Monjo, F.N.

F. N. (Ferdinand Nicolas) Monjo was born August 28, 1924 in Stamford, Connecticut. He graduated from Columbia University in 1946 and worked as an editor and later assistant director and vice president and editorial director in Books for Boys and Girls at several major publishing companies. In 1968 he published his first book for children, Indian Summer, the story of a frontier woman's struggle to save her family. During the 1970s Monjo published many other works of historical fiction, most written from a child's point of view, in an effort to humanize our forefathers. Critics praised his writing style for making the child's voice authentically his own, and also lauded his attention to detail and historical fact. Critics also praised his writing style for giving children a fresh and appealing look at any number of otherwise overworked periods of history, and called him one of the best in the writing of easy-reading history books. Monjo received several honors for his books. He died on October 9, 1978. Biographical Sources: Something About the Author, vol. 16 Twentieth Century Children's Writers, 3rd ed. pp. 689-690

From the guide to the F. N. Monjo Papers, 1970-1980, (University of Minnesota Libraries Children's Literature Research Collections [clrc])

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