Charlie May Simon

1897-1977

Charlie May Simon Books | Biography

Books by Charlie May Simon | Charlie May Simon Award|

Charlie May Simon Books

2007 - 2008

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Biography of Charlie May Simon

Charlie May Simon was born in Monticello, Arkansas, on August 17, 1897.  Her father, Charles Wayman Hogue, had written books entitled, Back Yonder and An Ozark Chronicle, which described his home life in Arkansas.  On January 18, 1936, she married John Gould Fletcher, heir of a mercantile family from Memphis. However, she was soon widowed. 

Charlie May decided to follow her father's footsteps and to try writing.  After her first efforts were rejected, she decided to study Art History in Chicago and Paris.  In Paris she met her second husband, Howard Simon.  They returned to Arkansas and lived in Perry County.  Howard Simon become the illustrator for Charlie May's future books.  They divorced in 1936, but Howard Simon continued to illustrate most of Charlie May Simon's books.

Writing children's books was Charlie May Simon's career. She wrote from her own experience growing up in the mountains of Arkansas.  Her first book, Robin on the Mountain, was published in 1934.    Sharecropper was her next big novel, revealing the reality of farming in the South.

Charlie May married a third time to John Gould Fletcher, a Pulitzer Prize winning poet.  After Fletcher's death in 1950, she traveled extensively and began writing biographies.  For a time she lived and taught in Japan.  The next twenty-five years were spent writing about foreign, influential people, such as Albert Schweitzer.  Charlie May Simon Fletcher died in 1977.

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Books by Charlie May Simon

GRADES K-3
Razorbacks Are Really Hogs (1972)
The Arkansas Stories of Charlie May Simon (1981)

GRADES 4-6
Robin on the Mountain (1934)
Lost Corner (1935)
Tenny Gay (1936)
The Sharecropper (1937) 
Popo's Miracle (1938)
Bright Morning (1939)
The Faraway Trail (1940)
Roundabout (1941) 
Lonnie's Landing (1942)
Younger Brother (1942)
Lays of the New Land (1943)
Art in the New Land (1945)
Song of Tomorrow (1945)
Straw in the Sun(1945)
Joe Mason: Apprentice to Audubon (1946)
The Royal Road (1948)
Saturday's Child (1950)
The Long Hunt (1952)
Johnswood (1953)
Green Grows the Prairie: Arkansas in the 1890's (1955)
Secret on the Congo (1955)
All Men Are Brothers: A Portrait of Schweitzer (1956)
A Seed Shall Serve: The Story of Toyohiko Kagawa (1958)
The Sun and the Birch: The Story of Crown Prince Akihito & Crown Princess Michiko (1960)
The Andrew Carnegie Story (1965)
Dag Hammarskjold (1967)
Martin Buber: Wisdom In Our Time (1969)
Faith Has Need of All Truth (1974)
Christmas Every Friday, and Other Christmas Stories (1981)

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Charlie May Simon Award

One of Arkansas most prolific authors, Charlie May Simon, wrote 27 books for adults and children. The Arkansas Department of Education honored her in 1970 by establishing the Charlie May Simon Award for children's literature. Each year the award is determined by a vote of the state's fourth, fifth, and sixth grade students.

Students in grades four, five and six who have read or heard read at least three of the titles on the Charlie May Simon reading list are eligible to vote for their favorite book.  Eligible students vote for only one title.  Balloting on this list is done by the Arkansas Department of Education in early spring each year. 

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