Joan Aiken
Joan Delano Aiken (1924-2004) was a British author renowned for her contributions to children's and young adult literature. Born in Rye, Sussex, to an American poet and a Canadian mother, Aiken was homeschooled until the age of twelve, after which she experienced challenges in formal education. Despite early setbacks, including unsuccessful university entrance attempts, she built a career that began with radio scripts and short stories. Following personal tragedy with the death of her first husband, she became a features editor and later a copywriter, all while nurturing her writing ambitions.
Her breakthrough came with the publication of "The Wolves of Willoughby Chase" in 1962, which garnered acclaim from both adult and young readers, establishing her as a prominent writer. Over her lifetime, Aiken authored more than one hundred works across various genres, including poetry, thrillers, and adaptations inspired by Jane Austen. Recognized with numerous awards, including the Edgar Allan Poe Award and an MBE for her services to children's literature, Aiken's legacy endures through her rich storytelling and inventive narratives, ensuring her a lasting place in literary history.
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Joan Aiken
Author
- Born: September 4, 1924
- Birthplace: Rye, Sussex, England
- Died: January 4, 2004
- Place of death: Petworth, England
Biography
Joan Delano Aiken was born on September 4, 1924, in Rye, Sussex, England, the daughter of the American poet Conrad Aiken and his wife Jessie McDonald Aiken, a Canadian. Aiken was homeschooled by her mother until she was twelve, then sent to boarding school at Wychwood near Oxford, England. At first she found the competitive atmosphere stimulating. However, when the school was forced to unite with the Oxford High School, Aiken was so miserable that she became ill and dropped out of school. After failing her entrance examinations for Oxford University, she worked for several employers, including the British Broadcasting Corporation, St. Thomas Hospital in London, and the United Nations Information Office. In 1945, Aiken married Ronald Brown, a journalist. They had two children, John Sebastian and Elizabeth Delano Brown. Ron Brown died of cancer in 1955. In 1976, Aiken remarried Julius Goldstein, an American painter and teacher; from that time on, she alternated between her home in West Sussex and his in Manhattan, New York.
At the age of five, Aiken had decided to become a writer, and during her first marriage she sold both radio scripts and short stories, some of them written when she was at home with her young children. After Brown’s death, however, Aiken had to return to work. She took a job as features editor of the magazine Argosy, supplementing her income by selling stories to various periodicals. Later she became a copywriter for the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency. In 1953, Aiken published All You’ve Ever Wanted, and Other Stories. Another collection of short fiction followed two years later. Then, because she knew that she could do far better financially by writing long fiction, Aiken pulled out a children’s novel that she had written when she was seventeen and entered— unsuccessfully—in a contest. After revising it, she published it in 1960 as The Kingdom and the Cave. However, for years Aiken had been working on an alternative version of nineteenth century history. When the historical fantasy entitled The Wolves of Willoughby Chase finally appeared in 1962, it was as popular with adults as with children. Its success enabled Aiken to become a full-time writer.
Aiken won the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award for The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, a Guardian Award for The Whispering Mountain, and in 1972, Night Fall received an Edgar Allan Poe Award from the Mystery Writers of America for the best juvenile mystery. The Whispering Mountain was a Carnegie Medal honor book in 1968, and Midnight Is a Place was a New York Times outstanding book in 1974. Aiken was also made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for her services to children’s literature.
Although the series called the Wolves of Willoughby Chase comprised her most famous books, when Joan Aiken died on January 4, 2004, she had produced more than one-hundred works. They included books for children, for young adults, and for adults, poetry; plays; fantasies; thrillers; ghost stories; and even comedies of manners, which were presented as sequels to the novels of Jane Austen. Her exceptional craftsmanship, which was evident in every genre she attempted, earned Joan Aiken a permanent place in literary history.