Louise Rankin

Louise Spieker Rankin (July 2, 1897 – November 21, 1951) was an American writer of children's literature, editor, and politician. Her debut children's novel, Daughter of the Mountains, was a Newbery Honor recipient in 1949.^[1]

Louise Spieker was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1897. Her father, Edward Spieker, was a professor at Johns Hopkins University.^[2]

Spieker attended Goucher College and Johns Hopkins University. She married Everett H. Rankin, an executive for the Socony-Vacuum Oil Company; the pair resided in India, Tibet, and Sri Lanka from 1933 to 1942.^[2]

Daughter of the Mountains, inspired by an acquaintance Rankin met in the Himalayas, was published in 1948.^[2] It received positive press from Kirkus Reviews,^[3] won the award for books for children aged 8–12 from the Children's Book Festival sponsored by the New York Herald Tribune, and was named a Newbery Honor book in 1949.^[2]

Rankin wrote one other book for children, The Gentling of Jonathan (1950), which was less positively received.^[4] She also wrote a cookbook, An American Cook Book for India. Rankin additionally worked for Reader's Digest, and served as the state committeewoman from Tompkins County on the New York State Republican Committee.^[2]

Rankin died in Washington, D.C., on November 21, 1951, after a lingering illness.^[2]

Rankin's papers are held by the Cornell University library.^[5]