Lewis, Richard 1935-

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LEWIS, Richard 1935-

PERSONAL: Born May 15, 1935, in New York, NY; son of Emanuel Paul and Frances (Weinberg) Lewis; married Carol Grock; children: Amanda, Sascha, Sarah. Education: Bard College, B.A., 1958; additional study at Mannes College of Music, New York University, and the New School, 1958-61.

ADDRESSES: Offıce—The Touchstone Center for Children, 141 East 88th St., New York, NY 10128. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Teacher of writing and literature to children at Poetry Center of Young Men's Hebrew Association, New York, NY, and at Art Center of Northern New Jersey, Englewood, NJ, 1961-64; Walden School, New York, NY, teacher, 1963-64; New School for Social Research (now New School), New York, NY, lecturer in education, 1964-73; Manhattan Country School, New York, NY, drama and writing instructor, 1967-73; University of Vermont, Burlington, VT, instructor, 1968; Touchstone Center for Children, New York, NY, founder and director, 1969—; Lesley College Graduate School, Cambridge, MA, visiting poet-in-residence and associate professor, 1981-84, and adjunct professor, 1984—. Adjunct instructor at Bank Street College of Education, 1972-73; adjunct professor at Antioch-Putney Graduate School, 1974, Guild School, 1975, North Adams State College, 1975, Rutgers University, 1976-78, Western Washington State University, 1980-82, and Queens College, City University of New York, 1988. Lecturer at Wellington Training College, New Zealand, 1965, North Shore Teachers' College, 1965, University of Vermont, 1968, and Fordham University, 1978. Assistant to Henry Simon, Simon & Schuster (publishers), 1962-63. In cooperation with UNESCO, toured English-speaking countries in Asia, Africa, and British Commonwealth, 1964; producer, writer, and narrator of several radio and television programs on children's literature in the United States and abroad. Military service: U.S. Army Reserve, 1957-63.

MEMBER: Authors Guild, Authors League of America, PEN.

AWARDS, HONORS: Distinguished Service to the Arts in Education Field award, Association of Teaching Artists, 2002.

WRITINGS:

The Park, photographs by Helen Buttfield, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1968.

(With Nancy Lewis) Keeping in Shape, illustrated by Steven Duquette, F. Watts (New York, NY), 1976.

In the Night, Still Dark: A Retelling of the Hawaiian Creation Chant (juvenile), illustrated by Ed Young, Atheneum (New York, NY), 1988.

All of You Was Singing: A Retelling of an Aztec Myth (juvenile), illustrated by Ed Young, Atheneum (New York, NY), 1990.

When Thought Is Young: Reflections on Teaching and the Poetry of the Child, New Rivers Press (Moorhead, MN), 1992.

The Magic of Their Eyes: And Other Essays on Children's Learning, Imagination and Poetry, Touchstone Center Publications (New York, NY), 1994.

A Measure of Space, illustrated by Debra Frasier, Harcourt (New York, NY), 1995.

Living by Wonder: Writings on the Imaginative Life of Childhood, Parabola Books (New York, NY), 1998.

In the Night, Still Dark, illustrated by Ed Young, Atheneum (New York, NY), 1988.

All of You Was Singing, illustrated by Ed Young, Atheneum (New York, NY), 1991.

Each Sky Has Its Words, illustrated by Gigi Alvaré, Touchstone Center Publications (New York, NY), 1999.

The Bird of Imagining, illustrated with drawings by children from the New York City Public Schools, Touchstone Center Publications (New York, NY), 2001.

In the Space of the Sky illustrated by Debra Frasier, Harcourt (San Diego, CA), 2002.

EDITOR OR COMPILER

In Praise of Music (anthology), Orion Press (New York, NY), 1963.

The Moment of Wonder: A Collection of Chinese and Japanese Poetry, Dial (New York, NY), 1964.

In a Spring Garden: A Selection of Haiku Poetry, illustrated by Ezra Jack Keats, Dial (New York, NY), 1965.

Miracles: Poems by Children of the English-Speaking World, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1966.

Rabindranath Tagore, Moon, for What Do You Wait?: Poems by Tagore, illustrated by Ashley Bryan, Atheneum (New York, NY), 1967.

The Wind and the Rain: Poems by Children, photographs by Helen Buttfield, Department of Education (Wellington, New Zealand), 1967, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1968.

