Enid Blyton - New York around 1952ish

[LoraL]

Hi, does anybody know whether Enid lived in the 1950s in New York? Thanks L

[Anita Bensoussane]

Welcome, LoraL. Enid Blyton never lived in the USA, though she did visit New York in the late autumn of 1948. Her biographer Barbara Stoney tells us that Enid and her husband Kenneth "joined friends for a three-week semi-business holiday in New York, sailing out on the Queen Elizabeth and back on the Queen Mary." Mystery Island (the American title for The Island of Adventure) had won an award "and her New York publishers used the occasion of her visit to introduce her to booksellers, librarians and reviewers at a large cocktail party given in her honour." Apparently "The American Press, generally, was not as tactful or as kind to Enid as their British counterparts had been up to then and the holiday was not altogether a success." Enid Blyton dispensed with her New York agent on the spot. She was impressed by American business efficiency but was "deeply shocked" by "the pace and toughness of the American scene generally."

[Tony Summerfield]

You asked me the same question in an email, Lora, but I think that Anita has already answered it very thoroughly in the post above. You did also ask me in your email if Enid Blyton spoke German, and the answer to this is that she definitely didn't.