Sawyer, Ruth (1880-1970), was an American storyteller and author of children’s books. Family life, social and religious customs, and folklore are important thematic elements in her children’s fiction. Sawyer won the 1937 Newbery Medal for Roller Skates (1936), an autobiographical story about a young girl who explores New York City on skates. Her other well-known books include The Year of Jubilo (1940), Journey Cake, Ho! (1953), and The Enchanted Schoolhouse (1956). Sawyer also wrote several Christmas stories, including The Long Christmas and The Wee Christmas Cabin of Carn-na-ween (both 1941). She discussed the art and history of storytelling in The Way of the Storyteller (1942).
Sawyer was born on Aug. 5, 1880, in Boston. In 1908, she started the first storytelling program at the New York Public Library. Sawyer helped organize kindergartens in Cuba. She worked as a storyteller in a women’s prison in West Virginia and in the slums of New York City. Sawyer received both the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award (now called the Children’s Literature Legacy Award) and the Regina Medal in 1965. Sawyer died on June 3, 1970.
