R.I.P. Naomi Lewis, 97 (British poet and translator of H.C. Andersen)

And, as I mentioned, she wrote the introduction to the Puffin edition
of "The Princess and the Goblin."

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article6676322.ece

First paragraphs:

“She has no idea how good she is” — thus said C. H. Rolfe, overheard
by Naomi Lewis (the subject of his comment) at a drinks party some
time in the 1940s, probably hosted by the New Statesman & Nation. It
was an unusual goodness though to be found in the hothouse of
journalistic rivalries, and if Lewis was unaware of it then that was
surely because it was from the start unforced, a second nature.
Indeed, it manifested itself as such throughout her long life in a
succession of modest but perfectly articulated acts of writing,
inimical to displays of literary celebrity.

In essence — and also, quietly, in fact — she was a poet, and it comes
as no surprise to find, in the only book of which she was sole author,
A Visit to Mrs Wilcox (1957), that she likens “the short-term
intricacies of literary essay writing” to the craft of poetry.

Poetry certainly gave her the direction for her life after what she
came to see as a revelatory reading of some verses in a magazine when
she was “round about 6”. That was in Yarmouth where she had been born
in 1911, the daughter of a Russian émigré who had taken the surname of
his English wife. Her years at the town’s high school seem to have
consisted entirely of a vast and energetic plundering of all the books
that she could lay hands on. The family was not well off, but thanks
to this reading and her capacious memory she won a scholarship to
London University where she extended her inexhaustible knowledge of
books and their writers.........

(snip)


WRITINGS BY THE AUTHOR:

A Visit to Mrs. Wilcox (for adults; essays), Cresset Press (London,
England), 1957.


(Author of verse text) The Butterfly Collector, illustrated by Fulvio
Testa, Anderson (London, England), 1978, Prentice-Hall (New York, NY),
1979.


(Author of verse text) Leaves, illustrated by Fulvio Testa, Andersen
(London, England), 1980, Peter Bedrick (New York, NY), 1983.


Once upon a Rainbow, illustrated by Gabriele Eichenauer, Cape (London,
England), 1981.


Come with Us (poems), illustrations by Leo Lionni, Andersen (London,
England), 1982.


(With Janice Thompson) Marco Polo and Wellington: Search for Solomon,
Cape (London, England), 1982.


(With Deborah King) Puffin, Cape (London, England), Lothrop (New York,
NY), 1984.


(With Deborah King) Swan, Cape (London, England), Lothrop (New York,
NY), 1985.


A School Bewitched (based on Edith Nesbit's Fortunatus Rex, or The
Mystery of the Disappearing Schoolgirls), illustrated by Errol Le
Cain, Blackie (London, England), 1985.


The Stepsister, illustrated by Allison Reed, Hutchinson (London,
England), Dial Books (New York, NY), 1987.


(With James Kruess) Johnny Longnose (picture book with poetry by
Lewis), illustrated by Stasys Eidrigevicius, North-South Books (New
York, NY), 1989.


The Mardi Gras Cat (poetry), Heinemann (London, England), 1993.


RETELLER

The Three Golden Hairs: A Story from the Brothers Grimm, illustrated
by Francoise Tresy, Hutchinson (London, England), 1983.


Jutta Ash, Jorinda and Joringel (based on Jorinde und Joringel by the
Brothers Grimm), Andersen (London, England), 1984.


(And author of introduction) Stories from the Arabian Nights,
illustrated by Anton Pieck, Methuen (London, England), Holt (New York,
NY), 1987.


Cry Wolf and Other Aesop Fables, illustrated by Barry Castle, Methuen
(London, England), Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1988.


TRANSLATOR

Haroun Tazieff, South from the Red Sea, Lutterworth Press (London,
England), 1956.


(And author of notes and introduction) Hans Christian Andersen, Hans
Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales, illustrated by Philip Gough, Puffin
(London, England), 1981.


Hans Christian Andersen, The Wild Swans, illustrated by Angela
Barrett, E. Benn (London, England), Peter Bedrick (New York, NY),
1984.


Hans Christian Andersen, The Flying Trunk and Other Stories from Hans
Andersen, Andersen (London, England), Prentice-Hall (New York, NY),
1986.


Heide Helene Beisert, My Magic Cloth: A Story for a Whole Week,
illustrated by Beisert, North-South Books (London, England, and New
York, NY), 1986.


