Elizabeth Clark (author)
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Elizabeth Clark | |
|---|---|
| Born | 14 May 1875 Hartlebury Worcestshire |
| Died | 21 April 1972 Winchester |
| Resting place | Kilmeston Hampshire |
| Occupation(s) | Story teller, lecturer, author |
| Years active | 1916-1955 |
Annette Elizabeth Clark (14 May 1875 – 21 April 1972) who was known to her family as Nettie, was a story teller of children's stories, a lecturer in the craft of story telling and the author of ten collections of children's stories published during her lifetime. Her stories were broadcast on the BBC children's programmes.
Early life
Elizabeth Clark [1] was born in 1875 the eldest of six children to Reverend William Maitland Clark and Annette Laura Clark in Hartlebury where her father was headmaster of Hartlebury Grammar School. Four years later the family moved to another school in Hampstead and then, in about 1883, to Kingsgate House in Winchester to start a boys' preparatory school there. They lived at Kingsgate House until 1904 when it was sold to Winchester College. While at Kingsgate House Elizabeth Clark along with her sisters were some of the earliest pupils at the (then) Winchester High School for Girls (now St Swithun's).
Her father subsequently became vicar of Kilmeston some 8 miles east of Winchester. As the eldest daughter in a Victorian/Edwardian vicarage she was expected to assist her parents in the life of the parish. She gradually became aware of her latent gift as a story teller as she began to capture the interest of the village children by telling them fairy stories. She became determined to make story telling her life's work and left home to live in London.
In 1915 she was invited to giving regular Story-hours at the newly-formed Play-Centres. Then in 1916 she gave a course of lectures at the West Ham and District Education Centre. The photograph above is taken from a promotional pamphlet she put out. Around this time an article that appeared in the Evening Standard [2] said “Miss Elizabeth Clark is an idealist. Her stories are related with a sympathetic understanding of what a child wants to know, and she carries her audience with her not only into the well-known world of Grimm and Anderson but along old routes of saga and folk-tale into far lands of East and West....”
After the First World War
In 1919 the London County Council appointed her to give a course of lectures to London teachers which she continued to give twice a year for more than ten years. Meanwhile she was gathering an increasing number of students in the University Training Centres in Scotland.
In 1931 she was invited by the Executive of the National Girl Scouts of America to lecture at their conferences in the East and Mid-West. After a tour of two months she returned to England. On her return she gave a talk to a Luncheon Club in Hull on story-telling in America. The following appeared the Hull Daily Mail
As I write I cannot help still thinking of the delightful way of story-telling which is possessed by Miss Elizabeth Clark, who spoke at the Women's Luncheon Club, Hull, on the art of story-telling in America. I remembered her as soon as she began, and the fact that she had been to the Luncheon Club before, and had enchanted me especially with the tale of a hungry family finding a cabbage in their garden which grew and grew until they had enough to make a good meal and soup for the whole family even giving the “Little Moose a cup o' soup”, to use the wording of a child to whom she had previously told it.
She really is a refreshing person, and makes one feel young again as well as becoming extremely envious of her art. I think, too, she makes our next feeble attempt at story-telling easier, because she makes you realise that to understand a story people must really “see” in their mind the objects spoken of. She always gives a vivid picture, and you have no doubt as to what the people in the story are like, what the surroundings look like. [3]
Her 1933 publication Twenty Tales for Telling was dedicated to the Girl Scouts of the United States of America and includes a story Jack-in-the-Pulpit based on her experiences in New England.[4] Alexander Haddow wrote in a review of this collection about Elizabeth Clark's power of telling stories Those who have heard her tell a story know what a perfect artist she is, how she lives her part, what perfect command of her voice and what a gift of expression she has. He had heard her speak and wondered how a girl of eight would react to the printed text. Having read them all, the girl to whom he gave the book pronounced them all lovely leaving the reviewer with the strong impression that Miss Clark's charm had come through in print. There's a sweetness in her English and a simplicity both in vocabulary and construction that make it particularly suitable for children. [5]
She lived in the Notting Hill area of London during the inter war years, returning to Winchester before the second world war where she lived with her sister Dorothy who taught Mathematics at St Swithun's. She continued to lecture regularly and widely in England and Scotland. [3] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]
Elizabeth Clark's stories were broadcast on the BBC children's programme Children's Corner between 1924 and 1926 sometimes told by others sometimes told by her. Similarly her stories could be heard during the war years between 1940-1944 and later from 1961-1965 on Children's Hour. Some were subsequently told on the BBC's TV Jackanory programme in 1979. [11]
In 1951 she wrote to the Director of Studies, Mr Hardie, at the Training College in Aberdeen explaining she would find it difficult to continue her regular visits to Aberdeen. However she continued to tell stories nearer home. She died in Winchester in April 1972 and is buried at Kilmeston.
