Noel Streatfeild

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Mary Noel Streatfeild was born December 24, 1895* in Frant, Sussex, England. She died on September 11, 1986 in London, England.  Streatfield was the second of five children born to William and Janet Streatfeild. Raised in a vicarage, Streatfield also visited her grandparents often. Grand-Nannie was the model for kindly, loyal, strict and loving Nana of Ballet Shoes.  Streatfeild drew on her own life experiences on the stage in creating Ballet Shoes, a story of three young girls who attend a special school for stage and ballet training and work to help support their struggling family. Streatfeild seemed interested in writing at an early age; she started a class magazine at age 14, writing most of it herself. (Jordan, "Childhood") Yet she didn't consider writing as a career until sometime later.

The daughter of a clergyman, Streatfeild and her sisters helped produce children’s plays as church fundraisers and she wrote some of the plays herself. In her autobiography, she recalls the delight of seeing Lila Fields "Little Wonders", a children’s troupe, perform. Afterwards, she and her older sister Ruth “talked and dreamed about those marvelous children” (Bull , 48) In 1913, the Little Wonders repertoire included a ballet piece by their rising star, Ninette de Valios, which deeply impressed Streatfeild. Though her plans for the future were interrupted by World War I, in 1919 Streatfeild began pursuing her dreams of being an actress by studying at London’s Academy of Dramatic Art. For two years she toured with a Shakespearean Company, which may be reflected in Dr. Jakes’ love of Shakespeare and use of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Ballet Shoes.  In the next decade, Streatfeild worked in different parts of England and even traveled to South Africa and Australia.

After these years in the theater, Streatfeild was less enchanted with being an actress and was encouraged by her mother (and others) to write. She began writing for adults and did not consider writing for children until Mabel Carey, children’s editor at J.M. Dent & Sons suggested she write a children’s book about the theater. Apparently Streatfeild was not that enthusiastic about the idea, but “reluctantly agreed.” (Major Authors, 4477).  Streatfeild used her own first novel, The Whicharts, as a starting point for Ballet Shoes. Indeed, the openings are almost exactly the same, as this comparison shows:

The Whicharts

The Whichart children lived in the Cromwell Road. At that end of it which is furthest from the Brompton Road, and yet sufficiently near it to be taken to look at the dolls' houses in the Victoria and Albert every wet day, and if not too wet expected to "save the penny and walk".

Saving the penny and walking was a great feature of their childhood.

"Our Father," Maimie the eldest would say, "must have been a definitely taxi person; he couldn't have known about walking, or he'd never have bought a house at the far end of the longest road in London."

  
Ballet Shoes

The Fossil sisters lived in the Cromwell Road. At that end of it which is furthest away from the Brompton Road, and yet sufficiently near it to be taken to look at the dolls' houses in the Victoria and Albert every wet day, and if not too wet expected to "save the penny and walk".

Saving the penny and walking was a great feature of their childhood.

"Gum," Pauline, the eldest would say, "must have been a very taxi person; he couldn't have ever thought about walking or he'd never have bought a house at the far end of the longest road in London."
(Jordan, Ballet Shoes.

 

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It only took a few months for Streatfeild to write Ballet Shoes, and she was dismissive of it “The story poured off my pen, more or less telling itself . . . I distrusted what came easily and so despised the book.” (Bull, 136) Alhough the stage was a subject with which Streatfeild was already familiar, there is evidence she still researched her subject. SevenStories:The Centre for Children’s books in England has a children’s performance license filled out in the name of Pauline Fossil, the oldest sister in Ballet Shoes. It is part of the collection of the original drawings for the British edition of Ballet Shoes. This license also appears in the text of Ballet Shoes itself.

Illustrating Ballet Shoes -Ruth Gervis

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The Fossils take a vow.
Noel’s older sister Ruth was an art teacher and illustrator. When Mabel Carey, Streatfeild's editor at Dent, asked Ruth Gervis to illustrate Ballet Shoes, she did not realize Gervis was Noel’s sister. The two sisters were excited to be able to collaborate on the book. (Something About the Author, 178) Streatfeild's later books for children published in England were illustrated by several different artists.




Illustrating Ballet Shoes - Richard Floethe

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Ballet Shoes was published a year later (1937) in the United States by Random House. The American edition was illustrated by Richard Floethe, a fine artist born in Germany who emigrated to the US in the 1930s. He subsequently illustrated many of Streatfeild's works published in the US, including most of the "shoe" books, including Tennis Shoes, Circus Shoes and Theater Shoes.

*Birth year confusion? Contemporary Authors and Something About the Author cite Streatfeild's birth year as 1897, but Nancy Huse's critical monograph and Angela Bull's biography (the definitive one on Streatfeild) say 1895. CA and SAA write that Noel was born in Amberley, where the family moved in 1897. An 1897 photograph in Bull shows the Streatfeild family with three daughters: Ruth (Noel's older sister), Noel, and baby Barbara.
 
Resources

Bull, Angela. Noel Streatfeild. London: Collins, 1984. Print.

Jordan, Harriet. Noel Streatfeild. Web. 4 April 2004. <http://www.whitegauntlet.com.au/noelstreatfeild/index.htm> September - November 2010.

“Noel Streatfeild.” Wikipedia. Web. 14 Sept. 2010. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noel_Streatfeild>

“Noel Streatfeild.” Contemporary Authors Online. Web. Gale Literary Databases, 25 Sept. 2008. 21 Sept. 2010.

“Noel Streatfeild.” Major Authors and Illustrators  for Children  and Young Adults, Second Edition. Vol. 7. Detroit: Thomson/Gale, 2002. 4473-4479. Print.

"Noel Streatfeild." Something About the Author.  Vol. 20. Detroit: Thomson/Gale, 1980. 173-181+. Print.