George Selden Tucker's Countryside
Genie of Sutton Place Cricket in Times Square

George Selden (Thompson) was born on May 14, 1929. Well-known as the author of The Cricket in Times Square (illustrated by Garth Williams), he was born in Hartford, Connecticut and educated at Loomis School and Yale University. A Fulbright scholarship took him to Italy in 1951 and 1952.

His first two books were titles he was soon glad were out of print. As he wrote, “I recount these failures not, Lord knows, to boast, but because, if any unpublished or discouraged children’s author reads this, I would like to say, as Noel Coward himself once said to me at a monster literary party where I was the least-known writer, ‘Press on!’” He said his inspiration for his books was J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Selden’s The Cricket in Times Square was a Newbery Honor Book in 1961 and an American Library Association Notable Book for Children. It has appeared in paperback and been televised, and finally, in response to requests for a sequel, Selden wrote Tucker’s Countryside, which was his favorite of his books. Mr. Thompson died in December 1989.

 

 

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