author
Cecil S. King
Best known for simple, bilingual readers created for Navajo students in the 1950s, this writer helped shape books made for learning both English and Navajo. His surviving works offer a small but revealing window into mid-century classroom life and federal Indian education.
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About the author
Cecil S. King is known today for two educational books in the Navajo New World Readers series: Away to School: 'Ólta'góó and The Flag of My Country = Shikéyah Bidah Na'at'a'í. Both were published by the United States Indian Service in the 1950s and were designed for Navajo children and young people learning in both English and Navajo.
The books themselves give the clearest picture of his work. Away to School credits Cecil S. King as the author, with Navajo text by Ramona M. Smith and illustrations by Franklin Kahn. The Flag of My Country credits him as the writer and identifies him as Leader, Special Navajo Program, with Navajo text by Marian Nez and illustrations by Henry Bahe. That suggests he worked closely with Navajo educators and artists on reading materials meant for classroom use.
Very little reliable biographical information about his personal life was easy to confirm from the sources available here, so it is safest to remember him through the books themselves. Those works remain of interest not only as children's readers, but also as historical documents connected to Navajo-language education and the school experience of that era.