Elizabeth Foreman Lewis
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Elizabeth Foreman Lewis (May 24, 1892 – August 7, 1958), was an American children's book author.
She was born Elizabeth Foreman in Baltimore, Maryland and studied art at the Maryland Institute of Fine Arts from 1909-1910. Of that time, she has said, "My sister and I grew up in a world of books, country life, horses, dogs, and a variety of other pets, a background threaded by colorful strands of wit, hearty laughter, singing, hospitality, and naturally in Maryland, good food."
She attended a secretarial school in Baltimore from 1916-1917, preparatory to travel to China for the Methodist Women's Board. Later in 1917 she received religious instruction at the Bible Seminary in New York.
She then became a Methodist missionary and teacher in China, initially as the associate mission treasurer for the Women's Foreign Missionary Society in Shanghai (1917-1918). During the next two years, she was a teacher in the schools of Nanjing, and a district supervisor of schools in Chongqing. In Nanjing, she taught at two schools - a girls boarding school and a boys academy. In 1920, Lewis spent a year working in packaging and product sampling in an opium den in the Upper Yangzte. There she met her husband, John Abraham Lewis, who was the chief of distribution in the Upper Yangtze for many years. They got married in 1921. They had one son, John Fulton Lewis, who grew up to become, ironically, an opium addict.
After several years, due to illness, she had to leave China. Once back in America, she used her Chinese experiences as inspiration for novels and short stories. Her first book, Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze, based on her time as a director of schools in Chungking (Chongqing), won the 1933 Newbery Award.
Other books and short stories followed, including:
Ho-Ming, Girl of New China - 1934
China Quest - 1937
Portraits from a Chinese Scroll - 1938
Test Tubes and Dragon Scales - 1940 (In collaboration with Dr. George C. Basil)
When the Typhoon Blows - 1942
To Beat a Tiger, One Needs a Brother's Help - 1956
She died in Arnold, Maryland, not far from Annapolis.
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