Lloyd Alexander

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Lloyd Chudley Alexander (January 30, 1924-2007) was an American author who wrote more than forty books, mainly fantasy novels for children and young adults.

The Chronicles of Prydain, a series of five high fantasy novels whose conclusion, The High King, was named the 1969 Newbery Medal for excellence in American children's literature.

In 1971 and 1982, Alexander was one of the founders of the children's literary magazine Cricket.

Early life and education

Alexander was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on January 30, 1924, to Edna (née Chudley) and Alan Audley Alexander, and grew up in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, a section of Upper Darby just west of the city. Florence, Florence, was his elder sister. His parents mainly read newspapers, but they did buy books "at the Salvation Army to fill up empty shelves." He started learning at the age of four and skipped grades one and two at a private Quaker school. He and his allies participated in war games, using equipment from World War I. Alexander, a stockbroker who failed in 1929, returned to public school, where he skipped yet another grade until age nine. Alexander read Shakespeare, Dickens, Mark Twain, and myths, especially King Arthur. Alexander wanted to become an Episcopalian priest at the age thirteen, but his family could not afford to send him to divinity school. Alexander, who was passionate about writing, believed he could preach and honor God through his writing and art. He began writing romantic poems modeled after nineteenth-century poets' work and writing narrative short stories in high school, but publishers were unable to pay attention. His parents discovered him as a bank messenger, which sparked a satire that would become his first book, And Let the Credit Go (1955). He graduated from Upper Darby High School in 1940, where he was inducted into the school's Wall of Fame in 1995.

He attended West Chester State Teachers College, but he left after only one term because the curriculum was not rigorous enough. Alexander spent six months in the Atlantic Refining Company's mailroom after dropping out of college. During World War II, Alexander discovered that this was a better school for a writer than college, and enlisted in the US Army during World War II. He was too clumsy with artillery to be sent to the front, and the sight of blood made him faint, making him unfit to serve as a medic. He had no previous musical experience, but he appeared briefly in a marching band in Texas. He was sent shortly after being stationed as a chaplain's assistant. Through the army, he had the opportunity to study French language, politics, traditions, and geography at Lafayette College. He was later sent to Camp Ritchie, Maryland, to receive specific intelligence service in the US Army Combat Intelligence and Counter-Intelligence Corps. There, he met war veterans, scholars, refugees, and Cherokee chiefs of the Cherokee tribe. He began to work as a corps sergeant.

Alexander was stationed in Wales and England for a short time but then was sent to the 7th army in eastern France, where he translated radio messages for six months. His next assignment was with the Counter Intelligence Corps' Paris office, where he served as a translator and an interpreter until 1945. Alexander, the wartime poet, was fascinated by Paul Éluard's poetry and adored his French literature. Alexander called Éluard on the phone and then showed him his English translations of his work. Alexander was his sole English translator on the first day at Éluard's appointment. Alexander also contacted Gertrude Stein, who advised him that becoming a writer was a lengthy and frustrating process. He encountered Janine Denni, who had a teenage daughter named Madeleine, in Paris. Alexander and Denni were married on January 8, 1946, and they soon migrated to Philadelphia. Alexander spent twelve hours a day translating Éluard's work and writing his own stories in the attic of his parents' house.

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Writing career

Alexander wrote mainly fantasy, non-fiction, and adult translations in Philadelphia for about fifteen years. He spent his days as a potter's apprentice for his sister, desperate for a job. He began writing advertising copy and began to receive more royalties for his translations, prompting him to buy a house for his family in Kellytown at the end of 1948. However, he resigned after three months, requiring his wife to work in a textile mill to make ends meet. Alexander continued to write assiduously, but no publishers had paid him for seven years.

In the New Directions Annual, one of his short stories, "The Amazing Symphony" (1949), was published, a surrealistic piece based on Berlioz's remarks on the Symphonie fantastique. Alexander's breakthrough was his book And Let the Credit Go (1955), his first autobiographical work in which he concentrated on his early years as a bank messenger in his youth. My Five Tigers (1956), his second book about his cats, was released, carrying on the trend of writing about topics that are familiar to him. He found work as a copyeditor and a cartoonist, where he had spent his remaining four adult books. Janine is French (1959) and My Love Affair with Music (1960), two semi-autobiographical books: Alexander co-authored Park Avenue Vet (1960), a group of cats, with Louis Camuti. The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals later commissioned their history, which Alexander wrote about as Fifty Years in the Doghouse (1964). During that time, he wrote two non-fiction books for children and biographies for August Bondi and Aaron Lopez, which were the former recipients of the National Jewish Book Award in 1959. Time Cat (1963), Alexander's second book in the fantasy genre, was his first of the genre: Time Cat (1963). It was later described as "the most innovative and liberating experience of my life." The novel tells the story of a cat that can return to its former lives in different time periods, which Alexander researched thoroughly. William Michael Ryan saved animals as part of his work as a special agent for the ASPCA, fifty years in the Doghouse (1964), reprinted as Send for Ryan.

