Image of Henry Beston

Timeline

Lifetime: 1888 - 1968 Passed: ≈ 55 years ago

Title

Writer

Country/Nationality

United States
Wikipedia

Henry Beston

Henry Beston was an American writer and naturalist, best known as the author of The Outermost House, written in 1928.

Born Henry Beston Sheahan, he was born and grew up in Quincy, Massachusetts with his parents, Dr. Joseph Sheahan and Marie Louise (Maurice) Beston Sheahan, and brother George, a doctor. Beston attended Adams Academy in Quincy before earning his B.A. (1909) and M.A. (1911) from Harvard College. While at Harvard, he lived at the historic Parson Capen House in Topsfield, Massachusetts.

In 1912, Beston took up teaching at the University of Lyon. In 1914 he returned to Harvard as an English department assistant. Beston joined the French army in 1915 and served as an ambulance driver. His service in le Bois le Pretre and at the Battle of Verdun was described in his first book, A Volunteer Poilu. In 1918, Beston became a press representative for the U.S. Navy. Highlights from this period include being the only American correspondent to travel with the British Grand Fleet and to be aboard an American destroyer during combat engagement and sinking. His second book of journalistic work, Full Speed Ahead, described these experiences.

Following the end of World War I, Beston began writing fairy tales under the name "Henry Beston". In 1919, The Firelight Fairy Book was published, followed by The Starlight Wonder Book in 1923. During this time, he worked as an editor of The Living Age, an offshoot of The Atlantic Monthly. He also met his future wife Elizabeth Coatsworth, a fellow author of children's literature with whom he had two daughters, Margaret and Catherine.[3]:97 They lived at Hingham, Massachusetts, and Chimney Farm in Nobleboro, Maine. ,during this time.

Books by Henry Beston

The Firelight Fairy Book Cover image

The Firelight Fairy Book

Fairy Tale
Truth Children Adventure Myths Childhood Legends

One pleasant summer day, as the fairy-tale lover sat reading a book beneath the low spreading branches of an oak tree, he heard a hum of wings, and looking up startled from his book, he discovered the Fairy Goldenwand standing close by. "Are you stil...