spouse alec waugh
Miracles on Maple Hill is a 1956 novel by ___MASK15___ that won the 1957 Newbery Medal for excellence in American children ' s literature . The book was illustrated by Beth and Joe Krush . Alexander Raban `` Alec '' Waugh ( 8 July 1898 -- 3 September 1981 ) , was a British novelist , the elder brother of the better - known Evelyn Waugh and son of ___MASK63___ Waugh , author , literary critic , and publisher . His first wife was Barbara Jacobs ( daughter of the writer William Wymark Jacobs ) , his second wife was Joan Chirnside and his third wife was Virginia Sorenson , author of the Newbery Medal -- winning Miracles on Maple Hill . Brideshead Revisited , The Sacred & Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder is a novel by English writer Evelyn Waugh , first published in 1945 . It follows , from the 1920s to the early 1940s , the life and romances of the protagonist Charles Ryder , including his friendship with the Flytes , a family of wealthy English Catholics who live in a palatial mansion called Brideshead Castle . Ryder has relationships with two of the Flytes : Sebastian and ___MASK75___ . The novel explores themes including nostalgia for the age of English aristocracy , Catholicism , and the nearly overt homosexuality of Sebastian Flyte ' s coterie at Oxford University . A faithful and extremely well - received television adaptation of the novel was done in an 11 - part miniseries by Granada Television in 1981 . ___MASK63___ Waugh ( 1866  1943 ) was an English author , literary critic , and publisher . He was the father of the authors Alec and Evelyn Waugh . ___MASK63___ Evelyn St . John Waugh ( 28 October 1903  10 April 1966 ) was an English writer of novels , biographies and travel books . He was also a prolific journalist and reviewer of books . His most famous works include the early satires " Decline and Fall " ( 1928 ) and " A Handful of Dust " ( 1934 ), the novel " Brideshead Revisited " ( 1945 ) and the Second World War trilogy " Sword of Honour " ( 1952  61 ). Waugh is recognised as one of the great prose stylists of the English language in the 20th century . The John Newbery Medal is a literary award given by the Association for Library Service to Children , a division of the American Library Association ( ALA ). The award is given to the author of " the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children ." Named for John Newbery , an 18th - century English publisher of juvenile books , the Newbery was proposed by Frederic G . Melcher in 1921 , making it the first children ' s book award in the world . The medal was designed by Rene Paul Chambellan and depicts an author giving his work ( a book ) to a boy and a girl to read . The Newbery and the Caldecott Medal are considered the two most prestigious awards for children ' s literature in the United States . Many bookstores and libraries have Newbery sections ; popular television shows interview the winners ; textbooks include lists of Newbery winners , and many master ' s and doctoral theses are written about them . John Newbery ( 9 July 1713  22 December 1767 ), called " The Father of Children ' s Literature ", was an English publisher of books who first made children ' s literature a sustainable and profitable part of the literary market . He also supported and published the works of Christopher Smart , Oliver Goldsmith and ___MASK49___ . In recognition of his achievements in children ' s publishing , the Newbery Medal was named after him . ___MASK15___ , née Eggertsen , also credited as Virginia Sorenson ( February 17 , 1912 , in Provo , Utah  December 24 , 1991 ), was the author of the 1957 John Newbery Medal winning " Miracles on Maple Hill ", based in the Erie , Pennsylvania region where she lived at the time . She grew up in Manti and American Fork , Utah . Her first novel , " A Little Lower Than the Angels ", was written and published in 1942 while she resided in Terre Haute , Indiana , with her first husband Frederick C . Sorensen , a professor at Indiana State Teachers College , now Indiana State University . With its publication , Alfred Knopf declared , " I have seldom introduced a new novelist with the confidence I feel in the author of this remarkable book . It marks the debut , I believe , of a major American writer ." She is considered " one of Utah ' s premiere gifts to literary America ." Her first book for children , " Curious Missy ", grew out of her efforts with a bookmobile in Alabama . She later divorced Sorensen and married Alec Waugh , son of Arthur Waugh and brother of Evelyn Waugh , in 1969 . Her books are usually Mormon - themed . She received two Guggenheim fellowships , one in 1946 to study tribe of Mexican Indians , and one in 1954 to study in Denmark as regards the history of Sanpete Valley ' s settlers .