author
Elizabeth Enright
1909–1968
Best known for warm, adventurous stories like The Saturdays and Gone-Away Lake, she wrote children’s books that make everyday family life feel full of discovery. Her Newbery Medal winner, Thimble Summer, helped secure her place as a favorite of generations of young readers.
1 Audiobook
Return to Gone-Away
by Elizabeth Enright
About the author
Born in Oak Park, Illinois, Elizabeth Enright grew up in a creative family and went on to study art in New York and Paris. She began as an illustrator, and that visual imagination carried into her fiction, which is often praised for its vivid settings and lively, believable children.
She became one of the most loved American writers for young readers in the mid-20th century. Her best-known books include The Saturdays and the other Melendy family stories, Gone-Away Lake, and Thimble Summer, which won the Newbery Medal.
Enright also wrote short fiction for adults and worked as a teacher of creative writing. Even decades later, her books are still remembered for their humor, independence, and sense that childhood is full of real feeling and real adventure.