William Bowen

Born in Baltimore in 1877, he was an American attorney who later wrote several children’s books in the 1920s. He studied law at the University of Maryland and eventually practiced in California, building a career outside literature even as he published imaginative fiction for young readers.

His best-known book is The Old Tobacco Shop, a fantasy novel that was named a runner-up for the inaugural Newbery Medal in 1922. Other works from the same period include Solario the Tailor and Philip and the Faun, which helped give him a small but lasting place in early twentieth-century children’s literature.

He died in 1937. Though not widely known today, his writing still appeals to readers who enjoy gentle, magical adventures from the classic era of children’s books.