Eleanor Farjeon (13 February 1881 – 5 June 1965) was an English author of children's stories and plays, poetry, biography, history and satire.
Several of her works had illustrations by Edward Ardizzone. Some of her correspondence has also been published. She won many literary awards and the Eleanor Farjeon Award for children's literature is presented annually in her memory by the Children's Book Circle, a society of publishers. She was the sister of thriller writer Joseph Jefferson Farjeon and composer Harry Farjeon.
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Biography
N.B.: The biographies listed under the "Bibliography" subhead below do not eliminate the need for specific citations within the article.
Eleanor Farjeon was born on 13 February 1881. Eleanor came from a literary and artistic family, prolific author Benjamin Farjeon and Maggie (Jefferson) Farjeon, the daughter of American actor-producer Joseph Jefferson. Eleanor's two younger brothers, Joseph and Herbert Farjeon, became writers, while the eldest, Harry Farjeon, became a composer.
Farjeon, known to the family as "Nellie", was a small, timid child, who had poor eyesight and suffered from ill-health including severe migraine headaches throughout her childhood. She was educated at home, spending much of her time in the attic, surrounded by books. Her father encouraged her writing from the age of five. She describes her family and her childhood in the autobiographical A Nursery in the Nineties (1935).
She and her elder brother Harry were especially close. Beginning when Farjeon was five, they began a sustained imaginative game in which they became various characters from theatrical plays and literature. This game, called T.A.R. after the initials of two of the original characters, lasted into their mid-twenties. Farjeon credited this game with giving her "the flow of ease which makes writing a delight".