striving to find the answers to big questions that will help shape their self-identities. Many of Konigsburg's characters are based on her own experiences as a child, the observations she made of children while a teacher, and those of her children. ^[1]

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b c} Konigsburg's autobiography
2. ^ ^{a b} [1]
3. ^ CMS Library Information System
4. ^ [2]
5. ^ [3]

Works

• 1967 Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth
• 1967 From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
• 1969 About the B'nai Bagels
• 1970 (George)
• 1971 Altogether, One at a Time
• 1973 A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver (a novel based on the life of Eleanor of Aquitaine)
• 1974 The Dragon in the Ghetto Caper
• 1975 The Second Mrs. Giaconda (also published as The Second Mrs. Gioconda)
• 1976 Father's Arcane Daughter (later published as My Father's Daughter), made into the Hallmark movie Caroline?
• 1979 Throwing Shadows
• 1982 Journey to an 800 Number
• 1986 Up from Jericho Tel
• 1990 Samuel Todd's Book of Great Colors, a picture book, written and illustrated by Konigsburg
• 1991 Samuel Todd's Book of Great Inventions, a picture book, written and illustrated by Konigsburg
• 1992 Amy Elizabeth Explores Bloomingdale's, a picture book, written and illustrated by Konigsburg
• 1993 T-Backs, T-Shirts, COAT, and Suit
• 1995 TalkTalk
• 1996 The View from Saturday
• 2000 Silent to the Bone
• 2004 The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place
• 2007 The Mysterious Edge of the Heroic World

Awards

• Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth: 1968 Newbery Honor
• From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler: 1968 Newbery Medal, 1968 Lewis Carroll Shelf Award; 1970 William Allen White Children's Book Award
• The View from Saturday: 1997 Newbery Medal
• 1999 Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award from Carnegie Mellon University

Web Pages on Konigsburg

• http://www.kidspoint.org/columns2.asp?column_id=1145&column_type=author
• E. L. Konigsburg - Teacher Resource File
• HowStuffWorks biography