In 1995 Winchester City Council included in a citywide literary festival an exhibition entitled Hampshire Daughters, three women writers with Winchester connections: Jane Austen, Charlotte Yonge and Elizabeth Clark who were born approximately 50 years apart.[12]
Technique and sources of material
For the material for her stories she drew upon folk lore world wide, from history, legend and the Bible. Stories to Tell and How to Tell Them [13] and More Stories and how to Tell Them [14] each have an introduction on the art of story telling and following each story some comments about, for example, its origin and tips on how to tell or read it.
For the tales from legend she explains where she found the tale and how and why she adapted it. In The Old Woman and the Pixies and the Tulips she 'builds' the little white house in detail, its garden and all its flowers until the scene stands clear and the action can begin.[13] : 126–137 Again and again in her notes she urges setting the scene slowly and without hurry for the listeners to be able place themselves in context. “...unless listeners have a perfect idea of the “geography” of the story, they will not be able to grasp the situation as they should". There is often a moral as in the Norse folk-tale Jonathan John and his Wife, but earlier versions she felt had been brief and concentrated too much on the quarrel between man and wife, and a bias against Jonathan which she sought to rebalance.[13] : 72–81 . Others like the Old Woman who Lived in a Vinegar Bottle [14] : 47–60 and Good Luck and Mrs Featherfuss [15] : 125–136 each have a lesson too, but after finishing it the reader, young or old, is left to decide for themselves what that lesson is.
In her telling of Bible stories, as in A Little Book of Bible Stories, she evokes the context for biblical events using a language which is timeless. The reader feels present while reading the story of Moses and Miriam and The Little Ark of Rushes. [16] : 77–84 Other legendary stories from the Middle East [17] : 114–123 , Japan [15] : 42–52 [18] : 68–96 , India [14] : 77–85 and Russia [4] : 168–176 transport the reader to these 'far off lands' to hear the stories.
She often drew on her own experiences as in for example the Elizabeth Ann Stories about her own childhood in which things happen to, or are made to happen by, Elizabeth Ann and her sister Ruth Mabel (her younger sister in real life). [4] : 7 : 94–101 : 102–103 [18]: 92–103
Many of her stories were initially published in the periodical Child Education [19]. For example, between January 1944 and December 1946 she published seven short stories about a little girl called Polly and her great-grandmother. These were later included in Tales for Jack and Jane [20].
Contemporary events gave rise to stories too. One of her original stories (as opposed to retold legends) Father Christmas and the Donkey [21], which was first published in 1942 as The Donkey that Helped Father Christmas[22]: 98–108 , was written following the London blitz in World War II and for children evacuated as a result. Two of the four boys in the original story were evacuees from the blitz.
Her love of animals shines through all her collections. Sometimes it's the interactions amongst animals alone as in Father Sparrow's Tug of War [13] : 82–92 or involving humans too (albeit very briefly) Robin Redbreast's Thanksgiving[13] : 138–150 and not forgetting of course Father Christmas and the Donkey.
