Irene Hunt Research Paper

Irene Hunt is the daughter of Franklin P. and Sarah Land Hunt. Irene Hunt was born on May 18, 1907 in Pontiac, Illinois. Irene and her family soon moved to Newton, Illinois. Franklin, Irene Father died when Irene was only seven, and the family moved again to be close to Irene's grandparents. Irene's childhood was lonely. She enjoyed listening to her grandfather’s recollections of his childhood during the Civil War, later she use many of those stories in Across Five Aprils. She was educated from the University of Illinois, Urbana, from where she graduated with a BA in 1939, at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, from which she earned an MA in 1946. From 1930 to 1945 she taught English and French in schools in Oak Park, Illinois. From 1946

to 1950 she taught psychology at the University of South Dakota, Vermillion. In 1950 she returned to teaching in schools in Cicero, Illinois, and in 1965 was made the director of language arts in that school system. She retired from this post in 1969 and devoted herself to writing. It was at age fifty-seven that she published her first novel. The wish to write pages full of words, to make them tell the stories that I dreamed about, haunted me from childhood on. " Irene also said that during her years as a teacher, she found that it was better to teach history through literature. Thus, she wrote books that would help her students better understand history. Her books do not have a specifically intended audience as Irene once maintained that she writes when she has something to say. Across Five Aprils was published in 1965. Awarded the Newbery Honor Book, the novel was also Irene's personal favorite among the ones she wrote.