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Carol Ryrie Brink (1895-1981) an American author of over thirty juvenile and adult books. Her novel Caddie Woodlawn won the 1936 Newbery Medal.
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Born Caroline Ryrie on December 28, 1895, in Moscow, Idaho, the only child of Alexander and Henrietta (Watkins) Ryrie, Brink was orphaned by age 8 and raised by her maternal grandmother, Caroline Watkins, the model for Caddie Woodlawn. Her grandmother's life and storytelling abilities inspired her writing at an early age.
She started writing for her school newspapers and continued that in college. She attended the University of Idaho for three years (1914-17) before transferring to the University of California in 1917, where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1918. On June 12 of that year, she married University of Minnesota instructor Raymond Woodard Brink, a young mathematics professor she had met in Moscow. They made their home in St. Paul for forty-two years, where they raised a son and a daughter, spending summers in the Wisconsin backwoods, although they did traveled for several years in Scotland and France.
Anything Can Happen on the River, her first novel, was published in 1934. She wrote fiction throughout her life, and added poetry and painting to her later accomplishments. She was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of Idaho in 1965. [1]. Brink Hall, which houses the UI English Department and faculty offices, is named in her honor. The children's section of the Moscow, ID Carnegie public library is also named after her.
She died of heart failure at the age of eighty-five in La Jolla, California August 15, 1981.
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