Ruth M. Arthur

Ruth Mabel Arthur Huggins, sometimes misspelt as Higgins[1] (26 May 1905 – 6 March 1979) was a Scottish teacher and author whose books were published under her maiden name as Ruth M. Arthur. She mainly wrote for children and young adults in English.

Ruth Mabel Arthur Huggins
BornRuth Mabel Arthur
(1905-05-26)26 May 1905
Died6 March 1979(1979-03-06) (aged 73)
Pen nameRuth M. Arthur
Occupation
  • writer
  • teacher
NationalityScottish
Alma materFroebel Training College
Period1932–1979
Genre
Spouse
Frederick Newey Huggins
​
​
(m. 1932)​
Children6

Early life

Ruth Mabel Arthur was born to Allan Arthur and Ruth M. Johnston[2] on 26 May 1905 in Lanark,[3] Glasgow, Scotland. She spent her childhood in the countryside outside of Glasgow, she attended St. Columba's School in Kilmacolm, Renfrewshire.[3]

Once she turned 18, she enrolled in Froebel Training College in Roehampton, London.[3] While studying at Froebel, she had several short stories published.[4] Three years later, in 1926, she graduated as a certified kindergarten teacher.[2][3] After graduation, she moved back to Glasgow, where she taught kindergarten at Laurel Bank School for three years.[3] In 1930, she moved to Loughton, Essex, England, where she taught at a local secondary school until 1932.[2][3][5]

Literary career

Early works

In 1932, Arthur got engaged to the solicitor Frederick Newey Huggins, son of George and Jane Daisy Huggins of The Rowans, Four Oaks, Birmingham.[6] They married on 2 September 1932. The same year, her first book, Friendly Stories, etc., was published. Over the next 15 years, Arthur published 6 books suitable for young children, making them age-appropriate for those 6 children she and her husband had in that same time span. As her children grew older, Arthur started to write for the age group they were currently in. In 1957, Arthur started to write books for 7-8 year olds. As her youngest child had grown past that age group, Arthur switched her writing to follow suit. Arthur states:

"I followed my youngest daughter as she grew up. When she grew out of the children's book stage, so did I."[4]

During this period, she wrote four books in the Carolina and Roberto series: Carolina's holiday, and other stories, Carolina's Golden Bird and other stories, Carolina and Roberto, and Carolina and the Sea-horse, and other stories, as well as two others: The Daisy Cow, and other stories of the Channel Islands and A Cottage for Rosemary.[7]

Young Adult fiction

Starting with Dragon Summer in 1962, Arthur switched to writing for young adults. These books, which occupied the intersection between fantasy and gothic romance, were her most popular works. They often included wartime historical backdrops, time slips, and haunted objects.

"Well-constructed and readable.. they provide a useful stepping-stone to the adult fiction of Daphne de Maurier, Mary Stewart and other writers of this kind."[3]

In addition to Dragon Summer, Arthur's other time-slip titles include A Candle in Her Room, Requiem for a Princess, and On the Wasteland. Her ghost stories include The Autumn People/The Autumn Ghosts, and Miss Ghost.[1] The Saracen Lamp revolves around an old object, as does A Candle in Her Room and Requiem for a Princess.[8] After Candlemas/Candlemas mystery is another of her romantic-gothic novels for teenage girls, along with Dragon Summer and Portrait of Margarita.[9] Her other books for young adults include The Whistling Boy, My daughter, Nicola, The Little Dark Thorn, and An Old Magic.[10]

Style

In her most popular books, the ones for young adults, Arthur tended to use the first-person narrative a great deal, relaying events from the viewpoint of the focal character or protagonist as they interact with the world around them. For example, in The Whistling Boy, "[t]he nature and feeling of the characters are explained rather than revealed."[11] A Candle in Her Room has three generations of girls and women in the same family as narrators.[10]

The settings of her books for young adults often have historical backgrounds and are places that Arthur was intimately familiar with.[12] For example, The Saracen Lamp was set in an old house that she was familiar with in the Cotswolds.[13]

Many of her stories for young adults shared similar themes and intertwined history, time, and old objects.

"Ruth Arthur makes constant use of old objects. The list of Arthur's books includes The Saracen Lamp, Requiem for a Princess, using an old carving, and A Candle for her Room using an old doll."[8]

Arthur spends a lot of time on researching historical subjects, usually spending about a year on the first draft.[4] The two main types of books in this series are the timeslip books, which "typically feature a teenage girl on the verge of adolescence, a crisis dramatically resolved through her absorption in an earlier, exemplary life-situation;" and her ghost stories, "in which the process is reversed: Ghosts visit girls in trouble and offer solutions".[1]

Rose Michael notes, "..it was Ruth M Arthur’s tales that affected me the most. Her stories, where a preteen girl trips into another (historic) world where a character is experiencing a similar but more extreme situation, are so convincing that I couldn’t sleep with them in my room." [14]

Awards

Requiem for a Princess was included as a Library of Congress Children's Literature Center Book, in the category of 'Stories for Older Boys and Girls', 1967.[15][16] It is the story of a young girl named Willow who discovers she is adopted, and how she comes to terms with her situation via dreams involving an earlier inhabitant of her home, named Isabel.[17]

Works

According to the author's information in The Autumn People, Arthur's titles published in the United States include Dragon Summer, My Daughter, Nicola, A Candle in Her Room, Requiem for a Princess, Portrait of Margarita, The Whistling Boy, The Saracen Lamp and The Little Dark Thorn as of that printing, which was in 1973.

Translations

Arthur's books have been translated into German, Norwegian,[4] Portuguese, Danish, and Japanese.

