Arthur Ransome facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Arthur Ransome CBE
Cover of Ransome's autobiography
Born	Arthur Michell Ransome (1884-01-18)18 January 1884 Leeds, England
Died	3 June 1967(1967-06-03) (aged 83) Cheadle Royal Hospital, Greater Manchester, England
Resting place	St Paul's Church, Rusland, Cumbria, England
Occupation	Author, journalist
Genre	Children's literature
Notable works	Swallows and Amazons series of books
Notable awards	Carnegie Medal 1936

Arthur Michell Ransome CBE (born January 18, 1884 – died June 3, 1967) was an English author and journalist. He is most famous for writing and illustrating the Swallows and Amazons series of children's books. These books are about children's adventures during school holidays. Most of the stories take place in the Lake District and the Norfolk Broads in England.

All of his Swallows and Amazons books are still available today. The first book, Swallows and Amazons, has even inspired tourism around Windermere and Coniston Water. These two lakes in the Lake District were used as the setting for his fictional North Country lake. Ransome also wrote about life in London's literary world. He wrote about Russia before, during, and after the revolutions of 1917. He was involved in important events during this time.

Early Life and Education

Arthur Ransome was born in Leeds, England. His father, Cyril Ransome, was a history professor at Yorkshire College (now the University of Leeds). Arthur was the oldest of four children. He had two sisters, Cecily and Joyce, and a brother, Geoffrey. Geoffrey was sadly killed in the First World War in 1918.

The Ransome family often spent holidays in Nibthwaite in the Lake District. Arthur loved these trips. He was even carried to the top of Coniston Old Man when he was a baby. His father passed away when Arthur was young, which affected him deeply. His mother later supported his writing career.

Ransome first went to school in Windermere. Then he attended Rugby School. He didn't enjoy school much because of his poor eyesight and lack of athletic skills. He later studied chemistry at Yorkshire College, where his father had taught.

Becoming a Writer

After one year at college, Arthur Ransome decided to become a writer. He moved to London to follow his dream. He took jobs that didn't pay much, like working as an office assistant for a publisher. He also edited a magazine that was not doing well. This helped him become part of London's writing community.

Some of Ransome's first books were for children. They were called The Nature Books for Children. Only three of these books were published before the company went out of business.

In 1907, Ransome wrote an important book called Bohemia in London. This book explored the history of London's artistic communities. It also featured some artists and writers living there at the time.

Ransome married Ivy Constance Walker in 1909. They had one daughter named Tabitha. Their marriage was not happy, and they divorced in 1924.

Ransome also wrote biographies and literary reviews. He wrote about famous authors like Edgar Allan Poe and Oscar Wilde. His book on Oscar Wilde led to a legal case in 1913. Ransome won the case. He later removed the parts that caused trouble from his book.

He also started writing a book about Robert Louis Stevenson. However, he stopped working on it. This book was found much later and published in 2011.

Reporting from Abroad

In 1913, Ransome went to Russia to study its traditional stories. In 1915, he published The Elixir of Life. This was a fantasy novel about a young man who finds a special potion for eternal life. The next year, he published Old Peter's Russian Tales. This book was a collection of 21 Russian folktales.

When the First World War started in 1914, Ransome became a foreign reporter. He covered the war from the Eastern Front for a newspaper called The Daily News. He also reported on the Russian Revolutions of 1917. He became friends with some of the leaders of the revolution. He met Evgenia Petrovna Shelepina, who later became his second wife. She worked as a secretary for Leon Trotsky, a key figure in the revolution.

Ransome shared some information with British officials. He was given a secret code name. One British official said Ransome was a "visionary" who was excited by the revolution. He was good friends with the Bolsheviks and often brought useful information.

In 1919, Ransome was returning to Moscow for The Manchester Guardian newspaper. The Estonian foreign minister asked him to deliver a secret peace message to the Bolsheviks. Ransome walked across the battle lines to deliver this important message. He then had to return the same risky way, bringing Evgenia with him. Estonia then left the conflict. Ransome and Evgenia settled in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia.

After this, Ransome stayed in the Baltic states. He built a sailing yacht called Racundra. He wrote a popular book about his sailing adventures, Racundra's First Cruise. He later joined The Manchester Guardian again. He wrote about foreign affairs and also a column about fishing. After his divorce, he married Evgenia and they moved to England.

The Swallows and Amazons Series

By the late 1920s, Ransome had moved to the Lake District. He decided not to be a full-time foreign reporter. Instead, he wrote Swallows and Amazons in 1929. This was the first book in the series that made him famous. He became known as one of the best English writers of children's books.

The Walker children in the books (the "Swallows") were partly based on a real family Ransome knew. However, he later said he just used their names for his own characters. He wanted his characters to be seen as his own creations.

Ransome's books are known for their detailed descriptions of activities. He used many real places from the Lake District. But he also created his own geography by mixing different locations. When he moved to East Anglia, four of his books were set there. For these books, he used real places, so the maps in the books can guide you in the actual area.

