Summary
A creative titan of the Victorian age, William Morris (1834--96) produced a prodigious variety of literary and artistic work in his lifetime. In addition to his achievements as a versatile designer at the forefront of the arts and crafts movement, Morris distinguished himself as a poet, translated Icelandic sagas and classical epics, wrote a series of influential prose romances, and gave lectures promoting his socialist principles. His collected works, originally published in 24 volumes between 1910 and 1915, were edited by his daughter Mary (May) Morris (1862--1938), whose introductions to each volume chart with insight and sympathy the development of her father's literary, aesthetic and political passions. Volume 20 contains the posthumously published novel The Water of the Wondrous Isles (1897).
Summary
Jack and Annie's latest mission from Merlin is to help the famous writer Charles Dickens. In a magical whirl, the brother and sister are whisked back in time to Victorian England and the foggy streets of London.
Mary Pope Osborne was born in Fort Sill, Oklahoma on May 20, 1949. She grew up in a military family, and by the time she was 15 she had lived in Oklahoma, Austria, Florida, and four different army posts in Virginia and North Carolina. She attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she majored in religion. After graduation, she traveled around Europe and Asia. Before becoming an author, she worked as a window dresser, a medical assistant, a Russian travel consultant, a waitress, an acting teacher, a bartender, and an assistant editor for a children's magazine.
Her first book, Run, Run as Fast as You Can, was published in 1982. She is the author of the Magic Tree House series and the Merlin Missions series. Her husband, actor Will Osborne, helps her write the nonfiction companion series, Magic Tree House Research Guides. Her other books include The Deadly Power of Medusa, Jason and the Argonauts, Haunted Waters, and Moonhorse.
(Bowker Author Biography)
