THE BRITISH PENPAL AND A CHILDREN’S AUTHOR

What do a British penpal and a children’s author have in common? Well, let me tell you.

Many years ago—around in the 1960s, I think—I had a British penpal whose name I no longer remember. I think it may have been Margaret. I have always, for some unknown reason, been enamored with anything English. When I was a very young child, I began learning the British words for various things – like boot for the trunk of a car, biscuit for cookie, nappy for a baby’s diaper. I’m not sure from where this interest stemmed—I think it had something to do with an article in “My Weekly Reader”. I was a youngster growing up in the Midwest city of Cincinnati, Ohio, in a primarily German ancestry neighborhood—yet something about Great Britain fascinated me.

Then I discovered, around age ten, several wonderful books in our school library. These books were about four children who had the most fantastic adventures. There was The Sea of Adventure and the Castle of Adventure, The Valley of Adventure and the Island of Adventure! There were, I believe, four of these books in the school library and I read them repeatedly. My favorite thing to do was to read in bed at night eating a Reese cup which I would have hidden under my pillow. When my mother called “Lights out!” I’d read by flashlight under the covers or by the dim illumination of the lights from a used car lot that was behind our house.

Now fast forward a few decades and I am a married woman with children, and pursuing one of my favorite interests – penpals. (At one time I had anywhere between twenty five and fifty penpals all over the USA and in a number of foreign countries). Penpals were my primary hobby in those days. “Margaret” was one of them.

In one of my letters to Margaret, I told her about my favorite books when I was a child—these four children, one of whom had a parrot named Kiki, who had all these wonderful adventures. With this limited amount of information, she immediately knew who the author of these books was, - someone named Enid Blyton. And, with Margaret’s help—I acquired these books, and a few others in the series that I didn’t know even existed. (I’ve since discovered that almost any English child who grew up in the 40s, 50s, and 60s, would know who Enid Blyton was! Even Pete Weatherby immediately recognized the name!

I’ve since learned that Enid Blyton was a most prolific author of children’s books; in addition to my favorite Adventure series, there were many others – the Famous Five and the Secret Seven, for instance. Her books were translated into 40 languages including Spanish, French, German, Japanese – and even Hebrew! More incredibly, this British writer published over 600 children’s books during her 40-year career.

Enid Blyton was born in London and was the oldest of three children. Her talented father painted I water colors, wrote poetry and played the piano. He was a photographer and taught himself foreign languages. It was ingrained in Enid from an early age that she would eventually become a musician. However she began to write stories, poems, and articles and send them to various publications. While her family still contended that it was all a waste of time, Enid still pursued her dream.By my calculations, Enid would have been about 20 years old when her stories began to be published. She would become such a prolific writer that critics claimed some of it must have been ghost written – however, no ghosts ever stepped forward to substantiate such a claim. Enid wrote hundreds of books, an estimated 600 titles not including decades of writing for magazine publications. It was estimated at one point that she wrote 10,000 words a day. I confess to being non-plussed to learn that original first editions of the Adventure series are expensive collectors’ items (Most of the ones Margaret sent to me are first editions, with dust jackets!

My Australian penpals have found some of the other Enid Blyton books, mostly from the Famous Five series…but it’s a curious thing; the other books don’t affect me in the same way as the Adventure series.

As I began to write this, I dusted off the Adventure books on my bookshelf, and began to re-read “The Ship of Adventure”….

The only thing missing was a Reese cup and a flashlight.

The Adventure series of which I am so inordinately fond, to this day, contains eight books—

The Island of Adventure (1944)

The Castle of Adventure (1946)

The Valley of Adventure (1947)

The Sea of Adventure (1948)

The Mountain of Adventure (1949)

The ship of Adventure (1950)

The Circus of Adventure (1952)

The River of Adventure (1955)

Comment by: Gerri Anderson, AB, Canada

This is a response to the comments (letter) from Sandra Smith - California.

I felt that I cud have written your letter, since, as a child, I too, so loved the Enid Blyton Adventure series. hru birthday presents, I acquired the whole series, and had wrapped plastic over each book to keep them in god condition.

Years later, I read the series to my children as we waited for the school bus to arrive. I eventually read many series of books to them waiting for that school bus.

Many years later, I started reading them to my grandchildren, but only got part way thru The Castle of Adventure when they asked in excited anticipation if they cud PLEASE take it home and finish it themselves.

I reluctantly allowed it to leave my house, to where it never returned. My son hauled a bunch of books to a second hand store, not even noticing that one was my beloved Castle of Adventure (OH NO!!!). I foned every second hand book store within a 100 mile radius trying to track down MY book, w/ absolutely no success.

Thru Ebay I did purchase a Castle of Adventure book with what appeared to be the identical Dust Jacket, but it certainly was NOT the same issue. The new book has a red cover, has a narrower spine, and has much smaller print, so even tho it is still the same enchanting story I was somewhat disappointed.

I still delite in reading, and last year joined a terrific Book Club which has certainly broadened the scope of my reading. (I just bet all Book Clubs R terrific!)

Really enjoyed your reminder about my Enid Blyton series.