Ruth Sawyer

Born in Boston in 1880 and raised in New York City, Ruth Sawyer became one of the best-known American storytellers and children’s authors of her time. She studied folklore and storytelling at Columbia University and went on to build a career that joined live storytelling with writing for both children and adults.

She is most closely associated with Roller Skates (1936), which won the 1937 Newbery Medal. The book’s picture of a curious, independent girl moving through 1890s New York helped make it a classic, and it reflects Sawyer’s gift for finding delight and meaning in ordinary streets, conversations, and encounters.

Sawyer also wrote and spoke widely about the art of storytelling itself, and her long influence on children’s literature was recognized with the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award in 1965, now known as the Children’s Literature Legacy Award. She died in 1970, remembered as a writer who treated stories as something to be shared warmly, person to person.