Sorche Nic Leodhas


LeClaire Gowans Alger was an American writer better known under her pseudonym Sorche Nic Leodhas. Alger was a known librarian, working from 1915 to 1966, while the imaginary Sorche was a storyteller. She sought out traditional Scottish tales that had never been written down before. She won a Lewis Carroll Shelf Award in 1962, and a Newbery Honor for Thistle and Thyme in 1963. Her 1965 children's picture book, Always Room for One More, illustrated by Nonny Hogrogian, won the 1966 Caldecott Medal.

Early life and education

LeClaire Alger was born in Youngstown, Ohio on May 20, 1898 to Louis P. and Anna Gowans. Because she was often ill, her parents opted to homeschool her, and she learned to read as a toddler. In 1929, Alger graduated from the Carnegie Library School in Pittsburgh.

Career

Alger began her career working as a page at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh from 1915 until 1921, at which point she moved to New York City and began working at the New York Public Library. She returned to Pittsburgh in 1925 and became a librarian in 1929, retiring in 1966.
While working at the library, Alger published her first book, Jan and the Wonderful Mouth Organ, in 1939. She later published two more books using her given name: Dougal's Wish and The Golden Summer. She began writing a pseudonym, Sorche Nic Leodhas, following her retirement. Following her death in 1969, her great-niece completed and published some of her unfinished manuscripts in Twelve Great Black Cats, and Other Eerie Scottish Tales, illustrated by Vera Bock, whom Alger had worked with for two previous books.

Personal life

Alger married Amos Hoffman in 1916, though he died two years later. By 1930, she married John N. Alger.
She lived in Pittsburgh from 1915 to 1921 before moving to New York City for four years, after which she returned to Pittsburgh.
She died on in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania on November 14, 1969.

Awards

Works

As Leclaire Alger

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As Sorche Nic Leodhas

As author

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As editor

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