User:Tlqk56/New'y Authors

Bernard Gay Marshall was born in North Easton, Massachusetts on August 23, 1875, to Francis F. and Helen F. Doten Marshall. Marshall attended high school in North Easton. Wanting to be a writer, he "thought he could play in orchestras and make a living until he had a foothold as an author".{{cite book|last=Overton|first=Grant|title=Cargoes for Crusoes|year=2004|publisher=Kessinger Publishing{{rp|244}}|isbn=9781417915866 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hGr4wwh-5uQC&dq=%22Bernard+Marshall%22++writer&pg=PA244}}{{rp}244}} He subsequently worked as a musician, legal stenographer, an advertising and technical writer, and as a ship builder during World War I.{{rp|245}} In July of 1903 Marshall married Ida M. Conklin. The couple had one daughter, Harriet C.{{cite book|title=Who was Who Among North American Authors, 1921-1939 vol. 2|year=1976|publisher= Gale Research|pages=969|isbn=9780810310414 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=mJEUAQAAIAAJ&q=+bernard+g+marshall}}

Marshall wrote five historical fiction novels, a "series of romances dealing with the great periods of the Anglo-Saxon struggle for freedom."{{cite journal|last=New York State Library|journal=Biliography Bulletin|year=1919|volume=64-80|pages=24}} The books are set in time periods ranging from the England of King Arthur to Andrew Jackson's United States. He also wrote short stories and articles for magazines, including Sunset, Boys' Life, St. Nicholas, Munsey's Magazine, The American Magazine and The American Boy.Marshall may have sometimes used the pen name Robert Wingate. In addition, he wrote for technical magazines and edited several trade journals. By 1921 Marshall had moved to Berkeley, California, where he was a member of the San Francisco chapter of the Writer's Dinner Club.{{cite book|title=Who's Who Among North American Authors|year=1935|publisher=Gale Research|isbn=|pages=1065}}

Bernard Gay Marshall died Dec. 14, 1945.

As a writer of historical fiction, Marshall's books were compared to Walter Scott's. According to one review, "Marshall matches Scott in length and detailed description", though another added that to call Cedric the Forester a second Ivanhoe was "a mistake", adding "Bernard Marshall has done a good piece of work, but he is not Sir Walter".{{rp|519}}

Marshall's novels were widely read,{{rp|242-243}} and reviewed for both children and adults. His first book, Cedric the Forester, received one of the inaugural Newbery Honor awards in 1922, for "the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children".{{cite web|title=Newbery Awards|url=http://www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/newberymedal/newberyhonors/newberymedal|accessdate=5/15/2012}}As Parravano, "Alive and Vigorous", The Horn Book, 1999, July/August, says, this is not the last time the Newbery has honored a book originally published for adults. The American Boy issued part of his first book under the title "Churl and Overlord".{{cite journal|last=Jordan|first=Alice M|title=Reviews for Children's Book Week|journal=Libraries: A Monthly Review of Library Matters and Methods|year=1921|volume= 26|pages= 519|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7IUN_nbqRNMC&dq=Cedric+the+forester+reviews&pg=PA519|accessdate=June 14, 2012}} Cedric the Forester was referred to as a "well-written and informing story for boys",{{cite journal|title=Books for Boys and Girls|journal= The Unitarian Register|date=December 29|year=1921|volume= 100|pages=1238| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PM8fAQAAMAAJ&dq=%22Bernard+Marshall%22++writer&pg=PA1238|accessdate= June 14, 2012}} and the scouting magazine Boys' Life reviewed his novels for its young readers.{{cite journal|title=Fifteen $ for You|journal=Boys' Life|year=1925|date= November 1925|pages= 51|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I3FnqT6RAV4C&q=%22redcoat+and+minuteman%22++bernarhttp%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fw%2Findex.php%3Ftitle%3DUser%3ATlqk56%2FNew%27y_Authors&pg=PA51}}

