Carol Ryrie Brink

Born on December 28, 1895 in Moscow, Idaho, Carol Ryrie Brink attended the University of Idaho (1914-1917) and received the Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California Berkeley (1918). Soon thereafter she married Raymond Brink, a mathematician at the University of Minnesota. In 1965 Brink was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Literature from the University of Idaho. She died August 15, 1981.

Orphaned at a very young age, Brink desired to be a writer from an early age. This desire was nurtured by her aunt and grandmother, who were both excellent storytellers. Her most famous book, Caddie Woodlawn (1935), is based on a story she heard often as she was growing up. It is the story of the Wisconsin childhood of her grandmother Caddie.

After publishing her first book in 1934, Brink wrote more than thirty fiction and nonfiction books for children and adults, as well as several plays. She received the Newbery Award in 1936 and the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award in 1959 for Caddie Woodlawn. Brink won the Friends of American Writers Award in 1956 for The Headland and the Irvin Kerlan Award in 1978 for Four Girls on a Homestead.

Website: