Margaret Sutton (January 22, 1903 - June 21, 2001) was the pen name of Rachel Beebe, an American author and teacher who is famous as being the author of the Judy Bolton Series of mystery books, 38 volumes published between 1932 and 1967. In addition to this series, she also wrote the Gail Gardner series, The Magic Maker series, Palace Wagon Family, Jemima, Daughter of Daniel Boone, as well as several other books. [1]
Margaret Sutton was born Rachel Beebe, in Odin, Pennsylvania on January 22, 1903. Her parents were Victor L. Beebe, a historian, musician, and carpenter, and Estella Andrews Beebe. She grew up in Coudersport, near the New York State border. Sutton found a love of storytelling from her mother at an early age. Sutton also loved literature and history, which she probably inherited from her father, who wrote "The History of Potter County." [2]
She attended Rochester Business Institute in New York to become a stenographer. When she graduated, she worked as a secretary and later as a printer. Later, she taught creative writing to adults and many of her students became published authors. [1]
In 1924, she married William Henry Sutton. They had five children together. It wasn't until after she married him, that her writing career began. It started when she wrote stories for William's daughter. Her stories were published in "Picture World," a magazine for children, under the name Rachel B. Sutton. She also wrote book reviews. In 1932, she published her first series book, The Vanishing Shadow, about a girl named Judy Bolton who solves mysteries. The novel was published under a pen name, Margaret Sutton. William died in 1965, and ten years later she married Everett Hunting. [1]
Margaret Sutton and her husband, William, were among the founding members of the South Nassau Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Freeport, N.Y. Additionally, Sutton was an activist in social causes such as fair housing and participated in the historic "March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom" in 1963. [3]
She died at age 98 in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, as Margaret S. Hunting from her second marriage to Everett Hunting. She died of natural causes. [1] Margaret Sutton wrote (but never published) a religious education curriculum, "Letters to Live By", which was taught in several churches. [3] After her death, two of her daughters, Lindsay Stroh and Marjorie Eckstein, rewrote and updated "Letters to Live By" and Marjorie finished the illustrations a few weeks before her death at age 91 in 2017.[ citation needed ]
The first Judy Bolton book, was published in 1932, called ''The Vanishing Shadow.'' Sutton was best known for writing the Judy Bolton mystery series, which sold more than five million copies. Her Judy Bolton books were advertised as all being based on actual events from Sutton's life. Many of the Judy Bolton stories are based on events from Sutton's hometown, Coudersport, Pennsylvania. [1] [2]
Her earlier Judy Bolton books were illustrated by Pelagie Doane, who also illustrated her Magic Maker books.
The last Judy Bolton book that Sutton published was ''The Secret of the Sand Castle,'' in 1967. The series ended in 1967, before the next book The Strange Likeness could be published. However, In 1997, Linda Joy Singleton privately published Judy Bolton: The Talking Snowman, a new Judy Bolton mystery written by Sutton and Singleton. [3] Sutton began the manuscript for this book in 1980, and years later Singleton finished it with help from Sutton. The incidents in this book placed it between the 3rd and 4th books in the series, leading it to be known as book # 3-1/2.
In 2012, with the permission of Margaret Sutton's family, coauthors Kate Duvall and Beverly Hatfield wrote The Strange Likeness based on Margaret Sutton's original title and conversations with the author and her family. It was edited by Margaret Sutton's youngest daughter, Lindsay Sutton Stroh, and illustrated by another daughter, Marjorie Sutton Eckstein. Published by Applewood Books, the volume is #39 in the Judy Bolton Mystery Series.
Sutton wrote many books including the Gail Gardner series; Palace Wagon Family;Jemima, Daughter of Daniel Boone; and The Magic Maker series. [3] Sutton did all her own writing and holds the distinction of having the longest lasting juvenile mystery series written by a single author, unlike the series books written by numerous authors by the Stratemeyer Syndicate. A Shepherd Boy of Australia and The Boys of the Ohio Valley were illustrated with photographs.
