"Laura had read in Arthur Ransome you had to tack to sail upwind, you tacked from one side of the lake to the other to sail against the wind." In an essay about childhood reading published at Salt River Review, I remembered Arthur Ransome.
On Facebook a couple of days ago: "I can attach a
crop from The Summer Reading Club in 5th Grade - I was re-reading Arthur
Ransome books to make reports the summer I was ten..."and
"I
recall how terribly interested I was to discover a biography of Arthur Ransome
in the 1980s. I think it must have been The Life of Arthur Ransome by Hugh
Brogan, shown on the internet. I read the biography with a lot of enjoyment. I
discovered many things I did not know about the author." I shared an earlier blog entry about The Summer Reading Club.
This
year I watched the 1970s Swallows and Amazons movie in episodes on the library
internet computer. At some point I
expect I will be able to view the new 2016 movie, Swallows and Amazons. To read some of the older titles, in older
formats, was to enjoy other illustrators than Arthur Ransome, especially Helene
Carter. I re-read parts of The Picts and
the Martyrs during the year and realize how beautifully written the story is –
although Helene Carter is not present in the version I read, the book is a
wonderful read without those illustrations.
So it was the writing that was wonderful for me at the time.
1 comment:
I, too, am an Arthur Ransome fan from childhood, having discovered him when I was in grade school in New Zealand. The maps printed on the end papers of the books fascinated me, and the adventures -- charcoal burners, rare bird sightings, sailing escapades stuck fast with me. Years later I found two of the books on line and greedily bought them.
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