Ransome loved sailing. To write accurately, he even sailed across the North Sea to the Netherlands. His book We Didn't Mean To Go To Sea is based on this trip. The fictional boat Goblin in the book was based on his own boat, Nancy Blackett. This boat was named after a character in his series.

Some of the Swallows and Amazons books have more imaginative plots. Peter Duck was originally a story made up by the children themselves. This story, and its sequel Missee Lee, are more fantastical than the other books. Ransome's trip to China as a reporter inspired Missee Lee. In this book, the Swallows and Amazons sail around the world and are captured by Chinese pirates.

Ransome illustrated Peter Duck himself using pen and ink. He continued to illustrate his stories. He also drew new pictures for the first two books in the series starting in 1938.

The last book in the series was Great Northern? (1947). It was set in Scotland. The story seems realistic, but the timeline doesn't quite fit with the usual school holiday adventures.

The Swallows and Amazons series was very popular. It inspired other authors to write similar adventure stories. Two schoolchildren, Pamela Whitlock and Katharine Hull, wrote The Far-Distant Oxus. This adventure story was set in Exmoor. Whitlock sent her story to Ransome, and he helped get it published. He called it "the best children's book of 1937".

Sailing Adventures

After selling his yacht Racundra in 1925, Ransome owned five more sailing yachts. His next boat was the Nancy Blackett, which he owned from 1935 to 1938.

Then came Selina King, a larger boat built in 1938. She was put away during the war. After the war, he sold her in 1946.

He then ordered a new boat called Peter Duck. He owned her from 1947 to 1949. Her design was so good that over 40 boats were built based on it.

In 1951, he saw a yacht called Norvad. He and Evgenia decided to buy one like it. They ordered a new model for the Boat Show. They asked for some changes to the inside of the boat. It was launched on April 1, 1952. Ransome's health problems delayed their first sail until April 15.

In December 1952, he sold this boat. He kept the name for his next boat.

Lottie Blossom II followed early the next year. It had the same hull design but a different steering system. They had two happy seasons sailing her. They even sailed to Cherbourg in France twice. The second trip, in 1954, when Ransome was 70, was his last long journey.

Later Life and Death

Arthur Ransome married twice. His first marriage was to Ivy Constance Walker in 1909. They had a daughter, Tabitha. They divorced in 1924. That same year, he married Evgenia Petrovna Shelepina.

Arthur Ransome died on June 3, 1967. He and his wife Evgenia are buried in the churchyard of St Paul's Church in Rusland, Cumbria. This church is in the southern Lake District. His autobiography, The Autobiography of Arthur Ransome, was published after he died in 1976. It covers his life up to 1931.

Awards and Recognition

Arthur Ransome won the very first Carnegie Medal in 1936. This award is given by the Library Association. It recognized Pigeon Post, part of the Swallows and Amazons series, as the best children's book by a British author that year.

He was also made a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in 1953. Durham University and Leeds University gave him honorary degrees.

His books have been translated into many languages. He became popular in many countries. There are groups that appreciate Ransome's work in the Czech Republic and Japan. In Japan, the Arthur Ransome Club was started in 1987. A Czech astronomer even named an asteroid after him (6440 Ransome). The Arthur Ransome Society was founded in the U.K. in 1990 and has members all over the world.

Works

• The Souls of the Streets and other Little Papers (1904)
• The Child's Book of the Seasons (1906)
• Pond and Stream (1906)
• The Things in our Garden (1906)
• Bohemia in London (1907)
• The Book of Friendship (1909)
• A History of Story-telling (1909)
• Edgar Allan Poe (1910)
• The Book of Love (1911)
• The Hoofmarks of the Faun (1911)
• Oscar Wilde, a Critical Study (1912)
• Portraits and Speculations (1913)
• The Elixir of Life (1915)
• Old Peter's Russian Tales (1916)
• A Letter to America (1918)
• Six Weeks in Russia (1919)
• Aladdin and his Wonderful Lamp in rhyme (1920)
• The Crisis in Russia (1921)
• The Soldier and Death (1922)
• Racundra's First Cruise (1923)
• The Chinese Puzzle (1927)
• Rod and Line (1929)
• Mainly about Fishing (1959)

The "Swallows and Amazons" Series

• Swallows and Amazons (published 1930)
• Swallowdale (1931)
• Peter Duck (1932)
• Winter Holiday (1933)
• Coot Club (1934)
• Pigeon Post (1936)
• We Didn't Mean To Go To Sea (1937)
• Secret Water (1939)
• The Big Six (1940)
• Missee Lee (1941)
• The Picts and the Martyrs: Or Not Welcome at All (1943)
• Great Northern? (1947)
• Coots in the North (unfinished)

Published After His Death

• Racundra's third cruise (1972)
• The Autobiography of Arthur Ransome (1976)
• The War of the Birds and Beasts and other Russian tales (1984)
• Arthur Ransome's Long-lost Study of Robert Louis Stevenson (2011)

Images for kids

• 

  Cover of Ransome's autobiography

See also

In Spanish: Arthur Ransome para niños