Ruth Sawyer - Life

Life

Ruth Sawyer, the youngest of five children, was the only daughter of Francis Milton and Ethalinda Smith Sawyer. Sawyer was born on August 5, 1880 in Boston, Massachusetts. While she was still a baby they moved to New York City where she attended private school. The product of a wealthy family, Sawyer had an Irish nanny named Joanna, who inspired her love and appreciation of storytelling. Upon the death of her father, a New York City importer, the family moved to their summer cottage in Maine. There they lived off the land, an experience that Sawyer later described in her novel, The Year of Jubilo. Eventually the family returned to New York and Sawyer attended the Garland Kindergarten Training School for two years.

In 1900 Sawyer left Garland and traveled to Cuba. There she taught storytelling to teachers who were opening kindergartens for children orphaned during the Spanish-American War. After returning to the United States, her work in Cuba helped her obtain a scholarship to Columbia University where she studied storytelling and folk lore. She received her BS in education from Columbia in 1904. She then went to work for the New York school system, telling stories to people born overseas. In 1910 she started the first storytelling program for children for the New York Public Library.

Sawyer also wrote articles for the New York Sun, which twice sent her to Ireland to study. While overseas on those and other trips she collected folk tales and continued learning the art of storytelling, eventually becoming well-known for her folk tale collections and storytelling prowess. Her life experiences frequently gave Sawyer ideas for her books, and she spent her life collecting and telling folk tales and stories. At least one biographer pointed out the parallel between Sawyer and the Brothers Grimm.

In 1911 Sawyer married ophthalmologist Albert C. Durand. They lived in Ithaca, New York, and had two children, Margaret (Peggy) and David. Peggy, a children's librarian, married Robert McCloskey, who later became a famous children's author and illustrator, best known for writing Make Way for Ducklings.

Sawyer worked for the Cornell University Extension Services from 1923–1933, traveling through rural New York telling stories and lecturing about books. In 1931 Sawyer was 51. Though Spain was already torn by factions of the upcoming Civil War, Sawyer spent that year traveling around the country collecting folk tales. While there she met a young boy who would become the model for her book Tono Antonio.

From 1935–1945 Sawyer visited the West Virginia Federal Reformatory for women every month, telling stories. There she met a Hungarian woman who told her about Christmas in her country. This became the basis for Sawyer's The Christmas Anna Angel.

After Sawyer's husband retired in 1946 they moved to Maine, where they lived until resettling in Boston in 1956. In 1965 she received the Regina Medal from the Catholic Library Association for "continued, distinguished contribution to children’s literature". That was also the year she received the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award from the American Library Association.

Sawyer never stopped writing, traveling or telling stories. At age 81 she went to Austria to research the legend of the Dwarf King named Laurin.

Ruth Sawyer, "the great lady of American storytelling", died June 3, 1970, in Maine. Her papers are held at St. Catherine University in St. Paul.