Hodges, Margaret Moore 1911–2005

(Sarah Margaret Moore)

OBITUARY NOTICE—See index for CA sketch: Born July 26, 1911, in Indianapolis, IN; died December 13, 2005, in Verona, PA. Educator, editor, and author. Hodges was an award-winning author and editor of children's and young adult books. Graduating from Vassar College in 1932, she went to work for the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh as a children's librarian. While there, she also completed a master's degree in library science from Carnegie-Mellon University in 1958. Hodges initially became involved in children's books by editing the works of other authors. By 1958, she had published her own original fiction for young children with One Little Drum. Over the years, Hodges would go on to write and edit over fifty other books for young readers. Meanwhile, she continued to be employed in various jobs, including as story specialist at Pittsburgh Public Schools during the mid-1960s. She also taught at the University of Pittsburgh's Graduate School of Library and Information Science, joining the faculty as a lecturer in 1964 and becoming a full professor in 1975; she retired as professor emeritus in 1978. Winning the prestigious Caldecott Medal from the American Library Association in 1985 for her Saint George and the Dragon: A Golden Legend (1984), Hodges made a particular name for herself as a reteller of classic stories. This reputation was bolstered by her broadcasting work for the public television station WQED in Pittsburgh, where she appeared with Fred Rogers on the program Tell Me a Story during the 1960s. She also published many more of her own original tales, including The Secret in the Woods (1963), The Making of Joshua Cobb (1971), and The Avenger (1982). Her more recent books include The Boy Who Drew Cats (2002), The Legend of St. Christopher (2002), and Merlin and the Making of the King (2004).

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Los Angeles Times, December 28, 2005, p. B9.

New York Times, December 20, 2005, p. A27.

School Library Journal, January, 2006, p. 20.

Washington Post, December 22, 2005, p. B8.