Robert Gordon Anderson

Born in 1881 and active in the first half of the 20th century, Robert Gordon Anderson was an American author whose reputation rests most strongly on his children's fiction. Readers still know him for Seven O'Clock Stories (1920) and Half-Past Seven Stories (1922), lively collections built around the adventures of Marmaduke, Jehosophat, Hepzebiah, and the Toyman.

His published work ranged well beyond children's books. Records of his writing include fiction such as The Cross of Fire, The Little Chap, The Isle of Seven Moons, and For Love of a Sinner, along with nonfiction and biographical works including Leader of Men, Those Quarrelsome Bonapartes, An American Family Abroad, The Biography of a Cathedral, and The City and the Cathedral.

That range gives his career a pleasing breadth: he could write with playful charm for young listeners, then turn to history, travel, or cultural subjects for adult readers. Anderson died in 1950, but his early story collections remain the works most closely associated with his name.