Gray, Elizabeth Janet (1902-1999), also known as Elizabeth Gray Vining, is an American author who won the 1943 Newbery Medal for her novel Adam of the Road (1942). The medal is awarded annually to the best children’s book written by an American. Adam of the Road is a historical novel set in England during the 1200’s. It describes the adventures of a boy named Adam and his pet dog as they search for Adam’s father, a minstrel. Gray’s other books for children include Meggy MacIntosh (1930), Jane Hope (1933), Betty Marlowe of Charles Town (1936), Sandy (1945), and The Cheerful Heart (1950).
Gray was born on Oct. 6, 1902, in Philadelphia. She received an A.B. degree from Bryn Mawr College in 1923 and a degree in library science from the School of Library Science of Drexel Institute (now Drexel University) in 1926. That year, she became a librarian at the University of North Carolina. In 1929, she married Morgan Fisher Vining, associate director of Drexel’s Extension Division. Her husband died in an automobile accident in 1933.
As Elizabeth Gray Vining, she wrote many books for adults, including the best seller Windows for the Crown Prince (1952). The book is her account of her experiences as tutor in Japan to Crown Prince Akihito and his brother and sisters from 1946 to 1950. Akihito was emperor of Japan from 1989 to 2019. She wrote a sequel, Return to Japan (1960).
Vining was a Quaker, and much of her fiction and nonfiction deals with Quaker subjects. Her historical novel The Virginia Exiles (1955) is set during the Revolutionary War in America and describes the adventures of a group of Quakers who were falsely accused of being British spies. I, Roberta (1967) is a novel about a Quaker community. Vining also wrote biographies of Quaker leaders, including Friend of Life: The Biography of Rufus M. Jones (1958) and John Woolman: Quaker Saint (1981). Under the name Elizabeth Janet Gray, she wrote a children’s biography of the Quaker leader William Penn titled Penn (1938). Her books under the Vining name also include an autobiography, The Quiet Pilgrimage (1970). Elizabeth Gray Vining died on Nov. 27, 1999.