Issa Kobayashi, Of This World: A Poet's Life in Poetry-Poetry of Issa (biographical sketches and poetry), photographs by Helen Buttfield, Dial (New York, NY), 1968.

Out of the Earth I Sing: Poetry and Songs of Primitive Peoples of the World, Norton (New York, NY), 1968.

Journeys: Prose by Children of the English-Speaking World, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1969.

Muse of the Round Sky: Greek Lyric Poetry, translated by Willis Barnstone and others, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1969.

Still Waters of the Air: Three Modern Spanish Poets—The Poetry of Lorca, Machado, and Jimenez, illustrated by Arvis Stewart, Dial (New York, NY), 1970.

(With Haruna Kirmua) There Are Two Lives: Poems by Children of Japan (also see below), translated by Haruna Kirmua, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1970.

Matsuo Basho, The Way of Silence: Prose and Poetry of Basho, photographs by Helen Buttfield, Dial (New York, NY), 1970.

I Breathe a New Song: Poem of the Eskimo, introduction by Edmund Carpenter, illustrated by Oonark, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1971.

The Luminous Landscape: Chinese Art and Poetry, calligraphy by Loretta Pan, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1981.

Also creator and editor of "Touchstone Center Poster-Book" series, including The First Dot Was the Dinosaur, Before There Was Thunder, Sing We of Creeping and Crawling Things, In This Cave, Earth Began, and Air Sings, Earth Dances. Editor and music critic, Musical America, 1959-61; research editor, American College Dictionary, 1961-62; member of editorial board, Parabola Magazine.

THEATER PRODUCTIONS; CREATOR AND DIRECTOR

(And narrator and writer of music) I Sing to Myself, first produced in Wellington, New Zealand at Downstage Theatre, 1964.

In the Time Before, first produced in New York, NY, at Manhattan Country School, 1968.

There Are Two Lives, first produced in New York, NY, at Asia Society, February, 1971.

The Way of Haiku, first produced in New York, NY, at Asia Society, 1971.

The Dream Event, first produced in New York, NY, at Manhattan Theatre Club, 1972.

Also creator and director of A Wanting to Fly, 1978; Cave, 1979; What the Waters Said, 1980; My Music Reaches to the Sky, 1980; Of This World, 1980; Moving Mountain, 1981; In the Eye of the Whale, Swims the Sea, 1982; Sea Tale, 1982; Towards Light, 1988; Raven Mask, 1990; Each Sky Has Its Words, 1992; and The Bird of Imagining, 1992.

OTHER

Contributor to books, including The Right to Dissent: Lectures from the University of Curious Cove, New Zealand University Students Association, 1965; Explorations in Children's Writing, National Association of Teachers of English, 1970; Somebody Turned on a Tap in These Kids, edited by Nancy Larrick, Dell (New York, NY), 1971; The Excitement of Writing, edited by A. B. Clegg, Schocken, 1972; The Learning Report, Fordham University, 1976; The Teaching Process and Arts and Aesthetics: Third Yearbook on Research in Arts and Aesthetic Education, Cemrel, 1979; and Arts and the Schools, edited by Jerome Hausman, McGraw Hill, 1980. Contributor of numerous articles to periodicals, including NEA Journal, Young Children, Publishers Weekly, Instructor, Elementary English, Parabola, and Orion.

ADAPTATIONS: Caedmon Records released three recordings of selections from Lewis's works, entitled Miracles in 1967, A Gathering of Great Poetry for Children in 1968, and Journeys in 1974. National Public Radio made a three-audiotape collection of poems titled Fire, Fire, Burning Bright! in 1986. A motion picture, narrated by Lewis and based on In a Spring Garden, was produced by Weston Woods Films in 1967.

SIDELIGHTS: Richard Lewis has devoted much of his talent and life in the service of what he once told CA is the "identifying, encouraging, and sustaining [of] the poetic and imaginative life of both children and adults." As an educator, author of children's books, editor and compiler of many popular children's anthologies, active participant in children's television and radio programming, and founder and director of the Touchstone Center for Children in New York City, Lewis has gone a long way toward succeeding at his goal.

The Touchstone Center, which Lewis founded in 1969, serves children and adults through the sponsorship of residency programs designed to bring artists into the classrooms of New York City, as well as by conducting teacher training workshops, readings and workshops for families, educational outreach programs, and public seminars. In addition, the Touchstone Center Repertory Theatre, Lewis's theatrical troupe, has presented poetry and mythology to audiences of children across North America.

