Leighton, Margaret Carver

Margaret Carver Leighton (1896-1987) was an American author of children's books. From 1938 to 1973, she published twenty-one books, including works of adventure fiction and historical fiction.

Margaret (Carver) Leighton was born December 20, 1896, at Oberlin, OH. Her school years were spent in Cambridge, MA, and, during her father's teaching sabbaticals, in France and Switzerland. After graduation from Radcliffe College in 1918, she worked for a publishing house until 1921 when she left to marry Herbert Leighton. Following her husband's untimely death in 1935, she moved to California where she began writing books for young readers. She earned several honors throughout her career including a Commonwealth Club of California Silver Medal for The Singing Cave in 1945, and the 1959 Dorothy Canfield Fisher Memorial Book Award for Comanche of the Seventh. She died June 19, 1987. Source: Something about the Author 52:112 1988.

American author from Oberlin, Ohio. She was awarded the Dorothy Canfield Fisher Memorial Children's Book Award in 1958.

Margaret Carver Leighton was born on December 20, 1896 in Oberlin, Ohio to Thomas Nixon Carver and Flora (Kirkendall) Carver. Her father was a professor at Oberlin College and Harvard University. She attended schools in Cambridge, Massachusetts; France; and Switzerland before obtaining her B.A. degree from Radcliffe College in 1918. On May 5, 1921, she married James Herbert Leighton, and together they raised four children: James Herbert, Mary, Thomas Carver, and Sylvia. They resided in Westfield, New Jersey, and Ballston, Virginia, from 1921-1935.

After her husband's death in 1935, Margaret Carver Leighton relocated to California and began writing books for children. Her subjects were inspired either from her own children (who served as the models for the four Hill children in the "Secret" books), or from historical personages and incidents.

From 1938 to 1973, she published 21 books: Junior High School Plays: Ten Short Plays on the American Epic (1938), The Secret of the Old House (1941), Twelve Bright Trumpets (1942, published in England as The Conqueror, and Other Tales from the Middle Ages ), The Secret of the Closed Gate (1944), The Singing Cave (1945), Judith of France (1948), The Sword and the Compass: The Far-Flung Adventures of Captain John Smith (1951), The Secret of Bucky Moran, (1952), The Story of Florence Nightingale (1952), The Story of General Custer (1954), Who Rides By? (1955), Comanche of the Seventh (1957), The Secret of Smuggler's Cove (1959), Journey for a Princess (1960), Bride of Glory: The Story of Elizabeth Bacon Custer (1962), Voyage to Coromandel (1965), The Canyon Castaways (1966), A Hole in the Hedge (1968), Cleopatra, Sister of the Moon (1969), The Other Island (1971), and Shelley's Mary: A Life of Mary Godwin Shelley (1973).

She was a member of the Westfield, New Jersey, Board of Education from 1930-1934, a member of the Santa Monica, California, Public Library Board of Trustees, the Authors League of America, and P.E.N., serving as president at the Los Angeles center from 1957-1959.

Margaret Carver Leighton died on June 19, 1987, in Santa Monica, California.

(Source: Gale Literary Databases. "Margaret (Carver) Leighton." Contemporary Authors . 22 August 2003. 22 June 2005.)

Margaret (Carver) Leighton was born December 20, 1896, at Oberlin, OH. Her school years were spent in Cambridge, MA, and, during her father's teaching sabbaticals, in France and Switzerland. After graduation from Radcliffe College in 1918, she worked for a publishing house until 1921 when she left to marry Herbert Leighton. Following her husband's untimely death in 1935, she moved to California where she began writing books for young readers. She earned several honors throughout her career including a Commonwealth Club of California Silver Medal for The Singing Cave in 1945, and the 1959 Dorothy Canfield Fisher Memorial Book Award for Comanche of the Seventh . She died June 19, 1987.

Source

Something about the Author 52:112 1988