RANSOME, ARTHUR (MICHELL)

born Jan. 18, 1884, Leeds, Yorkshire, Eng. died June 3, 1967, Manchester writer of children's adventure novels noted for their high literary standards and their detailed and colourful accounts of the perception and imagination of children. Educated at Rugby School, Ransome worked in a publishing house, then became a war correspondent in World War I, and in the course of his work made several trips to Russia before and after the Revolution. He also traveled in China, Egypt, and the Sudan, and his experiences provided the inspiration for, especially, Old Peter's Russian Tales (1916) and Racundra's First Cruise (1923), about sailing on the Baltic Sea. Ransome's many other works include Swallows and Amazons (1931), Pigeon Post (1936), We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea (1937), Missee Lee (1941), and Mainly About Fishing (1959). The Autobiography of Arthur Ransome was published in 1976.