Dick King-Smith
Dick King-Smith, born on March 27, 1922, in Bitton, Gloucestershire, England, was a notable children's author celebrated for his engaging animal tales. Raised in a middle-class environment with a strong affection for animals, he served as a lieutenant in the Grenadier Guards during World War II before embarking on a diverse career path that included farming and teaching. After leaving the military, he farmed for two decades and explored various occupations, ultimately earning a bachelor's degree in education from Bristol University in 1975. King-Smith began his writing career later in life, achieving recognition with his book "Daggie Dogfoot," which garnered several accolades.
His most famous work, "Babe: The Gallant Pig," published in 1983, tells the heartwarming story of an orphaned pig raised by a sheepdog, showcasing themes of friendship and identity. This book not only won acclaim but was also adapted into a successful film that received an Academy Award in 1996. King-Smith's storytelling style often draws comparisons to earlier British authors like Beatrix Potter and Kenneth Grahame, who also skillfully anthropomorphized animals in their narratives. Through his works, King-Smith has made a significant impact on children's literature, enriching the genre with imaginative and beloved characters.
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Dick King-Smith
Author
- Born: March 27, 1922
- Birthplace: Bitton, Gloucestershire, England
- Died: January 4, 2011
Biography
Born on March 27, 1922, in the small town of Bitton in Gloucestershire, England, Dick King-Smith is the son of Ronald King-Smith, a paper mill owner, and Grace Boucher King-Smith. His formative years were marked by middle-class comforts and a love for animals. He attended Marlborough College from 1936 to 1940 but left to serve in the Grenadier Guards during World War II. During his military service from 1941 to 1946, he earned the rank of lieutenant and was favorably mentioned in a number of dispatches. It was also during the war that he married his childhood sweetheart Myrle England, and the couple later had three children: Juliet Clare, Elizabeth Myrle, and Giles Anthony Beaumont King-Smith.
After he left military service, King-Smith farmed in Gloucestershire for twenty years, from 1947 to 1967, on property owned by his father’s paper mill. However, he eventually was forced to give up farming because of a lack of profit. He then tried his hand at a number of other occupations, including working for three years in a shoe factory, before returning to college to finish his undergraduate education at Bristol University, where he earned a bachelor’s of education degree in 1975. He taught at Farmborough Primary School outside of Bath, England, from 1975 to 1982.
During this period, relatively late in his life, King-Smith tried his hand at writing. His second book for children, Daggie Dogfoot (1980), was a runner-up for the Guardian Award; the same volume, published in the United States as Pigs Might Fly, won an American Library Association Notable Book citation in 1982. That year, at the age of sixty, he retired from teaching and partially on the strength of his publishing debut, King-Smith found himself on British television as a presenter for various children’s programs, including Tumbledown Farm, Rub-a-Dub-Dub, and Pob’s Programme.
Although his output in the last twenty-five years has been prolific, King-Smith is best known for his classic animal tale Babe: The Gallant Pig, published in England in 1983 as The Sheep-Pig and adapted in 1995 as the film Babe, which won an Academy Award in 1996 for visual effects. The book tells the story of an orphaned pig who is raised by a sheepdog and comes to acquire a sheepdog’s skills in herding. King-Smith is often compared to earlier British writers, like Beatrix Potter and Kenneth Grahame, who also anthropomorphized animals and made them the heroes of their fiction.