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Margaret Alexander
Edwards
Margaret Alexander
Edwards  |
Margaret Alexander
Edwards grew up
on a West Texas farm and taught school in Texas before she headed off
to
graduate school in New York City. She took a job teaching in
Towson,
Maryland, and when she happened to give a supervisor a piece of her
mind,
she was fired.
This turned out to be a blessing in disguise—for her, for hundreds of Baltimore teenagers she was about to serve, and for thousands of teenage readers she would never meet. She became a young adult librarian at Enoch Pratt Library. In her early days of service, she drove a horse and wagon around the city streets, bringing books to readers. |
| Her book The Fair Garden and Swarm of Beasts—published
in 1969 and updated in 1974—is still in print. Her sound advice
is read by all librarians who work with young adults.
When Mrs. Edwards died in 1988, she bequeathed her money to be used to “promoting the free reading of teenagers and young adults.” |
