Ann Nolan Clark

1896 - 1995

Author, Education Specialist, & Teacher

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Ann Nolan Clark
Ann Nolan Dunne was born December 5, 1896, in Las Vegas, New Mexico. She received a B.A. from New Mexico Normal School (now called the New Mexico Highlands University) in 1919.  That same year she became Ann Nolan Clark on August 6, when she married Thomas Patrick Clark. Although she began her career as a teacher, she is best known as an author of multicultural children's books.  In 1930, she began working for the Bureau of Indian Affairs as a teacher.  While teaching she observed that the Native American children learned more easily when their primers were geared towards them.  She began creating primers with characters and situations that honored the the Pueblo way of life.  Many of these primers were then published by mainstream publishing companies.  She eventually broadened her scope and wrote children's books with Navajo, Sioux, Finnish, and Hispanic characters.  She also published a number of professional articles under the pseudonym Marie Dunne.  Before her death on December 13, 1995, she authored more than forty books for children.

Photograph from Something About the Author (Hile, 1995, p. 31).

Awards
  • Newbery Medal, American Library Association, 1953
  • Distinguished Service Award, U.S. Department of the Interior, 1962
  • Regina Medal for lifetime achievement, Catholic Library Association, 1963
  • Named "outstanding Arizona author" in 1984
Selected Works
  • Who Wants to Be a Prairie Dog?, illustrated by Tishnahjinie, U.S. Office of Indian Affairs, 1940
  • Little Boy with Tree Names: Stories of Taos Pueblo, illustrated by Tonita Lujan, U.S. Office of Indian Affairs, 1940, 2nd edition, Ancient City press, 1990
  • In My Mother's House, illustrated by Velino Herrera, Viking, 1941 - Caldecott Honor Book
  • Looking-for-Something, illustrated by Politi, Viking, 1952
  • Secret of the Andes, illustrated by Jean Charlot, Viking, 1952 - Newbery Award Book
  • Santiago, illustrated by Lyn Ward, Viking, 1955
Bibliography
  • Hile, K. S. (Ed.). (1995). de Angeli, Marguerite (Lofft). In Something about the author (Vol. 82, pp. 31-37). Detroit, MI: Gale Research.
  • Hile, K. S. (Ed.). (1996). de Angeli, Marguerite (Lofft). In Something about the author (Vol. 87, p. 43). Detroit, MI: Gale Research.
  • Vandergrift, K.E. (1993, Winter). A feminist perspective on multicultural children's literature in the middle years of the twentieth century. Library Trends, 41 (3), 354-377.

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Last Modified: May 5, 2002