Happy 80th, Margaret Davidson! ("Helen Keller," 1969)

[l***@yahoo.com]

Her biography of Helen Keller is easily the best for readers under ten. The same could be said for her bio of Louis Braille, which strongly emphasizes the emotional hardships Braille must have gone through as a young student struggling to do what adults couldn't do.

She taught at Carleton College and Southern Methodist University.

Her biographical subjects include Annie Sullivan, Benjamin Franklin, Frederick Douglass, Thomas Edison, Golda Meir, Eleanor Roosevelt, Martin Luther King, Louis Braille, Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, and Jackie Robinson.

http://www.worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n78-87993/
(some descriptions)

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/78755.Margaret_Davidson
(photo, book covers & reader reviews)

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/search/?q=Margaret+Davidson;t=author
(two Kirkus reviews - I can't believe there aren't more!)

https://www.google.com/search?q=margaret+davidson&biw=1280&bih=923&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=0ahUKEwjYocLU19nMAhXIYyYKHZ2UDT0QsAQIGw#tbm=isch&q=margaret+davidson+books
(more book covers)


More later.

Lenona.

[l***@yahoo.com]

A former elementary school teacher, she lives in NYC.

Not to be confused with the younger Acting Director of the NOAA Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management.

I had no idea, when I was young, until I read "Helen Keller's Teacher," that one main reason Annie Sullivan managed to outlast Keller's stubbornness was that she was as much of a terror, as a child, as Keller was! Violent tantrums didn't scare her - she could outdo Helen any day.

(1:38 video about the book "Louis Braille")


WRITINGS BY THE AUTHOR (I don't know why the Keller bio is listed as having a 1971 date):

•(Under name Mickie Compere) Dolphins!, Four Winds, 1964.
•(Under name Mickie Compere) The Story of Thomas Alva Edison, Inventor: The Wizard of Menlo Park, Four Winds, 1964.
•(Under name Mickie Davidson) The Adventures of George Washington, Four Winds, 1965.
•(Under name Mickie Davidson) The Pirate Book, Random House, 1965.
•(Under name Mickie Davidson) Helen Keller's Teacher, Four Winds, 1966.
•Frederick Douglass Fights for Freedom, Four Winds, 1968.
•The Story of Eleanor Roosevelt, Four Winds, 1969.

•Helen Keller, Hastings House, 1971.
•Louis Braille: The Boy Who Invented Books for the Blind, Scholastic Inc., 1971.
•Neighbor to Neighbor, Popular Library, 1973.
•Nine True Dolphin Stories, Hastings House, 1974.
•(Editor) Abraham Lincoln, Scholastic Inc., 1976.
•The Golda Meir Story, Scribner, 1976, revised edition, 1981.
•Five True Dog Stories, Scholastic Inc., 1977.
•Seven True Dog Stories, Hastings House, 1977.
•Five True Horse Stories, Scholastic Inc., 1979.
•Seven True Horse Stories, Hastings House, 1979.

•Wild Animal Families, Hastings House, 1980.

•Story of Jackie Robinson: Bravest Man in Baseball, Dell, 1988; Gareth Stevens, 1996.
•Story of Alexander Graham Bell: Inventor of the Telephone, Gareth Stevens, 1997.
•Story of Benjamin Franklin: Amazing American, Gareth Stevens, 1997.



Lenona.

[Lenona]

Oops! Sad to say, she died in Sept. 2012, in Hubbardton, Vermont, aged 76. (Some sources, strangely, claim she died in 2002.) I only found out she'd died when I happened to search on her husband's name, Carson "Kit" Davidson!

Death record:

https://dl-mail.ymail.com/ws/download/mailboxes/@.id==VjN-MrszuisFCtvporZfkOGsTwfnm0fJTtf4FpdP4uBvkryHa9dEFOUEpWcopCvcTsXxUWhjIv2uHVC2R0Wv8Q9VgQ/messages/@.id==AA3DC40IdNKAYIrqYgDqYDeCRyk/content/parts/@.id==2/raw?appid=YMailMini&ymreqid=3589959a-e823-4b1e-1c53-ab0000017400&token=45Qdtu9SpqYjoCELU-dPnIC-mFt8Ua2EgGPuUG_4L9FIUL0dDT51NAXJUhSDXzpCP6Yl4C4UBzOTNnnTmZxX5MDVKIJCrMn7DX2h6fOaS7OldJA8i3vzfiNePJFcLA02

Yes, her maiden name was Compere. Apparently, when she wrote her biography of Louis Braille in 1971, her sister, Janet Ruth Compere, illustrated it.

This is her father's death notice, from 1973:

https://www.nytimes.com/1973/12/19/archives/tom-compere-editor-on-herald-tribune.html

About her husband:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carson_Davidson

And this, thankfully, has a picture of Margaret at the bottom - from 2011! (Plus Carson.)

http://homes.ottcommunications.com/~dsonder/beebepond_files/Mount%20Zion%20Trails.pdf