RIP, Lloyd Alexander

Lloyd Alexander died on May 17^th. He was the author of many, many great children’s books and is most famous for his Chronicles of Prydain, beginning with The Book of Three. My mom read fantastic serials out loud to us growing up: Little House (if you top it off with “on the Prairie” it tags you as one of the uninitiated), Narnia, etc., but I think Lloyd Alexander made the biggest impression on me. Somewhere half way through the series I got way too old for bedtime reading, so I finished it for my younger sister. Than I reread them all one summer with my first great love boyfriend and reread them again last year. They seemed only a little dated – the spunky heroine Princess Eilowny has been outdone in terms of women’s liberation by contemporary standards (not you Hermione!), although as a kid I found her highly subversive; there weren’t many like her. Prydain is drawn heavily from Welsh legends and the scale is appropriately epic, but Alexander’s strength is in driving home the humanity and vulnerability of his characters. To write a story of flawed individuals navigating the battle between good and evil is no small task, but to do it for children with such nuance is nothing short of amazing. It’s hard to imagine a canon that could produce Harry Potter or The Golden Compass without Lloyd Alexander. Sure, we’ll find out whether or not said Harry Potter lives or dies this July, but you’ll have to wait until August to read Alexander’s last novel The Golden Dream of Carlo Chuchio.