Elizabeth George Speare

On November 21, 1908, Elizabeth George Speare was born in Melrose, Massachusetts. After finishing degrees from Boston University, she taught in the Massachusetts schools, then married and moved to Connecticut. When her children entered junior high school, she began writing articles and eventually books for children.

One thing that distinguishes Speare from other writers is how few books she created—and how much acclaim they all received. Four novels—Calico Captive, The Witch of Blackbird Pond, The Bronze Bow, The Sign of the Beaver—and one work of nonfiction, Life in Colonial America, constitute her entire output. Yet for these five books, she won two Newbery Medals and one Newbery Honor, a record of excellence unsurpassed by others. Not only did Mrs. Speare never write a bad book—she never published a bad paragraph! Because her output was so selective, she could work, and rework, every sentence to get her prose exactly right.

She also found one of the great editors of children’s books, Mary Silva Cosgrave of Houghton Mifflin. After Mary received Speare’s unsolicited manuscript that was based on the diary of Susanna Johnson, she reviewed the entire diary and sent Speare comments. Amazed that an editor, who had not yet signed up a book, would take so much trouble, Speare began a happy partnership with Mary. Together they crafted Calico Captive, about Susanna’s sister Miriam, also taken captive with her sister.

Mary always maintained that The Witch of Blackbird Pond arrived on her desk letter perfect. She merely changed one comma to a semicolon. To create this book, Speare turned to her own town of Wethersfield, Connecticut. One day while walking with her husband Alden she felt the presence of a solitary young woman. Chosing 1687 as the year for the novel, the time of the Connecticut Charter, Speare drew on actual testimonies from local witchcraft trials. Kit Tyler, an orphan immigrant from the Barbadoes, arrives unexpectedly at the home of her aunt and uncle in the town. Although everything seems strange at first, Kit finds a friend in the reclusive Hannah Tupper, a Quaker who lives on Blackbird Pond; then the town turns on Hannah, branding her as a witch.

Although Newbery deliberations are kept secret, in the case of The Witch of Blackbird Pond, the committee broke precedent and stated that Speare’s gem had received a rare unanimous vote on the first ballot. This book, published during the McCarthy era, explored another period of time, Colonial Connecticut, and featured an innocent woman believed to be a witch. Although today readers don’t think of The Witch of Blackbird Pond as being linked to Communist blacklisting, those of its time period would not have missed Speare’s impassioned cry for justice.

I was fortunate to know and work with Elizabeth George Speare. Dignified, intelligent, soft-spoken but articulate, Speare was beloved not only by Mary Silva Cosgrave but by all those  in the publishing house. Speare’s career should encourage all writers; they don’t have to write hundreds of books to get a classic—they just have to write one great book.

Here’s a passage from The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare: