Sans Souci

[F.]
Without care; free and easy.

San Souci, Robert (1946– ), American writer of books for children and young adults, who is widely regarded as one of the finest adapters of folk tales and legends in the US. In particular, San Souci has carefully woven a multicultural repertoire of books that also includes a feminist agenda. He has adapted tales from Eskimo, Native American, African American, European, and oriental lore. Among his best‐known fairy‐tale books are: The Legend of Scarface: A Blackfeet Indian Tale (1978), The Enchanted Tapestry: Adapted from a Chinese Folktale (1987), The Six Swans (1988), The Talking Eggs (1989), The White Cat (1990), Sukey and the Mermaid (1992), and Sootface (1994). He has collaborated with such fine illustrators as Daniel San Souci, Jerry Pinkney, and Brian Pinkney to produce his fairy‐tale books, and he has also written his own texts such as Nicholas Pipe (1997) about a marvellous merman, who falls in love with the daughter of an ordinary fisherman. In keeping with his innovative approach to fairy tales, San Souci has compiled an important anthology of tales about remarkable American women entitled Cut from the Same Cloth: American Women of Myth, Legend, and Tall Tale (1993).

— Jack Zipes