Judith Blume is an American writer of children's, young adult, and adult fiction. Blume began writing in 1959 and has published more than 26 novels. Among her best-known works are Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. (1970), Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing (1972), Deenie (1973), and Blubber (1974). Blume's books have significantly contributed to children's and young adult literature. She was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine in 2023.
The Stratemeyer Syndicate was a publishing company that produced a number of mystery book series for children, including Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, the various Tom Swift series, the Bobbsey Twins, the Rover Boys, and others. It published and contracted the many pseudonymous authors who wrote the series from 1899 to 1987, when it was sold to Simon & Schuster.
Carol Ann Shields was an American-born Canadian novelist and short story writer. She is best known for her 1993 novel The Stone Diaries, which won the U.S. Pulitzer Prize for Fiction as well as the Governor General's Award in Canada.
Coudersport is a borough in and the county seat of Potter County, Pennsylvania. It is located approximately 110 miles (180 km) east by south of Erie on the Allegheny River. The population was 2,371 at the 2020 census.
Judy Blundell, pseudonym Jude Watson, is an American author of books for middle grade, young adult, and adult readers. She won the annual National Book Award for Young People's Literature in 2008 for the young adult novel What I Saw and How I Lied, published under her real name by Scholastic Books.
The Happy Hollisters is a series of books about a family who loves to solve mysteries. The series was published by the Stratemeyer Syndicate and entirely written by Andrew E. Svenson (1910–1975) under the pseudonym Jerry West. Helen S. Hamilton (1921–2014) illustrated the books.
The Judy Bolton Mystery Series, written by Margaret Sutton, follows a realistic young woman who solves mysteries. Although the series was not quite as popular as Nancy Drew, Judy Bolton has been called a more complex and believable role model for girls. Judy was also unique in that halfway through the series, she married The 38-volume series was written from 1932 to 1967 and is the longest-lasting juvenile mystery series written by an individual author.
Margaret Gabrielle Vere Long, who used the pseudonyms Marjorie Bowen, George R. Preedy, Joseph Shearing, Robert Paye, John Winch, and Margaret Campbell or Mrs. Vere Campbell, was a British author who wrote historical romances and supernatural horror stories, as well as works of popular history and biography.
Gail Carson Levine is an American author of young adult books. Her first novel, Ella Enchanted, received a Newbery Honor in 1998.
Lois Duncan Steinmetz, known as Lois Duncan, was an American writer, novelist, poet, and journalist. She is best known for her young-adult novels, and has been credited by historians as a pioneering figure in the development of young-adult fiction, particularly in the genres of horror, thriller, and suspense.
Elisabeth Beresford, MBE, also known as Liza Beresford, was an English author of children's books, best known for creating The Wombles. Born into a literary family, she worked as a journalist, but struggled for success until she created the Wombles in the late 1960s. Their recycling theme was noted especially and the Wombles became popular with children across the world. While Beresford wrote many other works, the Wombles remained her best-known.
Lilian C. Garis, born Lilian C. McNamara, was an American author who wrote hundreds of books of juvenile fiction between around 1915 and the early 1940s. Prior to this, she was the first female reporter for the Newark Evening News in New Jersey. Garis and her husband, Howard R. Garis, were possibly the most prolific children's authors of the early 20th century.
Pelagie Doane Hoffner was an American illustrator and writer of children's books.
Gloria Joan Skurzynski is an American writer of books for young people, including both fiction and non-fiction.
The Meg Duncan books are a series of six juvenile mystery books originally published by Whitman Publishing between 1967 and 1972 and reprinted in 1978. They were written by Holly Beth Walker and illustrated by Cliff Schule. The series was developed by editor Dorothy Haas, and first printed under Western Publishing's hardback-imprint formats. They were later reprinted as paperbacks.
Girl detective is a genre of detective fiction featuring a young, often teen-aged, female protagonist who solves crimes as a hobby.
Margaret de Neville, also Margaret de Longvillers and domina Margareta de Nevill was an English landowner in Yorkshire and Lancashire during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Her inheritance helped to consolidate the power and influence of the House of Neville.
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