E E Ellsworth

[SBC]

Has anyone read any E.E. Ellsworth? I just came across The Magic Chestnut which looked interesting. I have added some biographical information about her (very limited!) I found online. It looks like she published one school story (Doctor Noreen) and a bunch of animal stories for children between the 1930s and 1940s with Blackie and Luttersworth. She was likely British? I'm curious to know if anyone has come across her books?

[Abigail]

SBC wrote: "Has anyone read any E.E. Ellsworth? I just came across The Magic Chestnut which looked interesting. I have added some biographical information about her (very limited!) I found onl..."

I am familiar with her only because of Doctor Noreen, which I have not read, but hope to.

Her entry in The Encyclopaedia of Girls' School Stories: Volume One is speculative, as the authors weren't able to 100% verify that their research was accurate, and that the person they found was the same as the author. That said, they provide the following information:

E.E. Ellsworth
(Edith Ellen Bennett Ellsworth)
1886-1956

The only Edith Ellen Ellsworth to be found was born Edith Ellenn Bennett on 2 July 1886; she married Alvah Edgar Roy Ellsworth (a Canadian) in 1917 and lived with him in Hastings and St Leonards-on-Sea before dying on 12 June 1956. This makes her rather older than one might expect, but she was a school teacher, both before her marriage and in 1939; she had two sons and a daughter.

[SBC]

Oh, thanks, Abigail! That's really good to know. I think the biographical information I found online must have come from the same source, so it's good to know the original source and how reliable it might be. Would be interesting to see some reprints of her work. :)

[Kirsten]

Hello Abigail,

I used to own The Magic Chestnut in my homeschool library, but I must've sold it because it is no longer there. Ellsworth is not in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Children's Literature so I can't give you a bio there sorry. I can recall the book being a sweet little book. I have quite a few Lutterworth-published books and they tend to be Sunday School-type gift books with a Christian/moral theme.

[SBC]

Hi Kirsten, that's nice to hear - I would like to read The Magic Chestnut one day! I'll keep it on my to-read list and maybe I'll stumble across an affordable copy :)