Natalie Babbitt
Natalie Babbitt
Natalie Babbitt is an American writer and illustrator of children's books. For her contributions as a children's writer, she was U.S. nominee for the biennial international Hans Christian Andersen Award in 1982...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionChildren's Author
Date of Birth28 July 1932
CityDayton, OH
CountryUnited States of America
astronomer good high twice
I have always loved astronomy, and being an astronomer once lurked in the back of my mind. But I was never good at algebra. In fact, I flunked it twice in high school.
editor encouraged hard knew verse written
The first two books that I did by myself were long stories in verse. I knew I could do that because I'd written a lot in verse. But, verse stories are hard to sell, so my editor encouraged me to try writing in prose.
wrote
My husband wrote the story for my first book, but then he didn't want to do that anymore. So if I was going to go on being an illustrator, I had to start writing the stories, too.
childhood money prominent sister though wonderful
I had a wonderful mother who wanted my sister and me to have everything, even though money was a very prominent thing we didn't have. But we had a very happy childhood - pretty much ideal, in fact.
beings certainly human war
We human beings do a lot of dumb things, and war is certainly the dumbest.
rocks dying useless
Living's heavy work, but off to one side, the way we are, it's useless, too. It don't make sense. If I knowed how to climb back on the wheel, I'd do it in a minute. You can't have living without dying. So you can't call it living, what we got. We just are, we just be, like rocks beside the road.
philosophy simple magnificent
Like all magnificent things, it's very simple.
blessing dying pieces
But dying's part of the wheel, right there next to being born. You can't pick out the pieces you like and leave the rest. Being part of the whole thing, that's the blessing.
forever just-live live-forever
You dont have to live forever just live.
dream branches facts
Facts are the barren branches on which we hang the dear, obscuring foliage of our dreams.
mother years feelings
my mother always found me out. Always. She's been dead for thirty-five years, but I have this feeling that even now she's watching.
summer dog sorry
the first week of August is motionless, and hot. It is curiously silent, too, with blank white dawns and glaring noons, and sunsets smeared with too much color. Often at night there is lightning, but it quivers all alone. There is no thunder, no relieving rain. These are strange and breathless days, the dog days, when people are led to do things they are sure to be sorry for.
husband wonderful
I have a wonderful husband, and we have had a great life.
reading ohio drawing
I was born and raised in Ohio. During my childhood, I spent most of my time drawing and reading fairy tales and myths.