Doris Gates
| Doris Gates | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born | Doris Gates November 26, 1901 Mountain View, California |
| Died | September 3, 1987 (aged 85) Carmel, California, USA |
| Occupation | Writer, librarian |
| Genre | Realistic children's literature |
| Notable works | Blue Willow |
| Notable awards | Lewis Carroll Shelf Award |
Doris Gates (November 26, 1901 – September 3, 1987) was one of America's first writers of realistic children's fiction. Her novel Blue Willow, about the experiences of Janey Larkin, the ten-year-old daughter of a migrant farm worker in 1930s California, is a Newbery Honor book and Lewis Carroll Shelf Award winner. A librarian in Fresno, California, Gates lived and worked among the people described in her novels. She is also known for her collections of Greek mythology.
Doris Gates was born on November 26, 1901, in Mountain View, California, the oldest daughter of Charles Obed and Bessie Louise (Jones) Gates. Her father was a small-town doctor; her mother had a BA from Milton College in classical studies. When she was seven they moved to Charles' parents' prune ranch outside San Jose. It was there, at the age of eight, that Doris began school. According to Gates, her childhood, "even for those times, was unusually happy." She wrote about it in The Elderberry Bush. Later the Gates family moved to Los Gatos. After graduating from high school, Gates found work in a library and a grocery store. Her father then moved the family to Fresno, and in 1924 she enrolled in Fresno State Teachers College.
Two years later Gates attended Los Angeles Library School. She then became the assistant in the children's department of the Fresno County Free Library. After one year Gates took a leave of absence to study library science at Western Reserve University, (now Case Western Reserve) in Cleveland. She returned to Fresno to work as the children's librarian at the Fresno County Library in central California from 1930 to 1940.
While in Fresno, Gates had a radio program telling stories to children. She also visited the schools erected for the children of workers displaced by the Dust Bowl, telling stories and sharing books. Budget constraints caused the library to cut back its hours, so Gates used her extra day off to begin writing. Her first published book, Sarah's Idea (1938), is about a girl who wants to buy a burro and helps with the harvest on her family's prune ranch to earn the money she needs. Two years later Blue Willow, a book about the daughter of a migrant farmer like those she worked with, appeared. Also in 1940, Gates began working for San Jose State College, teaching children's literature and storytelling.
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