E. L. Konigsburg

Elaine Lobl Konigsburg (born February 10, 1930) is an American author and illustrator of children's books and young adult fiction. She is the only author to win the Newbery Medal and a Newbery Honor in the same year (1968), with her second and first books respectively: "From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler" and "Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth". Konigsburg won a second Newbery Medal in 1997 for "The View from Saturday", 29 years later, the longest span between any two Newberys awarded to one author.

Biography

Born Elaine Lobl in New York, Konigsburg grew up in small towns in Pennsylvania, the second of three daughters. [ [http://cms.westport.k12.ct.us/cmslmc/resources/authorstudy/authors/konigauto.htm Konigsburg's autobiography] ] As valedictorian, she graduated high school in Farrell, Pennsylvania, and worked briefly as a bookkeeper in a wholesale meat plant to earn money for college. There she met the brother of one of the owners who would later become her husband, David Konigsburg. [ [http://cms.westport.k12.ct.us/cmslmc/resources/authorstudy/authors/konigsbio.htm CMS Library Information System] ]

Konigsburg enrolled in Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh, and earned a degree in chemistry. After graduating, she married David Konigsburg, a graduate student in psychology. She entered graduate school in chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh, but after her husband attained his doctorate, they moved to Jacksonville, Florida, where Konigsburg worked as a science teacher at a school for girls. There she began to think about a new direction for her talents and also became the mother of three children. This new direction would begin after the family moved to Port Chester, New York, and she started art lessons and then began writing. Her first novel "Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth" was inspired by her daughter's experiences moving to a new home. [ [http://cms.westport.k12.ct.us/cmslmc/resources/authorstudy/authors/konigauto.htm Konigsburg's autobiography] ]

Notes

Works

*1967 "Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth"
*1967 "From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler"
*1969 "About the B'nai Bagels"
*1970 "(George)"
*1971 "Altogether, One at a Time"
*1973 "A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver",Eleanor of Aquitaine
*1974 "The Dragon in the Ghetto Caper"
*1975 "The Second Mrs. Giaconda" (also published as "The Second Mrs. Gioconda")
*1976 "Father's Arcane Daughter", made into the Hallmark movie "Caroline?"
*1979 "Throwing Shadows"
*1982 "Journey to an 800 Number"
*1986 "Up from Jericho Tel"
*1990 "Samuel Todd's Book of Great Colors", a picture book, written and illustrated by Konigsburg
*1991 "Samuel Todd's Book of Great Inventions", a picture book, written and illustrated by Konigsburg
*1992 "Amy Elizabeth Explores Bloomingdale's", a picture book, written and illustrated by Konigsburg
*1993 "T-Backs, T-Shirts, COAT, and Suit"
*1995 "TalkTalk"
*1996 "The View from Saturday"
*2000 "Silent to the Bone"
*2004 "The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place"
*2007 "The Mysterious Edge of the Heroic World"

Awards

*"Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth": 1968 Newbery Honor
*"From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler": 1968 Newbery Medal, 1968 Lewis Carroll Shelf Award; 1970 William Allen White Children's Book Award
*"The View from Saturday": 1997 Newbery Medal
*1999 Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award from Carnegie Mellon University

Web Pages on Konigsburg

* http://www.kidspoint.org/columns2.asp?column_id=1145&column_type=author
* [http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/konigsburg.htm E. L. Konigsburg - Teacher Resource File]
* [http://reference.howstuffworks.com/konigsburg-elaine-encyclopedia.htm HowStuffWorks biography]