Lucy Johnston Sypher (August 6, 1907 – December 1990) wrote a series of four children's books based loosely on her childhood in the small

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town of Wales, North Dakota: ''The Edge of Nowhere'' (1972), ''Cousins and Circuses'' (1974), ''The Spell of the Northern Lights'' (1975), and ''The Turnabout Year'' (1976).

Her life as depicted in her books

The books describe the writer's life early in Wales, as the daughter of George Henry (known as Harry), the town banker, and Caroline, a church organist and music teacher from a cultured, well-educated, big-city family. In the books, eleven-year-old Lucy attends a small country school and befriends the three daughters of an emigrant English family and their spoiled brother, who is nicknamed "The Prince of Wales" (

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ning upon his tendency to cry easily and the name of the town.) She visits her big-city cousins and is irritated by her mischievous older brother, Amory. The final book, ''The Turnabout Year'', describes her mother's difficult recovery after the birth of her younger brother, George, and Lucy's decision to attend high school in

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. Upon publication, Sypher said that events described in the books were highly fictionalized.

Background

Sypher was raised in Wales, the daughter of George and Caroline Gale Johnston. She graduated from the

University of North Dakota The University of North Dakota (UND) is a Public university, public research university in Grand Forks, North Dakota, United States. It was established by the Dakota Territory, Dakota Territorial Assembly in 1883, six years before the establishm ...

Grand Forks, North Dakota Grand Forks is a city in and the county seat of Grand Forks County, North Dakota, United States. The city's population was 59,166 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of cities in North Dakota, third-most populous ...

in 1927 and received her

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from

Tufts University Tufts University is a private research university in Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts, United States, with additional facilities in Boston and Grafton, as well as Talloires, France. Tufts also has several Doctor of Physical Therapy p ...

in 1929. She was an instructor of English and history at

Lasell Junior College Lasell University (LU) is a private university in Newton, Massachusetts, United States. It was founded in 1851 as a women's seminary. It became a college in 1932, a four-year institution in 1989, coeducational in 1997, and a university proper in ...

Auburndale, Massachusetts Auburndale is one of the thirteen List of villages in Newton, Massachusetts, villages within the city of Newton, Massachusetts, Newton in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It lies at the western end ...

for some years before she published her first book. Lucy Johnston married Wylie Sypher in 1929. She and her husband raised their family in Massachusetts.

Notes

References

*Johnston, Lucy Sypher, ''The Edge of Nowhere,'' Atheneum, 1972, *Johnston, Lucy Sypher, ''Cousins and Circuses,'' Atheneum, 1974 *Johnston, Lucy Sypher, ''The Spell of the Northern Lights,'' Atheneum, 1975 *Johnston, Lucy Sypher, ''The Turnabout Year,'' Atheneum, 1976

External links

M. Sarah Smedman, "Where the Sky Meets the Sand": Dreams and Reality in Prairie Fiction for Young Readers
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sypher, Lucy Johnston 1907 births 1990 deaths American children's writers Writers from North Dakota Novelists from Massachusetts People from Cavalier County, North Dakota University of North Dakota alumni American women children's writers 20th-century American women writers Lasell College faculty American women novelists 20th-century American novelists American women academics Tufts University alumni