Sawyer, Ruth

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SAWYER, Ruth

Born 5 August 1880, Boston, Massachusetts; died 3 June 1970, Hancock, Maine

Daughter of Francis M. and Ethelinda Smith Sawyer; married Albert C. Durand, 1911; children: one son and one daughter

The only daughter among the five children of an importer, Ruth Sawyer spent her early years on New York City's Upper East Side, summering with the family in Maine; both areas provided subjects and settings for her writings. Sawyer often tagged after her brothers, and undoubtedly the very real and attractive boy protagonists in her stories arose from the warm relationship she had with them. Although Sawyer's father often read aloud from Stevenson and Twain and her mother frequently sang ballads and read from the Bible, it was the folk stories told by her Donegal nurse that made the greatest impression upon Sawyer and awakened in her the love for traditional tales and the wonder of storytelling.

After two years at the Garland Kindergarten Training School in Boston, Sawyer began storytelling and collecting in Cuba, where she went at twenty as a volunteer to help organize kindergartens for orphans of the Spanish-American War. At Columbia University, Sawyer studied folklore and storytelling, at the same time telling stories in schools, libraries, and missions inNew York City and doing features for the Sun. She collected tales in Ireland in 1905 while on assignment for the Sun, and later in Europe and Mexico.

In 1911 Sawyer married an ophthalmologist and went to live in Ithaca, New York. They had a son and a daughter. Although Sawyer's earlier works have not endured and some of the later works seem contrived and sentimental, the juvenile works that rose out of her personal experiences at home and abroad have justly enjoyed lasting popularity. Sawyer's 1931 Spanish trip, described in the graphic My Spain (1941), produced Toño Antonio (1934), the humorous story of a boy who travels to Malaga with a herd of playful goats after his family has come upon hard times. Based upon a chance meeting with a shepherd boy at a bakery shop, Toño Antonio conveys a strong sense of the Spanish countryside and character. Picture Tales from Spain (1936) consists of fresh and vivid traditional stories, including the lively "The Flea."

The Least One (1941), a realistic story of the relationship between the son of a burden-carrier and his gray burro, is a warm, genuine account of the life of Mexican peasants and was commissioned by UNESCO for translation into several languages. Among the most highly acclaimed of Sawyer's works are her two autobiographical novels, Roller Skates (1936) and its sequel, The Year of Jubilo (1940). In Roller Skates, as ten-year-old, free-spirited Lucinda Wyman, Sawyer records vividly and sensitively her year in the 1890s with the Misses Peters while her parents are traveling in Europe, a time she spends skating around New York City, involving herself in the lives of the people she meets, most of whom really existed. The Year of Jubilo takes Sawyer to Maine after the death of her father.

Sawyer especially enjoyed the Christmas season, and her several collections of holiday folk tales, particularly The Long Christmas (1941) and Joy to the World (1961), are perennial favorites. The best loved and most widely known of Sawyer's Christmas tales is "The Voyage of the Wee Red Cap," told to her by an itinerant tinker at a crossroads in Ireland. Eleven more traditional stories are included in The Way of the Storyteller (1942), in which Sawyer presents her philosophy of storytelling and gives advice about telling tales and putting together a story hour.

Marked by warmth of tone, love of life, and confidence in the goodness of people, Sawyer's writings hold up the old virtues of hard work, perseverance, and faith in God. Always present, regardless of genre, is the sense of the storytelling situation, the effect of Sawyer's sharp eye for ethnic detail, keen ear for the cadence of common speech, and leisurely and loving narrative manner. Sawyer's ability to invest with new life old magic and legend made her the acknowledged great lady of American storytelling.

Other Works:

The Primrose Ring (1915). This Way to Christmas (1916). A Child's Year Book (1917). Herself, Himself, and Myself (1917). Myself (1917). Seven Miles to Arden (1917). Doctor Danny (1918). Leerie (1920). The Silver Sixpence (1921). Gladiola Murphy (1923). The Tale of the Enchanted Bunnies (1923). Four Ducks on a Pond (1928). Folk House (1932). The Luck of the Road (1934). Gallant (1936). The Christmas Anna Angel (1944). This Is the Christmas (1945). Old Con and Patrick (1946). The Little Red Horse (1950). Maggie Rose (1952). Journey Cake, Ho! (1953). A Cottage for Betsy (1954). The Enchanted School House (1956). The Year of the Christmas Dragon (1960). Dietrich of Berne and the Dwarf King Laurin (with E. Mollès, 1963). Daddles: The Story of a Plain Hound-Dog (1964).