Author Birthdays: Awdry, Clampitt, Jacques

Wed, 06/15/2011 - 9:00am by marshd

June 15th marks the birthday of authors W. Awdry, Amy Clampitt, and Brian Jacques.

W. Awdry was an English children's author and Anglican reverend. His best known works are those in the Railway Series, from which you may know Thomas the Tank Engine.

Awdry created the stories about the railway in order to comfort his young son Christopher, who had the measles. He wrote a total of 26 books in the series; he also wrote other books, but unfortunately, there are no copies available at Michigan libraries.

Amy Clampitt was an American poet who was first published at the age of fifty-eight. Her first collection, The Kingfisher, made her a known and respected poet in 1983.

Clampitt's fifth and last collection was Silence Opens, which Booklist called "dramatic and wry and always in motion." The collection focuses on crossroads, and includes a poem about the legend of Pocahontas.

Brian Jacques was an English writer most known for his Redwall series; all of the characters in Redwall are animals Jacques passed away due to a heart attack in February, but the last Redwall novel, The Rogue Crew, was released early last month.

Jacques wrote other series, including Castaways of the Flying Dutchman, based on the legend of the Flying Dutchman ship and its survivors, cursed with immortality.