Young Authors Create Lasting Work

Written by Jon Williams

Penguin Young Readers Group recently added a new author to their stable, one that you’d more likely expect to find in their target audience instead. Jake Marcionette is just thirteen years old, but his debut middle-grade novel Just Jake (written when he was twelve) will be released in February of 2014. It deals with a young protagonist’s struggle to make his way in a new school after his family moves from out of state. Plans are already in the works for more books in the series, with the second scheduled for the following February.

Authors so young are rare, but they aren’t unheard of. Here’s a look at a few other writers who have published works written in their teen years.

Alexandra Adornetto: Born in 1992 in Melbourne, Australia, to parents who were both English teachers, Alexandra discovered writing at thirteen when she needed something to occupy her time after her friends went to the beach and she wasn’t allowed to accompany them. That effort eventually became The Shadow Thief, which was published in 2007. The first in a trilogy, it was followed by The Lampo Circus (2008) and Von Gobstopper’s Arcade (2009). Now out of her teens and studying in the U.S., Alexandra’s most recent release is Heaven, the conclusion to a second trilogy of novels (which have been compared favorably to the Twilight series).

Christopher Paolini: Although Eragon wasn’t widely published until Paolini was nearly twenty, he started writing it years before, when he was fifteen (and had just graduated from high school). Originally self-published in 2002, it came to the attention of author Carl Hiaasen, who recommended it to Alfred A. Knopf. Eragon was then acquired by Random House and republished for a broader audience in 2003. It became a huge hit, spawning three sequels (Eldest, Brisingr, and Inheritance) and a major motion picture.

S.E. Hinton: The young adult classic The Outsiders was first conceived by Susan Hinton at 15 as a way to present the point of view of a marginalized high school subculture. Written mostly when she was sixteen, the book was published in 1967, when she was eighteen. She would go on to write a number of young adult novels, all loosely connected to The Outsiders. In 1983, the novel was adapted for film by Francis Ford Coppola, as was her later book Rumble Fish later that year. More recently, Hinton has ventured into literature more geared toward adults; her most recent novel, Hawkes Harbor, was published in 2004.

Mary Shelley: Mary Shelley (then Mary Godwin) was just eighteen when she and Percy Shelley visited Lord Byron in Switzerland. Inspired by their conversations, their reading, and the dreary weather outside, Byron challenged them all to write original supernatural tales. Thus the seed of Frankenstein was sown. It began life as a short story and then grew into the classic novel we all know today, originally published in 1918, when Shelley was 21.

The most well-known teen writer off all time, of course, is Anne Frank, who kept a diary detailing the trials and tribulations of herself and the Frank family as they lived their life in hiding from the Nazis during their occupation of the Netherlands. Anne received the diary as a gift for her thirteenth birthday in 1942, and she began writing in it two days later. Her last entry, made shortly before her family was discovered and arrested, was written August 1, 1944. Realizing the import of her situation, she wrote it as not just a diary, but as a document of the time, and it has survived as just that: a literary and historical staple read the world over. Another work, Anne Frank’s Tales from the Secret Annex, compiles Anne’s non-diary writings, comprising short stories and essays, and even the beginnings of a novel.

Fortunately, most writers—teen or otherwise—toil under circumstances far less harrowing.

There’s “Money” in Being a Writer

Written by Kyle Slagley

Folks in the United States are accustomed to seeing dead presidents and other political figures on banknotes. Folks in Canada branch out a little bit to include more than just dead Prime Ministers, but with only one or two exceptions, most of the faces on Canadian bills are political figures as well.

The money is clearly a bit stuffy and stodgy here in North America.

Europe, on the other hand, seems to be a bit more open-minded with their funds. The other day I heard on the radio that the Bank of England recently released the proof for the new Jane Austen ten-pound note, which will go into circulation sometime around 2017, according to BBC News. Austen will replace famed naturalist and author Sir Charles Darwin.

Obviously on this side of the pond, we are unaccustomed to seeing authors and writers on the cash lining (or not lining, as the case may be) our wallets, but after my curiosity got the better of me, I found there are a surprising number of writers who graced various currencies at one time or another.

A couple of the more unsurprising faces are Benjamin Franklin and Nelson Mandela, who also happen to be famous for much more than just their writing. Franklin’s image currently graces the U.S. one hundred dollar bill, and also was pictured on the two-dollar note, which is now out of print. South Africa’s currency, known as the rand, issued five new notes in 2012 – all of which feature Mandela on the front.

From there we delve into writers who were primarily just writers and only delved into political satire on the side. Probably the most satirical of the bunch would be Jonathan Swift, author of Gulliver’s Travels, who was pictured on the Irish ten-pound note issued in 1976. Swift was replaced in 1993 by Ulysses author James Joyce.

Though the Bank of England is the central bank for the United Kingdom, the crown permits eight different banks to issue legal currency. Scotland is home to three of those banks, and each of them has issued notes featuring a different writer. In 1994, the Royal Bank of Scotland issued a one-pound commemorative note picturing Robert Louis Stevenson, author of Treasure Island. In 1998, Clydesdale Bank issued a five-pound note picturing Robert Burns, author of the poem “A Red, Red Rose.” Finally, in 2007, the Bank of Scotland released four notes featuring Ivanhoe author Sir Walter Scott – the bank had previously released one note in 1999 featuring Scott.

To wrap up, lets venture outside the realm of English-speaking nations to Denmark and Germany. From 1952 to 1975, Denmark, whose currency is the krone, circulated a ten-krone note picturing Hans Christian Andersen – author of such fairy tales as “The Ugly Duckling,” “Puss in Boots,” and other characters you would now find in Shrek films.

Finally, from 1992 until they joined the EU in 2002, Germany circulated two 1,000-mark notes featuring the Brothers Grimm, one of Jacob and one of Wilhelm. The Brothers Grimm are of course responsible for “Hansel and Gretel,” “Little Red Riding Hood,” “Rumplestiltsken,” and the other half of the Shrek cast of characters.

If you’re as curious as I was, check out this Wikipedia page to see who is pictured on the currencies of nations across the world.