Elaine Lobl Konigsburg is an American writer, artist and illustrator of books for young readers. The first manuscript brought Elaine world fame. The future writer was born in Manhattan, one of the five boroughs of New York, on February 10, 1930. Learn more about her personal life, creative work and professional transformation from a chemistry teacher to a world-famous writer on i-manhattan.
Honorable children’s author Elaine Konigsburg was a two-time winner of the Newbery Medal. She is the only writer to have received two of them, as well as an honorary award from the American Library Association for most distinguished contributions to American children’s literature.
A brief biography
Elaine was born in New York to a family of Jewish origin. She was the middle one among her sisters. Later, they moved from New York to a small factory town in Pennsylvania. From an early age, young Elaine loved to read. Her favorite place for this was the bathroom, as it was the only room in the house that had a lock. The girl often locked herself in the bathroom and turned the water on so hard that the noise was louder than her sobs after reading the novel Gone by the Wind. As the author herself admitted later, her parents had nothing against reading books. Still, it was more important for them that young Elaine dusted the house, baked cookies or did other household work. In addition, she admitted that her parents did not control the quality of literature. Thus, she read a lot of ‘unnecessary’ books. However, being a well-known author, Elaine concluded that she does not resent her parents because it shaped her taste.
Elaine graduated from high school in Farrell, Pennsylvania, where there were no counseling opportunities and no scholarships. However, this did not prevent the future writer from graduating with the best grades. To enter college and save money to pay for her education, she got a job as an accountant at a meat processing plant. There, she met her future husband David Konigsburg, the brother of one of the co-owners of the organization.
Elaine bucked the trend for women’s career paths and enrolled in the Chemistry Department at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (Carnegie Institute of Technology). Her creative nature was asleep because the main goal of the institution was to produce a specialist with a certain profession, for example, a teacher or a chemist. Successfully completing her studies and obtaining the relevant educational documents, Elaine became the first of all family members to obtain a scientific degree. An important personal change also happened in the life of Elaine after completing her studies. She married David, who at that time was a postgraduate student in psychology at Carnegie Mellon University. After receiving her bachelor’s degree, she became a postgraduate student at the University of Pittsburgh. However, she failed to finish her studies.
Chemistry teacher in a privileged school
After David received doctorate and a new job, the couple moved to Jacksonville, Florida. Here, Elaine got a job as a science teacher at Bartram. Elaine admitted later that working as a chemistry teacher in a privileged school for girls did not appeal to her at all. It was much more interesting for her to find out what was in the hearts of all these girls than to study the contents of the flasks in the preparation room. The future writer used to have a false prejudice that only girls spoiled by wealth study in such schools. However, over time, she realized that they all have the same youthful insecurities and complexes as many girls from ordinary families. Elaine herself has the same troubles as a young girl. According to the writer, working at this school allowed her to understand girls better.
However, since 1955, Elaine had to put her scientific and teaching activities on hold to immerse herself in raising children: Paul, Ross and Laurie (born between 1955 and 1959). During the period when Elaine had two children, she went to art school with them. The woman chose a convenient time, when the children were engaged in activities, she painted in an art school for adults.
An impulse to become a writer
The impetus for the beginning of creative activity came after the move to Port Chester, New York (1962). The children went to school and Elaine decided to start writing and painting. The main impulse for her was the desire to write something that would reflect the growth of her own children, rather than the privileged lives of many of the characters in the books she read. The writer openly stated this in many interviews, for instance, in a 1998 article for The Reading Teacher.
Konigsburg continued to take drawing lessons and joined The Art Students League. When her third child started school, Elaine every morning worked with her first manuscript. One of her first texts was Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth (1967), as well as From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (1967) with her own illustrations. The first story was inspired by Laurie’s experience as a newcomer at school after moving to Port Chester. The second one was created after her childrens complained about an organized picnic with too many home comforts. The first book brought the writer a Newbery Medal and the second was awarded an honorary Newbery Certificate. All this happened in one year (1968).
In a conversation with biographer Leonard S. Marcus, Elaine explained why she started using the pen name EL instead of her real name. In the 1960s, the author believed that the reader did not care who wrote this book, a man or a woman. In addition, during this period she was a great admirer of the work of E.B. White. Thus, Elaine counted on luck, presenting her first manuscript under the pseudonym EL. However, Konigsburg admitted that if she had started her creative activity in the 2000s, she would still have used her real name.
Most of her main characters are twelve-year-old children. Why did the writer decide to describe this particular age in her books? Elaine also answered this question in detail to biographer Leonardo S. Marcus:
‘Because it is at this age that serious questions of childhood need to be answered. Children want acceptance from their peers but in two different, opposite ways: they want to be like everyone else and to differ. So the question is how to reconcile these conflicting aspirations?’
Achievements and illness
Over the entire period of creative activity, Elaine wrote more than 20 manuscripts for children. Although the novel From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler was the most popular, the writer has many contemporary works and novels to her credit, as well as several picture books. In addition, Königsburg described such outstanding historical figures as Leonardo da Vinci and Eleanor of Aquitaine.
Her last work was The Mysterious Edge of the Heroic World (2007). Elaine Konigsburg died of complications from a stroke on April 19, 2013, at the age of 83. Her husband died in 2001.