Willard, Nancy (1936-2017), was an American author best known for her poetry and stories for children. Willard won the 1982 Newbery Medal for A Visit to William Blake’s Inn: Poems for Innocent and Experienced Travelers (1981). It was the first book of poetry to win the Newbery Medal, which is awarded annually to the best children’s book by an American. The work describes events in an enchanted inn in both lyrical poems and nonsense verse. The innkeeper is William Blake, a famous English poet and artist who is the inspiration for the book.
Willard’s first children’s book was Sailing to Cythera and Other Anatole Stories (1974), one of three fantasies about the adventures of a boy hero named Anatole. The boy was modeled on the author’s son, James Anatole. The other Anatole books are The Island of the Grass King: The Further Adventures of Anatole (1979) and Uncle Terrible: More Adventures of Anatole (1982). Willard won praise for her imaginative retellings of classic fairy tales. They include Beauty and the Beast (1992) in prose, and three in verse, East of the Sun and West of the Moon: A Play (1989), The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (1993), and Cinderella’s Dress (2003). Willard also wrote an original fairy tale, The Flying Bed (2007). She adapted the English poet John Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost into a prose version called The Tale of Paradise Lost (2004).
Willard began writing poetry for young readers with The Merry History of a Christmas Pie: With a Delicious Description of a Christmas Soup (1975). Many of her most acclaimed collections of children’s verse were published during the 1990’s, including Pish, Posh, Said Hieronymus Bosch (1991), A Starlit Somersault Downhill (1993), An Alphabet of Angels (1994), Among Angels and Gutenberg’s Gift (both 1995), The Tale I Told Sasha (1999), and Shadow Story (1999). In her picture book The Moon & Riddles Diner and the Sunnyside Cafe (2001), Willard wrote 13 poems about customers at an unusual restaurant opened by the moon and the sun. Another picture book, The Mouse, the Cat, and Grandmother’s Hat (2003), is a rhyming story about a birthday party.
Willard wrote several books of poetry for adults as well as adult novels, short stories, essays, and literary criticism. She also illustrated some of her children’s and adult books.
Nancy Margaret Hurd was born on June 26, 1936, in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She took the pen name Willard from her mother’s maiden name. She received a B.A. degree from the University of Michigan in 1958, an M.A. in medieval literature from Stanford University in 1960, and a Ph.D. in modern literature from Michigan in 1963. She taught at Vassar College from 1965 to 2013. Willard died on Feb. 19, 2017.