Marshall's novels were also well received by adults. Walter of Tiverton received a star from The Bookman, which reviewed it as a book for adults,{{cite journal|title=The Bookman's Guide to Fiction|journal=The Bookman|year=1893|date= August 1893|pages=638|url=http://www.unz.org/Pub/Bookman-1923aug-00637|accessdate=June 14, 2012}} as did The Outlook, calling it a "spirited romance".{{cite journal|title=The Book Table: The New Books|journal=The Outlook|date=June 13, 1923|pages=193|url= http://www.unz.org/Pub/Outlook-1923jun13-00192|accessdate= June 14, 2012}} The Saturday Review praised Redcoat and the Minuteman for the "clean, clear simplicity of his narrative",{{rp|618}} saying the plot was "skilfully handled".{{cite journal|title= The New Books|journal=The Saturday Review|date=March 21, 1925|url= http://www.unz.org/Pub/SaturdayRev-1925mar21-00618}}{{rp|620}}

• Cedric the Forester, ill. by J. Scott Williams, D. Appleton, 1921, 318 pages.
  

Cedric the Forester was a Newbery Honor book.{{cite web|title=Newbery Awards|url=http://www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/newberymedal/newberyhonors/newberymedal|accessdate=5/15/2012}} When Saxon yeoman Cedric of Pellham Woods saves the life of Norman nobleman Dickon Mountjoy, he is made a squire, and a friendship begins between the two. Eventually Cedric becomes the best crossbowman in England, and is knighted. He then becomes instrumental in the establishment of the Magna Carta. The frequency of deaths in Cedric the Forester sometimes drew criticism.{{rp|519}}

• Walter of Tiverton, illustrated by J. Scott Williams, D. Appleton, 1923, 263 pages.
  

Two young knights, Walter of Tiverton and Sir Boris Delamar, find adventure in England during the time of Richard the Lionheart. They are often helped by the mysterious Knight of Ascalon, who always disappears before they can thank him.

• The Torch Bearers: A Tale of Cavalier Days, illustrated by J. Scott Williams, D. Appleton, 1923, 317 pages.
  

Myles Delaroche, a descendant of Cedric the Forester, is an English Puritan, though his friend Arthur Hinsdale is a Royalist. The two men find their friendship tested by the English Civil War. The story portrays both sides of the struggle with understanding and sympathy. At one point Delaroche "saw that no peace would be durable, on whatever victories founded, if those who triumphed sought to impose their sway upon the nation and to forbid all forms of worship save their own."{{cite book|last=Marshall|first=Bernard G|title=The Torch Bearers: A Tale of Cavalier Days|year=1923|publisher=D. Appleton}} Eventually Delaroche leaves England for the United States, allowing the series to continue there.

• Redcoat and Minuteman, illustrated by J. Scott Williams, D. Appleton, 1924, 277 pages.
  

Set during the American Revolution, this book tells the story of another Delaroche, Richard, who leaves Harvard to join the intelligence branch of the Minutemen. Delaroche encounters George Washington and Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, is mistaken for a loyalist, and takes part in the Battle of Bunker Hill.

• Old Hickory's Prisoner: A Tale of the Second War for Independence, D. Appleton, 1925, 254 pages.
  

The United States is now involved in the War of 1812 and Hubert Delaroche is too young to join the army, so he volunteers as a messenger. He is present as Commodore Decatur attempts to run a British blockade. They don't succeed, and Delaroche is forced to escape through the Cumberland Mountains to Tennessee, where he joins Andrew Jackson's army, and makes a new friend, a Shawnee named Blue Feather.

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{{Portal|Children's literature}}

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• Letter to the Editor {{cite journal|title=Points of View: Bermuda|journal=The Saturday Review|date=November 21, 1931|pages=316|url=http://www.unz.org/Pub/SaturdayRev-1931nov21-00316|accessdate=June 18, 2012}}
• Cedric the Forrester at Project Gutenberg. {{cite web|last=Marshall|first=Bernard G|title=Cedric the Forrester|url=http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/37102|publisher=Project Gutenberg|accessdate=2012/6/11}}
• "The Prize Winner: The Trials and Triumphs of Raymond Jones, Chicken Fancier" {{cite journal|last=Marshall|first=Bernard G|title=The Prize Winner|journal=Munsey's Magazine|year=1921|date=December 1921|volume=LXXIV|issue=3|pages=444–450|url=http://www.unz.org/Pub/Munseys-1921dec-00444|accessdate=June 6, 2012}}

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Category:1875 births

Category:1945 deaths

Category:People from Massachusetts

Category:American historical novelists

Category:Newbery Honor winners