Publications
| Stories to tell and How to Tell Them | University of London Press. 1927 |
| Practical Infant Teacher | Isaac Pitman & Sons. 1928 |
| More Stories and How to Tell Them | University of London Press. 1928 |
| The Tale that had no Ending and Other Stories | University of London Press. 1929 |
| Twenty Tales for Telling | University of London Press. 1933 |
| Standard Bearers | University of London Press. 1934 |
| Tales for Jack and Jane | University of London Press. 1936 |
| The Elizabeth Clark Story Books (4 booklets) | University of London Press. 1936 |
| A Little Book of Bible Stories | University of London Press. 1938 |
| Tell Me a Tale | University of London Press. 1938 |
| Twilight and Fireside | University of London Press. 1942 |
| Sunshine Tales for Rainy Days | University of London Press. 1948 |
Some stories have been reprinted since her death:
| Stories to Tell | Brockhampton Press 1974 |
| Country Tales to Tell | Hodder & Stoughton. 1978 |
| Tales for All Seasons | Hodder & Stoughton. 1986 |
| Country Tales | Hodder Children’s Books. 1996 |
| Father Christmas and the Donkey Illustrated by Jan Ormerod |
Penguin Books. 1993 Translated into German, Italian, Swedish and Japanese |
| Elizabeth Clark Story Books Vols I and II | Pikku Publishing. 2015 |
| Elizabeth Clark Story Books Vols III and IV | Pikku Publishing. 2016 |
| Das Eselchen und der Weihnachtsmann | Coppenrath. 2016 |
| Das Eselchen und der Weihnachtsmann text only in collection Tierisch tolle Weihnachten |
Coppenrath. 2016 |
References
- ^ "Death of Miss Elizabeth Clark: Lecturer and Story-teller". Hampshire Chronicle. 1972-04-28.
- ^ "The Magic of Story-Telling: Miss Elizabeth Clark's Fairy Tales of the Steppes", Evening Standard and St James's Gazette, p. 13, 1916-04-30
- ^ a b "The Art of Story-Telling". Hull Daily Mail. 1932-03-11. p. 5.
- ^ a b c Clark, Elizabeth (1933). Twenty Tales for Telling. University of London Press. p. 11-21,.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) - ^ Haddow, Alexander (28 April 1933). "Twenty Tales for Telling". The Scottish Educational Journal, Monthly Book Supplement.
- ^ "Story-Building and Story-Telling". Derbyshire Times and Chesterfield Herald. 1933-04-01. p. 18.
- ^ "Scottish Girl Guides : "Handrails" for Guides". The Scotsman. 1935-10-28. p. 14.
- ^ "Art of Story-Telling". Morpeth Herald. 1937-10-01. p. 12.
- ^ "Miss Clark in Motherwell". Motherwell Times. 1939-02-24. p. 5.
- ^ "Tables Turned on Wearside teachers". Sunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette. 1951-04-20. p. 6.
- ^ "BBC Genome Beta 1923-2009". Retrieved 27 November 2016.
- ^ Programme for A Celebration of Literature in Winchester 15th-24th September 1995. Published by The Special Events Unit, Winchester Tourist Information Centre
- ^ a b c d e Clark, Elizabeth (1927). Stories to Tell and How to Tell Them. University of London Press.
- ^ a b c Clark, Elizabeth (1928). More Stories and How to Tell Them. University of London Press.
- ^ a b Clark, Elizabeth (1929). The Tale that had no Ending. University of London Press.
- ^ Clark, Elizabeth (1938). A Little Book of Bible Stories. University of London Press.
- ^ Clark, Elizabeth (1936). Tales for Jack and Jane. University of London Press.
- ^ a b Clark, Elizabeth (1938). Tell me a Tale. University of London Press.
- ^ Child Education. Published by Evans Brothers Limited, 44-48 Clarence Road, St. Albans, Herts.
- ^ Clark, Elizabeth (1948). Sunshine Tales for a Rainy Day. University of London Press.
- ^ Clark, Elizabeth (1993). Father Christmas and the Donkey. Penguin Books.
- ^ Clark, Elizabeth (1942). Twilight and Fireside. University of London Press.
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