Enid Blyton

Author

• Born: August 11, 1897
• Birthplace: East Dulwich, South London, England
• Died: November 28, 1968
• Place of death: Hampstead, London, England

Education: Ipswich High School

Significance: During her lifetime, English writer Enid Blyton published fifteen popular children's books series along with dozens of plays, poems, and essays, totaling more than seven hundred works. Blyton's works spanned multiple literary genres including fantasy, mystery, natural history, and education. Her books became best sellers and were translated into dozens of languages. Even after her death, Blyton's work continued to sell hundreds of thousands of copies annually.

Background

Enid Mary Blyton was born on August 11, 1897, in East Dulwich, South London. Her family relocated to the town of Beckenham in Kent soon after her birth. Blyton grew up in Beckenham with her two younger brothers, Hanly and Carey. Blyton's father, with whom Blyton was extremely close, worked as a clothing wholesaler. Blyton and her father often took long walks through nature and shared many interests, including gardening, music, art, theater, and literature. Blyton idolized her father and learned many things from him. He instilled a strong ethical and moral compass in his daughter from a very young age and always encouraged Blyton to work hard for the things she wanted. Blyton's mother was less enthusiastic about her daughter's artistic interests and expected her to take on a more traditional role as a woman.

Blyton excelled in academics and was very popular among her classmates at St. Christopher's School for Girls in Beckenham. She earned many school awards—usually for English composition—became captain of the lacrosse team, and was named Head Girl in her final two years. Outside her studies, Blyton and her friends founded their own amateur magazine called Dab, which contained some of the young author's earliest stories.

Blyton's parents constantly fought during her youth and eventually separated. Her father moved out, and her mother instructed her to pretend as if her father was away on business when anyone asked. Her father's absence greatly saddened the teenage Blyton, and she coped by spending hours in her room writing stories. She regularly submitted her writings to various publications, but most of her work, except for a few poems, was rejected. Blyton refused to be discouraged, however. She continued to hone her craft throughout her teenage years.

Life's Work

Although Blyton originally intended to advance her education at the Guildhall School of Music, she switched gears in 1916 and decided to train as a teacher instead. That September she began a Froebel-based teacher-training course at Ipswich High School. Blyton cut ties with her mother at this time. She continued to submit her writings to magazines and publishers. Her first documented publication—the poem "Have You…?"—was published in Nash Magazine in 1917.

Blyton completed her teacher training in December 1918 and worked at a boys' preparatory school before becoming a governess to four young boys related to her good friend, Mabel Attenborough. She continued to mail out her writings to publications during her time as a governess. By the early 1920s, Blyton had more than one hundred of her poems, short stories, plays, and reviews published in various periodicals. Her work was often directed at young readers and students. In 1922, her collection of poems titled Child Whispers was published. Shortly thereafter, George Newnes, a publishing firm, commissioned her to write a children's book about the London Zoo. The Zoo Book was published in 1924. That same year, Blyton married Hugh Alexander Pollock, whom she had met while working with George Newnes.

Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, Blyton produced multiple educational books and began editing Sunny Stories for Little Folks magazine. She also regularly contributed to Teacher's World magazine. Blyton published her first novel, The Enid Blyton Book of Bunnies, in 1925. Over the next decade, she published multiple stories, plays, and poems that focused on a variety of topics. In 1934, Blyton published the first of what became her popular Old Thatch series of books, The Talking Teapot and Other Tales. She continued her productive streak through World War II (1939–45), during which her relationship with Pollock deteriorated and eventually ended in divorce in 1942. A year later, she married Kenneth Fraser Darrell Waters.

By the 1950s, Blyton had added several children's book series to her collection of works, including the Circus series, the Secret series, the Famous Five series, and the Adventure series. She also created one of her most enduring characters, Noddy the wooden boy, in 1949. Noddy was popular enough among readers to merit Noddy-themed merchandise sold in stores around England. Blyton later added the Secret Seven books, the Barney Mysteries, the Malory Towers series, and the Six Cousins books to her already lengthy booklist.

Blyton ended her editorship of Sunny Stories in 1952 and launched her own magazine, Enid Blyton's Magazine, the following year. She wrote all the magazine's content apart from the advertisements. Blyton's readers could pay a small fee to join one of her clubs, and these proceeds were donated to children's charities. By the time the magazine folded in 1959, Blyton had raised more than $40,000 for various causes. By the end of the decade, the author's health had begun to decline. She was diagnosed with dementia in the early 1960s. Following her second husband's death in 1967, her physical and mental health rapidly deteriorated. She died on November 28, 1968.

Impact

Many of Blyton's most popular children's book series continued to be published for decades after her death. A number of modern writers have continued Blyton's series and contributed their own stories to her catalogue. Blyton's core message—that her young readers make the most of their lives and become caring, responsible people—helped sell more than six hundred million copies of her books over the years. Following her death, several of Blyton's books were adapted into films and television series, which introduced new generations to her storytelling.

Personal Life

Blyton and Pollock had two daughters: Gillian, born in 1931, and Imogen, born in 1935.

Principal Works: Series

• The Famous Five series, first published 1942
• The Adventure series, first published 1944
• The Six Cousins series, first published 1948
• The Secret Seven series, first published 1949
• The Barney Mysteries, first published 1949
• The Noddy series, first published 1949

Principal Works: Magazines

• Sunny Stories for Little Folks, 1926–35
• Enid Blyton's Sunny Stories, 1937–53
• Enid Blyton's Magazine,1953–9

Bibliography

Bensoussane, Anita. "A Biography of Enid Blyton—The Story of Her Life." The Enid Blyton Society,www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/a-biography-of-enid-blyton.php#19. Accessed 16 Feb. 2017.

"Cave of Books." The Enid Blyton Society, www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/cave-of-books.php. Accessed 16 Feb. 2017.

"Enid Blyton." BBC, www.bbc.co.uk/archive/blyton/. Accessed 16 Feb. 2017.

Singh, Anita. "Enid Blyton Joins JK Rowling and Dan Brown in List of Decade's Biggest Selling Authors." Telegraph, 16 Dec. 2009, www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/6827691/Enid-Blyton-joins-JK-Rowling-and-Dan-Brown-in-list-of-decades-biggest-selling-authors.html. Accessed 16 Feb. 2017.

Stoney, Barbara. Enid Blyton: The Biography. History Press, 1974.