21 Facts About Ruth Sawyer

Ruth Sawyer was an American storyteller and a writer of fiction and non-fiction for children and adults.

Ruth Sawyer is best known as the author of Roller Skates, which won the 1937 Newbery Medal.

Ruth Sawyer received the Children's Literature Legacy Award in 1965 for her lifetime achievement in children's literature.

Ruth Sawyer was the youngest of five children, was the only daughter of Francis Milton and Ethalinda Smith Sawyer.

The product of a wealthy family, Ruth Sawyer had an Irish nanny named Joanna, who inspired her love and appreciation of storytelling.

Ruth Sawyer received her BS in education from Columbia in 1904.

Ruth Sawyer then went to work for the New York school system, telling stories to people born overseas.

Ruth Sawyer wrote articles for The New York Sun, which twice sent her to Ireland to study.

Ruth Sawyer worked for the Cornell University Extension Services from 1923 to 1933, traveling through rural New York telling stories and lecturing about books.

In 1931, though Spain was already torn by factions of the upcoming Civil War, Ruth Sawyer spent the year traveling around the country collecting folk tales.

From 1935 to 1945 Ruth Sawyer visited the West Virginia Federal Reformatory for Women every month, telling stories.

Ruth Sawyer's papers are held at St Catherine University in St Paul.

Ruth Sawyer's first book was an adult novel, The Primrose Ring.

The next year Ruth Sawyer published her first book for children, This Way to Christmas.

Ruth Sawyer published one book every year or two for the next twenty years.

Ruth Sawyer's best known book, Roller Skates, was published by Viking Press in 1936.

Ruth Sawyer won the 1937 Newbery Medal from the professional librarians, recognizing it as the previous year's "most distinguished contribution to American children's literature".

The second Ruth Sawyer book published in 1944 was The Christmas Anna Angel.

Ruth Sawyer published several more children's books in the late 1940s and 1950s, including Maggie Rose, Her Birthday Christmas.

Ruth Sawyer wrote the story, a fresh take on the theme of run-away food.

Ruth Sawyer went on to say "There is no one else who can relate Irish stories as she does".