22 May 2007

Losing one of the greats

Children's fantasy author Lloyd Alexander died on May 17, 2007.

Alexander, 83, was the author of the Prydain Chronicles. The fifth book in that series, The High King won a Newberry Medal in 1969. In 1966, the second book in the series, The Black Cauldron, was a runner-up for the Newberry Medal.

Alexander's last book, The Golden Dream of Carlo Chuchio, is scheduled to be published in August.

Word Nerd first stumbled across The Black Cauldron in third grade thanks to one of those Scholastic book order forms. Not realizing that book was a sequel, she, at the time, didn't get it and gave up on reading it, until the following year when she found the first book, The Book of Three.

After that, she was hooked on the tale of Taran, the apprentice pig-keeper, and his adventures with Hen Wen, the pig, Fflewder Fflam, the bard, and Princess Eilonwy. These characters and books were some of Word Nerd's early inspiration for wanting to be a writer.

It's too bad that the literary world doesn't have a gesture to honor one of its own, the way Broadway dims the lights of theatres. Lloyd Alexander would deserve it.

1 comment:

Stacie Penney said...

I always feel sad to find out that we've lost someone, but even worse when I didn't realize that they were alive and I could have written them.