Lloyd Alexander

Lloyd Chudley Alexander, writer: born Philadelphia 30 January 1924; married 1946 Janine Denni (died 2007; one daughter deceased); died Philadelphia 17 May 2007.

Lloyd Alexander was an author of outstanding distinction, his fantasy novels setting new standards in meticulous craftsmanship powered by an individual imagination. Frequently cited by more junior American writers as one of their main literary influences when young, he was often seen as J.R.R. Tolkien's overseas successor for younger readers, in all but the sky-high sales.

Born in 1924, the son of a stock- broker and importer in Philadelphia, Alexander had a solitary upbringing in a family that suffered during the Depression. Deriving huge pleasure from reading classic texts, he decided at 15 to become a poet. But, unable to afford college fees, his parents, while sympathetic to his larger ambitions, found him a job as a bank messenger instead.

Still writing in his spare time, Alexander enlisted in the Army in 1942 principally as a way of building up his fund of experience. After a series of mundane postings in Texas, he was assigned to a base in rural Wales, and its ancient language and sense of history reminded him of the stories of King Arthur he had so enjoyed in his youth.

He was later transferred to Paris to work in counter-intelligence, having previously trained as a member of a combat team to work with the Resistance. At the end of the war, he took classes in literature at the Sorbonne where he met his future wife, Janine. Returning to Philadelphia with her and her daughter, whom he adopted, he scraped a living translating from French.

His first published novel, And Let the Credit Go (1955) was set in the banking world. Before that, there was also work as a cartoonist, advertising writer and layout artist. Finally turning to writing for children, he found this "the most creative and liberating experience of my life. In books for young people, I was able to express my own deepest feeling far more than I ever could when writing for adults."

In Time Cat (1963), he describes how a cat - always a favourite character in his fiction - helps a young boy named Jason to travel through time to nine different countries. While writing it, he came across Welsh mythology and in particularly the Mabinogion, an epic that has inspired many writers. Casting his mind back to war-time Wales, he wrote The Book of Three (1964), the first of a five-part work entitled The Chronicles of Prydain.

This series features an assistant pig-keeper named Taran living in an imaginary kingdom something like an enchanted Wales, although Prydain is in fact the Welsh name for Britain. Accompanied by Princess Elilonwy, very much a liberated female before her time, faithful half-man half-beast Gurgi and Fflewddur Fflam, a bardic harpist whose strings break if he is telling a lie, Taran slowly grows to maturity during his long duel with Arawn, Death-Lord of the underworld.

Part two, The Black Cauldron (1965), was made into an animated Disney film in 1985 and part five, The High King (1968), won the 1969 Newbery Medal for the outstanding children's novel of its year. Filled with exciting action mixed with quiet wisdom as well as humour and as much interested in character as in plot, this was fantasy writing at its best.

More than 40 other books followed, some of which were translated into up to 13 different languages. These included The Marvelous Misadventures of Sebastian (1970), about a 19th-century violinist who helps a princess escape a plot to marry her to a villainous aristocrat. This won the 1971 National Book Award.

Westmark (1981) was the first of three novels in a trilogy starring Theo, an orphan printer's apprentice dangerously involved in political intrigue around the time of the French Revolution. Set in an imaginary country, this too sees the eventual triumph of good over evil, with the lowly born hero finally defeating adversity in his quest for justice, freedom and democracy. Drawing on the author's first-hand experience of warfare, these books still come over as freshly imagined as well as beautifully written.

Another six-part series was named after his principal heroine Vesper Holly, starting with The Illyrian Adventure (1986). Lighter-hearted in tone, these stories describe how Vesper, a young orphan from turn-of-the-century Philadelphia, sets out with her guardian Brinnie to pursue scientific interests in different parts of the globe.

Now living a few blocks away from where he was born, Alexander continued writing, producing one of his most charming books at the age of 77. This was The Fantastical Adventures of the Invisible Boy (2001), an affectionate portrait of David, an 11-year-old growing up in depressed Philadelphia at the time Alexander had been a child himself. This story cleverly contrasts everyday reality with the increasingly surreal tales that David tells himself in order to make his life more interesting. Witty, elegiac and delightfully written, here was proof that Alexander still remained a captivating children's author.

A further novel, The Golden Dream of Carlo Chuchio, will be published later this year.

Nicholas Tucker