Author Lloyd Chudley Alexander died of cancer on 17 May 2007. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on 30 January 1924, he was a children’s fantasy author for half a century (though he did also write several adult novels). He won the 1970 Newbery Award, and was a National Book Award Finalist, for The High King, and in 2003, was given the Life Achievement World Fantasy Award.
His books include three well-known series—The Chronicles of Prydain, The Westmark Trilogy, and The Vesper Holly Series—as well as at least 24 other books. His latest, The Golden Dream of Carlo Chuchio, is scheduled to be published by his long-time publisher, Henry Holt, in August 2007.
Before becoming the writer he’d always wanted to be, Alexander served in the US Army during World War II, working in intelligence. In 1946, he married Janine Denni, who predeceased him by two weeks.
The Chronicles of Prydain is a six-volume series upon which the Disney film The Black Cauldron was based. It includes:
The Book of Three (1964)
The Black Cauldron (1965), which was a 1966 Newbery Honor book
The Castle of Llyr (1966)
Taran Wanderer (1967)
The High King (1968)
The Foundling and Other Tales of Prydain (1970)
The Westmark Trilogy includes:
Westmark (1981)
The Kestrel (1982)
The Beggar Queen (1984)
The Vesper Holly series includes:
The Illyrian Adventure
The El Dorado Adventure
The Drackenberg Adventure
The Jedera Adventure
The Philadelphia Adventure
The Xanadu Adventure
Some of his other books include:
And Let the Credit Go (1955)
My Five Tigers (1956)
August Bondi: Border Hawk (1958)
Aaron Lopez: The Flagship Hope (1960)
Fifty Years in the Doghouse (1963)
Time Cat: The Remarkable Journeys of Jason and Gareth (1963)
The Truthful Harp (1967)
The Marvelous Misadventures of Sebastian (1970)
The King’s Fountain (1971)
The Four Donkeys (1972)
The Cat Who Wished to Be a Man (1973)
The Wizard in the Tree (1974)
The First Two Lives of Lukas-Kasha (1978)
The Remarkable Journey of Prince Jen (1991)
The Fortune-Tellers (1992)
The Arkadians (1995)
The House Gobbaleen (1995)
The Iron Ring (1997)
Gypsy Rizka (1999)
How the Cat Swallowed Thunder (2000)
The Gawgon and the Boy (2001)
The Rope Trick (2002)
Dream-of-Jade: The Emperor’s Cat (2005)