Charles Hawes facts for kids

Charles Boardman Hawes (born January 24, 1889 – died July 16, 1923) was an American writer. He was famous for his exciting stories about the sea. Some of his stories were based on real events, but his most popular ones were fiction, meaning they were made up.

Charles Boardman Hawes passed away when he was 34 years old. He was the third person to win the important Newbery Medal for children's literature. He was also the first winner of this award who was born in the United States. The previous winners, Hendrik Willem van Loon and Hugh Lofting, were born in the Netherlands and England. The New York Times newspaper said his books were similar to those by famous adventure writers like Robert Louis Stevenson, Richard Henry Dana, Jr., and Herman Melville.

Life of Charles Boardman Hawes

Charles Boardman Hawes was born in Clifton Springs, New York. He grew up in Bangor, Maine. In 1911, he graduated from Bowdoin College. While there, he was the editor of the student newspaper. He also studied at Harvard for one year.

After college, he worked for a magazine called The Youth's Companion until 1920. Later, he became an editor for another magazine, The Open Road for Boys, and worked there until he died in 1923. On June 1, 1916, Charles Boardman Hawes married Dorothea Cable. Her father, George W. Cable, was also a writer.

His Books and Awards

Charles Boardman Hawes had his first story book published in 1920. It was called The Mutineers. His second book, The Great Quest, came out in 1921. This book was recognized as a Newbery Medal Honor Book in 1922. This means that even though it didn't win the top prize, the judges thought it was an excellent book.

He wrote two more books before he passed away. One was Gloucester, by Land and Sea. This book was a true story about Gloucester, Massachusetts, where Hawes lived. It was published just two days after he died. His other book was The Dark Frigate. This exciting story won the Newbery Medal in 1924. In 1962, The Dark Frigate also received the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award.

Hawes Memorial Prize Contest

After Charles Boardman Hawes died, his publishers (the companies that printed his books) created a special contest. They offered a $2,000 prize for the best new book that was similar to the adventure stories Hawes wrote. The winning book was called The Scarlet Cockerel. It was written by a farm worker named Clifford MacClellan Sublette. Hawes's publishers printed The Scarlet Cockerel in 1925. They also published two other good books that came from the contest.

Writings by Charles Boardman Hawes

• The Mutineers: a tale of old days at sea and of adventures in the Far East as Benjamin Lathrop set it down some sixty years ago (Atlantic Monthly Press, 1920), illustrated by George Edmund Varian (Little, Brown, 1919 or 1920)
• The Great Quest; a romance of 1826, wherein are recorded the experiences of Josiah Woods of Topham, and of those others with whom he sailed for Cuba and the Gulf of Guinea (Atlantic Monthly Press, 1921) (Little, Brown, 1921)
• Gloucester, by Land and Sea; the story of a New England seacoast town (Little, Brown, July 1923), illustrated by Lester G. Hornby — published two days after his death
• The Dark Frigate; wherein is told the story of Philip Marsham who lived in the time of King Charles and was bred a sailor but came home to England after many hazards by sea and land and fought for the King at Newbury and lost a great inheritance and departed for Barbados in the same ship, by curious chance, in which he had long before adventured with the pirates (Atlantic Monthly Press, October 1923) (Little, Brown, 1923)
• "The Story of the Ship "Globe" of Nantucket", Atlantic Monthly (December 1923): 769–79
• "A Boy Who Went Whaling", Atlantic Monthly 133:6 (June 1924): 797–805
• Whaling (Doubleday, Page, 1924) — "Completed after the author's death by his wife."