Esther Forbes(1891-1967)
- Writer
American novelist Esther Forbes was born in 1891 in Westborough, Massachusetts. Her family was strongly rooted in Massachusetts history, going back to colonial times, and in fact one of her ancestors--a young female--died in a jail in Cambridge in the 1600s while awaiting trial on charges of witchcraft.
She graduated from Massachusetts' Bradford Academy in 1912, and from 1914-18 attended the University of Wisconsin. After her return to Massachusetts she secured a job with the prestigious publishing house of Houghton Mifflin as a member of the editorial staff. She left the company after her 1926 marriage (which ended in divorce in 1933). She published her first novel, "O Genteel Lady", in 1926, which was--as were many of her works--about life in colonial-era Massachusetts. She published several more novels before releasing her most ambitious effort, "Paradise", in 1937, a history of colonial Massachusetts up to the King Phillip's War in 1675. In 1942 she published a well-received biography of one of the heroes of early American history, Paul Revere, entitled "Paul Revere and the World He Lived In". Her best-known novel, however, would probably be "Johnny Tremain", the story of a teenage boy who finds himself caught up in the American Revolution. It was made into a film by Walt Disney Studios, Johnny Tremain (1957), which, though criticized by some for straying too far from the book, was nevertheless very successful.
She graduated from Massachusetts' Bradford Academy in 1912, and from 1914-18 attended the University of Wisconsin. After her return to Massachusetts she secured a job with the prestigious publishing house of Houghton Mifflin as a member of the editorial staff. She left the company after her 1926 marriage (which ended in divorce in 1933). She published her first novel, "O Genteel Lady", in 1926, which was--as were many of her works--about life in colonial-era Massachusetts. She published several more novels before releasing her most ambitious effort, "Paradise", in 1937, a history of colonial Massachusetts up to the King Phillip's War in 1675. In 1942 she published a well-received biography of one of the heroes of early American history, Paul Revere, entitled "Paul Revere and the World He Lived In". Her best-known novel, however, would probably be "Johnny Tremain", the story of a teenage boy who finds himself caught up in the American Revolution. It was made into a film by Walt Disney Studios, Johnny Tremain (1957), which, though criticized by some for straying too far from the book, was nevertheless very successful.
