Social:An Edge of the Forest
An Edge of the Forest is a 1959 novel by American writer Agnes Clifford Smith (1906–1994), first published by Viking Press. It won the 1961 Aurianne Award of the American Library Association, along with several other awards.
Plot summary, style
The story concerns a young black leopardess with a crooked paw, and a black lamb that is separated from its flock and is facing great danger. Through a series of events the leopardess and the lamb become friends, and the lamb's innocence affects more and more animals of the forest, until all come together in one procession, as the lamb returns to the shepherd.[1]
The author dedicated the book to "saints, philosophers, and artists".
It has been described as an allegory,[2] an intricate fantasy, with a poetic style, “reminiscent by turns of medieval beast fables, of Isaiah's vision of the time when "the wolf also shall dwell with the lamb" and of the Parable of the Good Shepherd.”[3]
Reception
"The right sort of children, if they read it now, will be haunted by the memory all their lives." —C. S. Lewis[4]
"Here, one feels, is an author writing as all should and so few do, out of the desire to express something deeply felt, an author who can mingle deftly the incredible and the true to gain her ends, an author who can move the reader." —New York Herald Tribune[4]
"This is the best animal fiction I have read since Tarka the Otter." —William Golding[4]
"It is certainly a remarkable piece of writing, which conquers by its unity of concept and purity of style....The effect is of a Blake poem extended upon a timeless frieze of forest." —The Guardian [4]
"It is not just a book but a gift such as might bring a sudden, magical understanding of the truth at the core of every person and every thing." —The Horn Book[4]
"I think it is no exaggeration to claim this book a palce along the best of Kipling and 'Wind in the Willows'." —Richard Church[4]
"one of the special books that will be remembered for a lifetime and can be read at any age…it is far too important a book to be lost”[1]
Awards
New York Herald Tribune Children's Book Award[4]
1961 Aurianne Award of the American Library Association[5]
1966 Lewis Carroll Shelf Award of the Wisconsin Book Conference[6]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Stanton, Susan (4 August 1975). "Children's Books". The Women's News Journal IV (4): 5. https://www.jstor.org/stable/community.28046921.
- ↑ "e-WV | Agnes Smith". https://www.wvencyclopedia.org/print/Article/465.
- ↑ Buell, Ellen Lewis (1959-05-31). "The Lost Lamb; AN EDGE OF THE FOREST. By Agnes Smith." (in en-US). The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. https://www.nytimes.com/1959/05/31/archives/the-lost-lamb-an-edge-of-the-forest-by-agnes-smith-decorations-by.html.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 Noble, Barnes &. "An Edge of the Forest|eBook" (in en). https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/an-edge-of-the-forest-smith-agnes/1140866564.
- ↑ "An Edge of the Forest | Awards & Grants". https://www.ala.org/awardsgrants/node/21373.
- ↑ Carlson, Laura, ed (1996). Literary laurels: a reader's guide to award-winning children's books. New York, NY: Hillyard. pp. 25–34. ISBN 978-0-9647361-1-5.
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