Elizabeth Goudge | |
|---|---|
 Goudgec. 1976 | |
| Born | Elizabeth de Beauchamp Goudge (1900-04-24)24 April 1900 Wells, England |
| Died | 1 April 1984(1984-04-01) (aged 83) |
| Pen name | Elizabeth Goudge |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Nationality | British |
| Period | 1934–1978 |
| Genre | Children's literature,romance |
| Notable works | |
| Notable awards | Carnegie Medal 1945 |
Elizabeth de Beauchamp GoudgeFRSL (24 April 1900 – 1 April 1984) was an English writer of fiction andchildren's books. She won theCarnegie Medal for British children's books in 1946 forThe Little White Horse.[1] Goudge was long a popular author in the UK and the US and regained attention decades later. In 1993 her bookThe Rosemary Tree was plagiarised byIndrani Aikath-Gyaltsen; the "new" novel set in India was warmly reviewed inThe New York Times andThe Washington Post before its source was discovered.[2] In 2001 or 2002J. K. Rowling identifiedThe Little White Horse as one of her favourite books and one of few with a direct influence on theHarry Potter series.[3][4]
Goudge was born on 24 April 1900 in Tower House in The Liberty of the cathedral city ofWells, Somerset, where her father, Henry Leighton Goudge, was vice-principal of theTheological College. Her mother (born Ida de Beauchamp Collenette, 1874–1951) came fromGuernsey, where Henry had met her while on holiday. The family moved toEly, when he became principal of the Theological College there, and then toChrist Church, Oxford, when he was appointedRegius Professor of Divinity atthe University. Elizabeth was educated at Grassendale School,Southbourne (1914–1918) and the art school ofUniversity College Reading, then an extension college of Christ Church. She went on to teach design and handicrafts in Ely and Oxford.[5]
After Goudge's father's death in 1939, she and her mother moved to a bungalow inMarldon,Devon. They had planned a holiday there, but the outbreak of the Second World War led them to remain. A local contractor built them a bungalow in Westerland Lane, now Providence Cottage, where they lived for 12 years. Goudge set several of her books in Marldon:Smoky House (1940),The Castle on the Hill (1941),Green Dolphin Country (1944),The Little White Horse (1946) andGentian Hill (1949).[6] After her mother died on 4 May 1951, she moved toOxfordshire for the last 30 years of her life, in a cottage onPeppard Common outsideHenley-on-Thames, where ablue plaque was unveiled in 2008.[7]
Elizabeth Goudge died on 1 April 1984.[8]
Goudge's first book,The Fairies' Baby and Other Stories (1919), failed to sell and several years passed before she wrote her first novel,Island Magic (1934), which was an immediate success. It was based onChannel Island stories, many learnt from her mother. Elizabeth had regularly visited Guernsey as a child and recalled in her autobiographyThe Joy of the Snow spending many summers there with her maternal grandparents and other relatives.[9]
The Little White Horse, published by University of London Press in 1946, won Goudge the annualCarnegie Medal of theLibrary Association, as the year's best children's book by aBritish subject.[1] It was her own favourite among her works.[10]
Goudge was a founding member of theRomantic Novelists' Association in 1960 and later its vice-president.[11] Retailing her point of view:
As this world becomes increasingly ugly, callous and materialistic it needs to be reminded that the old fairy stories are rooted in truth, that imagination is of value, that happy endings do, in fact, occur, and that the blue spring mist that makes an ugly street look beautiful is just as real a thing as the street itself.
— Elizabeth Goudge[12]
Goudge's books are notably Christian in outlook, covering sacrifice, conversion, discipline, healing, and growth through suffering. Her novels, whether realistic, fantasy or historical, weave in legend and myth and reflect a spirituality and love of England that generate its appeal, whether she wrote for adults or for children.
Goudge said there were only three of her books that she loved:The Valley of Song,The Dean's Watch andThe Child from the Sea, her final novel.[13] She doubted whetherThe Child from the Sea was a good book. "Nevertheless I love it because its theme is forgiveness, the grace that seems to me divine above all others, and the most desperate need of all us tormented and tormenting human beings, and also because I seemed to give to it all I have to give; very little, heaven knows. And so I know I can never write another novel, for I do not think there is anything else to say.[14]
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Early in 1993,Cranes' Morning byIndrani Aikath-Gyaltsen was published byPenguin Books in India, the author's second novel.[2] In the US it was published byBallantine Books, and enthusiastically reviewed inThe New York Times andThe Washington Post. For the latter, Paul Kafka called it "at once achingly familiar and breathtakingly new. [The author] believes we all live in one borderless culture." In February, theTimes noted "magic" and "full of humour and insight", although it conceded that the "deliberately old-fashioned" style "sometimes verges on the sentimental."[2]
A month later, a reader from Ontario informed Hodder and Stoughton, publisher of Goudge's bookThe Rosemary Tree in 1956, that it had been "taken over without any acknowledgment whatsoever". Soon another reader informed a newspaper reporter and there was a scandal.[2]
WhenThe Rosemary Tree was first published in 1956,The New York Times Book Review criticised its "slight plot" and "sentimentally ecstatic" approach. After Aikath-Gyaltsen recast the setting to anIndian village, changing the names and switching the religion toHindu, but often keeping the story word-for-word the same, it received better notices.[2]
Kafka later remarked about hisPost review: "There's a phrase 'aestheticaffirmative action.' If something comes from exotic parts, it's read very differently than if it's domestically grown.... Maybe Elizabeth Goudge is a writer who hasn't gotten her due."[2]
Several months later, Indrani Aikath-Gyaltsen was dead, perhaps from suicide, but there were requests for investigation.[2]
J. K. Rowling, the creator of Harry Potter, has recalled thatThe Little White Horse was her favourite book as a child. She has also identified it as one of very few with "direct influence on the Harry Potter books. The author always included details of what her characters were eating and I remember liking that. You may have noticed that I always list the food being eaten at Hogwarts."[3][4]
Green Dolphin Country (1944) wasadapted as a film under its U.S. title,Green Dolphin Street, and the movie won theAcademy Award for Special Effects in 1948. (The special effects involved the depiction of a major earthquake.)
The television mini-seriesMoonacre and the 2009 filmThe Secret of Moonacre were based onThe Little White Horse.
The Torminster Saga[edit]
The Eliots of Damerosehay Saga[edit]
Single novels[edit]
Children's books[edit]
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Nonfiction[edit]
Anthologies containing stories by Elizabeth Goudge[edit]
Anthologies edited by Elizabeth Goudge[edit]
Short stories[edit]
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