Eve Garnett facts for kids
Eve Garnett (born January 9, 1900 – died April 5, 1991) was an English writer and artist. She is most famous for her 1937 children's novel, The Family from One End Street. This book is about a big, working-class family living in a small town.
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About Her Life
Eve Garnett was born in Worcestershire, England. She went to schools in Devon and Worcester. Later, she studied art at the Chelsea Polytechnic School of Art and the Royal Academy. Her artwork was shown in famous places like the Tate Gallery.
In 1927, Eve Garnett was asked to draw pictures for a book called The London Child. This work made her see how tough life was for many children in the poorer parts of London. She decided she wanted to show these problems through her art and stories.
She created a large painting (a 40-foot mural) at the Children's House in Bow. She also made a book of drawings called Is It Well With The Child? in 1938. She then wrote and illustrated a storybook about the lives of ordinary English families. This was quite new for children's literature at the time.
The Family from One End Street
That storybook, The Family from One End Street, was first turned down by some publishers. They thought it was "not suitable for the young". But it was finally published by Frederick Muller in 1937. The book won the second ever Carnegie Medal. This award celebrates the best children's book by a British subject each year. It even won over J.R.R. Tolkien's famous book, The Hobbit!
For the 70th anniversary of the Carnegie Medal, The Family from One End Street was chosen as one of the top ten winning books of all time. It is still considered a classic and is still being printed today.
Later Books and Travels
A second book in the series, Further Adventures of the Family from One End Street, had a tough start. Its original handwritten copy was damaged in a fire in 1941. People thought it was lost forever. But parts of it were saved and put together from a magazine. It was finally published in 1956. A third book, Holiday at the Dew Drop Inn, came out in 1962.
Eve Garnett loved to travel. She spent a lot of time in cold, northern places. She even said she crossed the Arctic Circle 16 times! She was very interested in Hans Egede, an explorer and missionary from Denmark and Norway. She visited Norway many times to learn about his life. Her research led to a radio play and a book in 1968 called To Greenland's Icy Mountains.
Eve Garnett lived for many years in Lewes, East Sussex. She passed away in a nursing home there on April 5, 1991.
Her Works
Eve Garnett wrote seven books, and she drew all the pictures for them herself.
- The Family from One End Street: and some of their adventures (1937)
- In and Out and Roundabout: stories of a little town (1948)
- Further Adventures of the Family from One End Street (1956)
- Holiday at the Dew Drop Inn (1962)
- To Greenland's Icy Mountains: the story of Hans Egede, explorer, coloniser, missionary (1968)
- Lost and Found: four stories (1974)
- First Affections: some autobiographical chapters of early childhood (1982)
As an Illustrator for Other Books
Eve Garnett also drew pictures for books written by other authors:
- The London Child (1927), by Evelyn Sharp
- The Bad Barons of Crashbania: Vol. 42, Continuous Stories, Jolly Books (1932), by Norman Hunter
- Is it Well With the Child? (1938), with drawings by Eve Garnett
- A Child's Garden of Verses (1948), by Robert Louis Stevenson
- A Book of the Seasons: an anthology (1952)
- A Golden Land (1958), edited by James Reeves