While on a trip around the world, Lewis gathered poetry by children from the ages of five to thirteen on topics ranging from the seasons of nature to thoughts on war. Out of the three-thousand poems he collected, he selected two hundred for his book Miracles: Poems by Children of the English-Speaking World. According to a New York Times Book Review critic, Miracles contains material that can "fascinate both adults and young people." By 2002 this assertion had been verified by the more than 250,000 million copies the book sold.

Lewis has also used his talents for producing his own writings for children. In All of You Was Singing: A Retelling of an Aztec Myth, for example, Lewis retells an Aztec creation story, a lyrical account of the earth's beginnings. As Lewis relates the Aztec myth, the wind is the force that brings music to the silent world from the possessive sun, inspiring the global "singing" from which the book takes its title. All of You Was Singing, according to a Chicago Tribune reviewer, exposes young children to a multicultural education even before they "know what that term [multicultural] means." While remarking upon the difficulty of the text, William H. Hooks pointed out in the New York Times Book Review that "there's great power and potent poetry in much of" All of You Was Singing; in his opinion, the book is "a work with special appeal and rewards" for children able to appreciate its unusual text.

Similarly, Lewis's 2002 picture book offering, In the Space of the Sky, is an ode to nature served up from a child's viewpoint as Lewis "tries to capture a wondrous subject—the universe," to quote Booklist's Ilene Cooper. While Wendy Lukehart commented in School Library Journal that the "poetic vision is too abstract for its intended audience," a Kirkus Reviews contributor thought the text and illustrations combine for a "sensory overload." Lewis, however, has always felt that young readers can handle more than adult critics think.

In 1998 Lewis published a collection of essays, of which many had previously appeared in periodicals. In Living by Wonder: Writings on the Imaginative Life of Childhood, an "astute, sensitively written collection," in the view of a Publishers Weekly critic, Lewis presents his theories on the development of language, children's perceptions of the world, and imagination in children. "If we are to educate the young to value only the final products of their learning, we have lost the soul of what learning is: a never-ending means to understand the unique sense of life each of us inwardly has been offered," Lewis states as his thesis. Then "throughout this marvelous collection," wrote Chris Mercogliano in Spinning Globe, "the author leads us by example with his sensitive, softly embroidered prose, modeling a reverence for the unfolding of a child's intelligence that is fast being buried under an avalanche of hype and hysteria concerning educational goals and standards." In this work, Lewis presents plans for such projects as acting out daydreams and promoting poetic and mythic thinking. "Although Lewis doesn't explicitly mention the spiritual dimensions of wonder, they shine through the pages of this exuberant book," asserted Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat in their Spirituality & Health review.

For his many years of effort to safeguard children's imaginations, Lewis was the first recipient of the Distinguished Service to the Arts in Education Field award given by the Association of Teaching Artists in 2002.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Hopkins, Lee Bennett, Books Are by People, Citation

Press, 1969.

PERIODICALS

Book, September-October, 2002, review of In the Space of Sky, p. 40.

Booklist, May 1, 2002, Ilene Cooper, review of In the Space of Sky, p. 1534.

Chicago Tribune, May 12, 1991, review of All of You Was Singing: A Retelling of an Aztec Myth, p. 6.

Children's Book and Play Review, January, 2001, review of In a Spring Garden: A Selection of Haiku Poetry, p. 3.

Hudson Review, spring, 1967.

Kirkus Reviews, April 1, 2002, review of In the Space of the Sky, p. 495.

Library Journal, March 15, 1970; May 15, 1970.

New York Times Book Review, December 8, 1968, review of Miracles: Poems by Children of the English-Speaking World,; October 4, 1981, review of The Luminous Landscape: Chinese Art and Poetry, p. 43; August 11, 1991, William H. Hooks, review of All of You Was Singing, p. 17.

Poetry, March, 1968; January, 1969.

Publishers Weekly, December 22, 1997, review of Living by Wonder: The Imaginative Life of Childhood, 49; April 1, 2002, review of In the Space of Sky, p. 81.

School Library Journal, May, 2002, Wendy Lukehart, review of In the Space of Sky, pp. 120-121.

Wall Street Journal, June 25, 1996, "When Cultures Collide," p. A12.