Danish
  • En fremmed (The Little Dark Thorn)[26]

German
  • Kleiner dunkler Dorn (The Little Dark Thorn)[27]
  • Wer bist du, Pietro? (Portrait of Margarita)[28]

Norwegian
  • Slik var Margarita (Portrait of Margarita)[29]
  • Møte med Isabella (Requiem for a Princess)[30]

Portuguese
  • O Retrato de Margarida (Requiem for a Princess)

Japanese
  • Purinsesu e no chinkonka (プリンセスへの鎮魂歌) (Requiem for a Princess)[31]

Footnotes

Notes
  1. Also available in Audiobook : English.[21]
  2. Also available in Braille English.[22]
  3. Also available in Audiobook : English.[23]
  4. Also available in Audiobook on Cassette : Cassette recording.[24]
  5. Also available in Braille English.[25]

References
  1. "Encyclopedia of Fantasy (1997): Arthur, Ruth M." Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. Retrieved February 5, 2020.
  2. Reginald, R., ed. (1979). Contemporary Science Fiction Authors II. Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature: a checklist 1700–1974. 2. Macmillan International Higher Education. p. 801. ISBN 0-8103-1051-1.
  3. Ray, Sheila G. (1978). Kirkpatrick, D.L. (ed.). Twentieth-century Children's Writers. Macmillan International Higher Education. p. 46–48. ISBN 978-0-333-23414-3.
  4. "A special correspondent in Melbourne talks to two visiting writers: Children like a mystery story – says English author". Sydney Morning Herald. November 29, 1970. p. 168.
  5. The Writers Directory 1980-82. London: The Macmillan Press Ltd. 1979. p. 41. ISBN 9781349036523.
  6. "Engagement is announced". Dundee Courier & Advertiser. May 19, 1932. Retrieved February 11, 2020 – via The British Newspaper Archive. The engagement is announced between Frederick Newey, son of Mr and Mrs George Huggins, The Rowans, Four Oaks, Birmingham, and Ruth Mabel, daughter of Mr Allan Arthur and stepdaughter of Mrs Arthur, Mandala, Kilmacolm, Renfrewshire.
  7. "Series: Carolina & Roberto". Retrieved February 5, 2020.
  8. Funk, Grace E. (1997). "Here and Then There". Mythlore. 21 (4 (82)): 42–52. doi:10.2307/26812760. ISSN 0146-9339.
  9. Hahn, Daniel; Morpurgo, Michael (2015). The Oxford Companion to Children's Literature. Oxford University Press. p. 37. ISBN 9780199695140.
  10. "Ruth M. Arthur". Goodreads. Retrieved February 5, 2020.
  11. Blishen, Edward (November 3, 1969). "Pushing out the bounds". The Guardian. p. 12.
  12. DePiero, Deborah Lucia (2019). "Ruth M. Arthur". Salem Press Biographical Encyclopedia.
  13. "Writing for the teenage market". The Age. Melbourne. November 25, 1970. p. 29.
  14. Michael, Rose (January 16, 2018). "What I'm Reading". Meanjin Quarterly. Retrieved March 25, 2020.
  15. "Library of Congress Children's Literature Center". Retrieved February 5, 2020.
  16. "Requiem for a Princess". Retrieved February 5, 2020.
  17. Taubel, Sandra (April 10, 1977). "Books for young people discuss adoption". Post-Crescent. Appleton, Wisconsin. p. 10.
  18. Arthur, Ruth M (1932). Friendly Stories, etc. London: G.G. Harrap & Co. OCLC 771085639.
  19. Arthur, Ruth M (1938). Pumpkin Pie. Glasgow: Collins. OCLC 793653798.
  20. Arthur, Ruth M (1938). Mother Goose Stories, etc. OCLC 1065124218.
  21. A candle in her room, Royal Blind Society of New South Wales, 1985, OCLC 219969221
  22. Arthur, Ruth M (1975). Portrait of Margarita. South Yarra, Vic.: Braille and Talking Book Library. OCLC 219851994.
  23. The Saracen lamp, Hear-a-Book, 1983, OCLC 219898726
  24. The little dark thorn, Royal Blind Society Student and Special Transcriptions., 1999, OCLC 226052158
  25. Arthur, Ruth M (1981). Miss Ghost. Kew [Vic.: St. Paul's School for the Blind and Visually Handicapped. OCLC 220105399.
  26. Arthur, Ruth M (1979). En fremmed (in Danish). Margery Gill (translator). Copenhagen: Sommer & Sørensen. ISBN 978-87-7499-337-7. OCLC 61044388.
  27. Arthur, Ruth M. (1974). Kleiner dunkler Dorn. Renate Lotze-Stehle (translator). Stuttgart: Franckh. ISBN 978-3-440-04057-7.
  28. Arthur, Ruth M. (1973). Wer bist du, Pietro?. peb-Bücherei. Ilse Gehle (translator) (1. Aufl ed.). Balve (Sauerland): Engelbert-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-536-01059-0.
  29. Arthur, Ruth M.; Talseth, Anne-Sofie (1968). "Slik var Margarita (Portrait of Margarita)". Nasjonalbiblioteket (in Norwegian). Gill, Margary (illustration, book design). Oslo: Green. Retrieved 2020-02-24.
  30. Arthur, Ruth M.; Kostøl, Elisabet. "Møte med Isabella (Requiem for a princess)". Nasjonalbiblioteket (in Norwegian). Gill, Margery (illustration). Oslo: Green, 1969. Retrieved 2020-02-24.
  31. アーサー, ルース・M (November 1982). プリンセスへの鎮魂歌. National Diet Library Online. Cobalt Series, Shueisha paperbacks (集英社文庫. コバルトシリーズ). Translated by Sugisaki, Kazuko. Shueisha. Retrieved 2020-02-24.


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