Babbitt, Natalie (1932-2016), was an American children’s author and illustrator. Babbitt became best known for her fantasy Tuck Everlasting (1975), one of the most popular novels in modern American children’s literature.
In Tuck Everlasting, the Tuck family has discovered a magical woodland spring that grants eternal life to anyone who drinks the spring’s water. Winnie Foster, a 10-year-old girl, accidentally meets the family and falls in love with Jesse Tuck, who looks 17 years old but is really 104. The story sensitively discusses death as the inevitable end of the human life cycle and examines whether living forever is really desirable.
Babbitt’s other children’s novels include The Search for Delicious (1969), Kneeknock Rise (1970), Goody Hall (1971), The Devil’s Storybook (1974), The Eyes of the Amaryllis (1977), Herbert Rowbarge (1982), and The Moon over High Street (2012). Babbitt also wrote several picture books for children, and she illustrated several poetry collections by the American children’s poet Valerie Worth.
Natalie Zane Moore was born on July 28, 1932, in Dayton, Ohio. She graduated from Smith College with a B.A. degree in 1954 and married Samuel Fisher Babbitt, a college administrator, later that year. Babbitt began her career in children’s literature by illustrating the children’s book The Forty-ninth Magician (1966), written by her husband. She died on Oct. 31, 2016.
