Arthur Bowie Chrisman (July 16, 1889 – February 14, 1953) was an American author. He was born in

Clarke County, Virginia Clarke County is a County (United States), county in the Virginia, Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 14,783. Its county seat is Berryville, Virginia, Berryville. Clarke County is inc ...

. Chrisman was educated in a one-room school and attended

Virginia Polytechnic Institute The Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, commonly referred to as Virginia Tech (VT), is a Public university, public Land-grant college, land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia, United States ...

from 1906 to 1908 but left at the end of his sophomore year. His collection of sixteen short stories, '' Shen of the Sea: A Book for Children'' (1925), received the

Newbery Medal The John Newbery Medal, frequently shortened to the Newbery, is a literary award given by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), to the author of "the most distinguished contr ...

in 1926. Chrisman's other works included ''The Wind That Wouldn't Blow: Stories of the Merry Middle Kingdom for Children, and Myself'' (1927), ''Clarke County, 1836–1936'' (1936), and ''Treasures Long Hidden: Old Tales and New Tales of the East'' (1941). Chrisman suffered from respiratory problems and moved to

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the West South Central region of the Southern United States. It borders Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, Texas to the southwest, and Oklahoma ...

in about 1943. In his later years he became reclusive and seldom left his one-room cabin in

Shirley, Arkansas Shirley is a town in northeast Van Buren County, Arkansas, United States, along the Middle Fork of the Little Red River. A one-time railroad outpost, the community today is oriented toward agriculture and recreational activities due to the rive ...

. Two local men discovered his body on February 21, 1953, after Chrisman missed one of his regular grocery-buying trips into

Clinton Clinton is an English toponymic surname, indicating one's ancestors came from English places called Glympton or Glinton.Hanks, P. & Hodges, F. ''A Dictionary of Surnames''. Oxford University Press, 1988 Clinton has also been used as a given nam ...

. The Van Buren County coroner estimated that he had been dead for about a week.

References

*Autobiography in Kunitz, Stanley J., and Howard Haycraft, eds. ''The Junior Book of Authors''. (1934), pages 87–89. *Miller, Bertha Mahony, and Elinor Whitney Field, eds. ''Newbery Medal Books: 1922-1955''. (1955), pages 39–43. *Obituary in Clinton, Ark., ''Van Buren County Democrat'', February 27, 1953.

External links

* * 1889 births 1953 deaths American children's writers American male short story writers American short story writers Newbery Medal winners People from Clarke County, Virginia People from Van Buren County, Arkansas Virginia Tech alumni Writers from Virginia 20th-century American male writers {{Virginia-bio-stub