Richard and Florence Atwater

Richard and Florence Atwater were a Chicago husband and wife who together wrote one of America's best-loved funny books for children. Richard Tupper Atwater, born in 1892, taught classical Greek at the University of Chicago and wrote for several Chicago newspapers. He also translated the Secret History of the Byzantine historian Procopius into English. Florence Carroll, born in Chicago in 1896, studied French literature at the University of Chicago, where Richard was one of her teachers. They married in 1921 and had two children. In 1932 the family saw a documentary film about Admiral Richard E. Byrd's Antarctic expedition, and it inspired Richard to write a comic story. In 1934 a stroke left him unable to speak or write. Florence supported the family by teaching high school French, English and Latin and by writing for magazines. She revised her husband's manuscript, and Little, Brown published Mr. Popper's Penguins in 1938. It won a Newbery Honor in 1939 and has stayed in print ever since. Richard died in 1948, and Florence in 1979.

Richard and Florence Atwater is also an author in the library: author page and works.

Faith: Faith not well documented. Source: Wikipedia