Ellen Levine, an activist and award-winning children’s book author whose Henry’s Freedom Box (Scholastic, 2007) was named a Caldecott Honor, died May 26 after a 19-month battle with lung cancer. She was 73.
Levine died peacefully with her partner of 40 years, Anne Koedt, whom she married last fall, by her side. Also with Levine were her sister, Mada Liebman, and her brother-in-law, Burt Liebman.
Levine was a prolific author of fiction and nonfiction for children, young readers, and adults who told stories about slaves, immigrants, historical periods, and the importance of social justice.
Her rigorous research and devotion to accuracy made her stories compelling. Her books included, Henry’s Freedom Box, the true story of a slave who mailed himself to freedom; Darkness Over Denmark, about the rescue of Jews by the Danes in World War II; and A Fence Away from Freedom, which deals with the internment of Japanese Americans in the 1940s. I Hate English, about a Chinese girl struggling to learn English, has become a resource for ESL teachers, and a New York Times review said Freedom’s Children, about a young black Civil Rights activist in the 1960s, was “nothing short of wonderful.”
Prior to her writing career, Levine clerked for Chief Judge Joseph Lord of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and practiced law with the Prisoners Rights Project of the NY Legal Aid Society.
Levine’s mother, Ide Gruber Levine, was a theater and arts reviewer for the Review of Reviews in the 1930′s and was a frequent contributor to the columns of Walter Winchell. Her father, Nathan Levine, one of the first attorneys appointed as a trial attorney in the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) in 1947, became a lawyer for immigrant rights after retiring from the INS. “I grew up,” Ellen wrote, “knowing there were battles to be fought and worlds to change.”
Levine graduated with a B.A., magna cum laude with honors, from Brandeis University, an M.A. from University of Chicago, and a J.D. from New York University School of Law.
Levine is survived by her spouse Anne Koedt, an author and illustrator of children’s books and a leading voice in the “second wave” of feminism in the 1960s and 70s; her sister and brother-in-law Mada and Burt Liebman; her niece and nephew Sara Liebman and Dan Liebman and niece-in-law Lis Davis; great nephews Nathan Davis Liebman and Lucas Davis Liebman.
Donations in Levine’s honor may be made to Planned Parenthood or a progressive agency of your choice.
This article originally appeared in the newsletter Extra Helping. Go here to subscribe.
This article was featured in School Library Journal's Extra Helping enewsletter. Subscribe today to have more articles like this delivered to your inbox for free.
