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This Goodly Land

Virginia Sorensen, indoors, seated in chair, arms around a black dog, wearing a dark short-sleeved dress

Virginia Sorensen

Dates

February 17, 1912 - December 24, 1991

Other Names Used

  • Virginia Louise Eggertsen: birth name
  • Virginia Sorensen Waugh: married name, second husband

Alabama Connection

  • Auburn, Lee County: adult residence

Selected Works

  • Sorensen, Virginia. A Little Lower than the Angels. New York: A. A. Knopf, 1942. Rpt. Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1997.
  • Sorensen, Virginia. The Evening and the Morning. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1949. Rpt. Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1999.
  • Sorensen, Virginia. The Proper Gods. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1951.
  • Sorensen, Virginia. Curious Missie. Illus. Marilyn Miller. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1953. For younger readers.
  • Sorensen, Virginia. Plain Girl. Illus. Charles Geer. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1955. Rpt. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1988. Rpt. Orlando, Fla.: Harcourt, 2003. For younger readers.
  • Sorensen, Virginia. Miracles on Maple Hill. Illus. Beth and Joe Krush. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1956. Rpt. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1990. Rpt. Orlando, Fla.: Harcourt, 2003. For younger readers.
  • Sorensen, Virginia. Kingdom Come. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1960.
  • Sorensen, Virginia. Where Nothing Is Long Ago: Memories of a Mormon Childhood. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1963. Rpt. Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1998.

Literary Awards

  • "The Talking Stick" included in Prize Stories of 1948: The O. Henry Awards
  • Children's Book Award, Child Study Association of America, 1955, for Plain Girl
  • The John Newbery Medal, Association for Library Service to Children, American Library Association, 1957, for Miracles on Maple Hill

Biographical Information

Virginia Sorensen was born in Provo, Utah. Her family moved to Manti, Utah, when she was five and to American Fork, Utah, when she was thirteen. She read extensively when she was growing up and was on the yearbook and newspaper staffs when she was in high school. She studied journalism at Brigham Young University and the University of Missouri, earning a BS degree from Brigham Young in 1934. After graduation, Sorensen and her family moved to Palo Alto, Calif., so that her husband could attend graduate school at Stanford University. After he finished his studies, Sorensen and her family moved frequently. From 1938 until the late 1950s, they lived in Terre Haute, Ind., East Lansing, Mich., Auburn, Ala., and Edinboro, Pa., while Sorensen's husband pursued a career teaching college English. For some of this time, Sorensen's mother-in-law was living with them, providing childcare that allowed her time to write. Sorensen's first novel, A Little Lower Than the Angels, was published in 1942.

From 1942 to 1978, Sorensen published eight novels for adults, seven books for children, and a collection of stories about her childhood. She received two Guggenheim Fellowships to do research in Mexico (1946) and in Denmark (1954). In 1954, she also spent time in residence at the MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire where she met the writer Alec Waugh. Sorensen's marriage failed in the late 1950s, and she and her husband were divorced. In the late 1960s, she and Waugh were both writers-in-residence at Central State College (now University of Central Oklahoma) in Edmond, Okla. In 1969, Sorensen and Waugh married in Gibraltar. They traveled extensively and made their home in Tangier, Morocco. The couple moved back to the United States in 1980 when Waugh's health began to fail. They lived in Tampa, Fla., near Sorensen's daughter and her family. When Waugh died in 1981, Sorensen moved to Hendersonville, N.C. She died there of cancer in 1991. A television movie version of her novel On This Star (published in 1946) was broadcast in 1996 as A Loss of Innocence.

Interests and Themes

Most of Virginia Sorensen's adult novels feature characters who are Mormons. Many take place in historical time periods. The settings of all her books are places where she lived or visited (Curious Missie is set in Alabama).

For More Information

Please check your local library for these materials. If items are not available locally, your librarian can help you borrow them through the InterLibrary Loan program. Your librarian can also help you find other information about this author.

There may be more information available through the databases in the Alabama Virtual Library. If you are an Alabama citizen, AVL can be used at your public library or school library media center. You can also get a username and password from your librarian to use AVL at home.

Reference Books

  • Lee, L. L., and Sylvia B. Lee. Virginia Sorensen. Boise, Idaho: Boise State University, 1978.

Reference Articles

  • Sorensen, Virginia. "Newbery Award Acceptance." The Horn Book Magazine Aug. 1957: 275-285.

Reference Book Chapters and Encyclopedia Entries

  • "Sorensen, Virginia 1912-." Something About the Author. Vol. 2. Detroit: Gale Research, 1971. 233-234.
  • Hopkins, Lee Bennett. "Virginia Sorensen." More Books by More People: Interviews with Sixty-Five Authors of Books for Children. New York: Citation Press, 1974. 323-329.

Reference Web Sites

Location of Papers

  • Boston University
  • Brigham Young University
  • University of Minnesota
  • Utah State Archives
  • Utah State University

Photo courtesy of Signature Books.

Last updated on 2009-12-12.