He then specialized in children's fantasy, the subject of his best-known works, at nearly forty years old. His wartime service in Wales introduced him to castles and scenery that would be used in many of his books. Alexander, especially Mabinogion, was particularly fascinated with Welsh mythology. The novel The Book of Three is based on a fragment from Myvyrian Archaiology. Alexander opted for a trilogy called The Sons of Llyr, which was published by Henry Holt and Company. Alexander resisted simplifying the Welsh names, claiming that they gave the book a certain mood and strangeness. The Chronicles of Prydain began after the first book, The Book of Three (1964), was published. In 1965, The Black Cauldron, the second book in the series, was published. Alexander, who began with The Castle of Llyr (1966), felt his tale needed to be told in four books rather than three, and he wrote his fourth and final book The High King of Prydain. During this time, he was also an associate editor at the Delaware Valley Announcer. Alexander hastily concluded The High King, afraid he will not be able to finish his epic after a near-death experience. However, Ann Durell, his editor, suggested that he write a fourth book in tribute to The High King (1968) and The Prince of Llyr (1968); this book became Taran Wanderer (1967). The five books explore a young man named Taran, who aspires to be a sword-bearing hero but has only the title Assistant Pig-Keeper. He goes from youth to maturity, and he must determine whether or not he wants to be the High King of Prydain. Alexander wrote two spin-off children's books from the Prydain series Coll and His White Pig (1965) and The Truthful Harp (1967). In 1969, Alexander received the Newbery Medal for The High King.

The Marvelous Misadventures of Sebastian (1970), Alexander's book, was rejected after its first submission, and he rewrote it three times before it was published. In 1971, it received the National Book Award. He wrote two picture books: The King's Fountain (1971), in which he collaborated with writer Ezra Jack Keats, and The Four Donkeys (1972). In 1973, he wrote The Cat Who Wanted to Be a Man. The Foundling: And Other Prydain Stories of Prydain, a companion book to the Prydain series, was released the same year Alexander published The Foundling: And Other Tales of Prydain. Alexander was author-in-residence at Temple University from 1970 to 1974, following Prydain's success. He once described it as educational for him and as "rather like being a visiting uncle," who has a marvelous time with his nephews and nieces, but then goes back to the parents to deal with threats of whooping cough, mending socks, and blackmailing the children to sort out the mess in their rooms. When suffering from depression and releasing it in 1975, Alexander wrote The Wizard in the Tree. Arbican was based on Alexander and his personal struggles. In 1977, he published The Town Cats, which attracted a more favourable critical response than The Wizard in the Tree. His next book, The First Two Lives of Lukas-Kasha, set in a fantasy world based on 15th-century Persia, was published in 1978. It was named both the Silver Slate Pencil Award in Holland and the Austrian Book Award in Austria.

Westmark (1981 to 1984) and Vesper Holly (1987 to 2005), Alexander's other fictional series. In a fictional European republic about 1800, Westmark includes a former printer's apprentice who was instrumental in the revolt and civil war. Vesper Holly, a wealthy and spirited Philadelphia orphanage, has lived in several fictional countries since the 1870s. The Fortune-Tellers (1992), a picture book illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman, caused some controversies. Some believed that the tale was European in origin and hence inappropriate for its African setting. The Golden Dream of Carlo Chuchio was Alexander's last book, published in August 2007.

Alexander helped develop the children's literary journal Cricket and served on its editorial board. He served on the library committee of World Book Encyclopedia in 1974 and 1982, as a member of the Friends of the International Board on Books for Young People. Alexander maintained a slew of hours, rising at 4 a.m. and late afternoon, before enjoying his sole meal with his wife. Even as he did not feel inspired, he maintained his routine, saying that he could not depend on inspiration alone. He corresponded with followers who had occasion visited him in his house.

Alexander died of cancer on May 17, 2007, just a few weeks after his wife's death of sixty-one years. Madeleine Khalil, his stepdaughter, had predeceased both him and her mother in 1995. He was saved by his five step-grandchildren and five step-grandchildren. He is buried at Drexel Hill's Arlington Cemetery.

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