Jutta Ash, Wedding Birds (adapted from a traditional German song),
Andersen (London, England), 1986.


Hans Christian Andersen, The Swineherd, illustrated by Dorothee
Duntze, North-South Books (New York, NY), 1987.


(And author of introduction) Hans Christian Andersen, The Snow Queen,
illustrated by Angela Barrett, Holt (New York, NY), 1988.


(And author of introduction) Proud Knight, Fair Lady: The Twelve Laïs
of Marie de France, illustrated by Angela Barrett, Viking (New York,
NY), 1989.


Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, The Frog Prince, illustrated by Binette
Schroeder, North-South Books (New York, NY), 1989.


Siegfried P. Rupprecht, The Tale of the Vanishing Rainbow, illustrated
by Jozef Wilkon, North-South Books (New York, NY), 1989.


(And author of introduction) Hans Christian Andersen, The Nightingale,
illustrated by Josef Palecek, North-South Books (New York, NY), 1990.


Kurt Baumann, Three Kings, illustrated by Ivan Gantschev, North-South
Books (New York, NY), 1990.


Hans Christian Andersen, Thumbelina, North-South Books (New York, NY),
1990.


Hans Christian Andersen, The Steadfast Tin Soldier, illustrated by P.
J. Lynch, Andersen (London, England), 1991, Harcourt (San Diego, CA),
1992.


Kurt Baumann, The Hungry One: A Poem, illustrated by Stasys
Eidrigevicius, North-South Books (New York, NY), 1993.


Charles Perrault, *** in Boots, illustrated by Stasys Eidrigevicius,
North-South Books (New York, NY), 1994.


(And author of introduction) Hans Christian Andersen, The Emperor's
New Clothes, illustrated by Angela Barrett, Walker (London, England),
Candlewick Press (Cambridge, MA), 1997.


Hans Christian Andersen, Elf Hill: Tales from Hans Christian Andersen,
illustrated by Emma Chichester Clark, Frances Lincoln (London,
England), 1999.


COMPILER

(And author of introduction) Christina Rossetti, Christina Rossetti
(poems), E. Hulton (London, England), 1959.


The Best Children's Books of . . . , six annual volumes, Hamish
Hamilton (London, England), 1963-69.


(And annotator and author of introduction) Emily Brontë, A Peculiar
Music (poems), Bodley Head (London, England), Macmillan (New York,
NY), 1971.


(And annotator) Fantasy Books for Children (short essays on over two
hundred books), National Book League (London, England), 1975, new
edition, 1977.


(And author of introduction and notes) Edith Nesbit, Fairy Stories,
illustrated by Brian Robb, E. Benn (London, England), 1977.


(And author of notes and introduction) The Silent Playmate (collection
of doll stories), illustrated by Harold Jones, Gollancz (London,
England), 1979, Macmillan (New York, NY), 1981.


A Footprint on the Air: An Anthology of Nature Verse, illustrated by
Liz Graham-Yool, Hutchinson (London, England), 1983.


(Contributor and author of essay) Messages: A Book of Poems, Faber &
Faber (London, England), 1985.


Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Grimms' Fairy Tales, illustrated by Lidia
Postma, Hutchinson (London, England), 1985, published as The Twelve
Dancing Princesses and Other Tales from Grimm, Dial Books (New York,
NY), 1986.


William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream, illustrated by Sylvie
Monti, Hutchinson (London, England), 1988.


(Author of introductory accounts of each story) Classic Fairy Tales to
Read Aloud, illustrated by Jo Worth, Kingfisher (New York, NY), 1996.


Rocking Horse Land and Other Classic Tales of Dolls and Toys,
illustrated by Angela Barrett, Candlewick Press (Cambridge, MA),
2000.

"Also author and compiler of other titles. Author of essays for each
of four volumes of Twentieth-Century Children's Writers, St. James
Press (New York, NY), starting 1978. Author of introductions for King
Arthur by Henry Gilbert, Robin Hood, by Louis Rhead, and eight other
books in the 'Henry Holt Little Classics' series; East o' the Sun and
West o' the Moon, translated by George W. Dasent, illustrated by P. J.
Lynch, Candlewick Press (Cambridge, MA), 1995; and The Fairy Tale of
My Life by Hans Christian Andersen, Cooper Square Press, 2000."


Lenona.
.

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