Rose Amy Fyleman was an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 writer and poet, noted for her works on the fairy

Fairy

A fairy is a type of mythical being or legendary creature, a form of spirit, often described as metaphysical, supernatural or preternatural.Fairies resemble various beings of other mythologies, though even folklore that uses the term...

 folk, for children. Her poem There are fairies at the bottom of our garden was set to music by English composer Liza Lehmann

Liza Lehmann

Liza Lehmann was an English operatic soprano and composer, known for her vocal compositions.-Biography:She was born Elisabetha Nina Mary Frederica Lehmann in London. Her father was the German painter Rudolf Lehmann and her mother was Amelia Chambers, a music teacher, composer and arranger...

. Her Christmas carol Lift your hidden faces, set to a French carol tune, was included in the Anglican hymnal Songs of Praise (1931) as well as in the Hutterian Brotherhood's Songs of Light (1977).

Life and works

Rose Fyleman was born in Nottingham on 6 March 1877, the third child of John Feilmann and his wife, Emilie, née Loewenstein, who was of Russian extraction. Her father was in the lace trade, and his Jewish family originated in 1860 from Jever

Jever

Jever is the capital of the district of Friesland in Lower Saxony, Germany. The name Jever is usually associated with a major brand of beer which is produced here, the city is also a popular holiday resort. Jever was granted city status in 1536. Unofficially Jever is sometimes referred to as...

 in the historical state of Oldenburg

Oldenburg

Oldenburg is an independent city in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated in the western part of the state between the cities of Bremen and Groningen, Netherlands, at the Hunte river. It has a population of 160,279 which makes it the fourth biggest city in Lower Saxony after Hanover, Braunschweig...

, currently Lower Saxony

Lower Saxony

Lower Saxony is a German state situated in north-western Germany and is second in area and fourth in population among the sixteen states of Germany...

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

.

As a young girl, Fyleman was educated at a private school, and at the age of nine first saw one of her compositions published in a local paper. Although she entered University College, Nottingham, she failed in the intermediate and was thus unable to pursue her ambition of becoming a schoolteacher. Despite this, Fyleman had a good singing voice, and therefore decided to study music. She studied singing in Paris, Berlin and finally at the Royal College of Music in London, where she received her diploma as associate of the Royal College of Music. She returned to Nottingham shortly afterward, where she taught signing and helped in her sister's school. Along with other members of her family, she anglicized the spelling of her name at the outbreak of the First World War in 1914.

When she was forty, Fyleman sent her verses to Punch

Punch (magazine)

Punch, or the London Charivari was a British weekly magazine of humour and satire established in 1841 by Henry Mayhew and engraver Ebenezer Landells. Historically, it was most influential in the 1840s and 50s, when it helped to coin the term "cartoon" in its modern sense as a humorous illustration...

magazine and her first publication "There are Fairies at the Bottom of Our Garden" appeared in May of 1917. The immense response from publishers prompted Fyleman to submit several other fairy poems. Her verses enjoyed tremendous success among readers and her first collection Fairies and Chimneys (1918) was reprinted more than twenty times over the next decade. During the 1920s and early 1930s Rose Fyleman published multiple verse collections, wrote drama for children, and for two years, edited the children's magazine Merry-Go-Round. Fyleman was also a skilled linguist who translated books from German, French and Italian.

Rose Fyleman was one of the most successful children's writers of her generation and she saw much of her earlier poetry become proverbial. She died at a nursing home in St. Albans, Hertfordshire

Hertfordshire

Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...

 on 1 August, 1957.

Poem about Winnipeg

In December 1929, Rose Fyleman was invited to Winnipeg

Winnipeg

Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of Manitoba, Canada, and is the primary municipality of the Winnipeg Capital Region, with more than half of Manitoba's population. It is located near the longitudinal centre of North America, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers .The name...

, Canada, as the guest speaker at a couple of women's clubs. She was staying at the Fort Garry Hotel

Fort Garry Hotel

The Fort Garry Hotel is a historic hotel in Downtown Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada and one of Canada's grand railway hotels. Built in 1913 by the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, it is located one block from the railway's Union Station, and was the tallest structure in the city when it was completed.Like...

, near the Manitoba Parliament Building

Manitoba Legislative Building

The Manitoba Legislative Building is the meeting place of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba, in central Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. It was originally named the Manitoba Parliament Building, not Legislative. The neoclassical building was completed in 1920 and stands seventy-seven meters tall...

 on Broadway Ave. One evening, Rose and the president of one of the clubs decided to take a stroll to the parliament building, so that Rose could view the statue of Queen Victoria, located on its front lawn. It was such a beautiful winter evening that when they got back to the hotel, Rose was inspired to write a poem entitled "In Winnipeg at Christmas." The poem appeared in print soon after—on New Year's Day, 1930—in the British magazine Punch. This poem is familiar to many inhabitants of Winnipeg, who were first exposed to it in school, and is often cited during the Christmas season. Fred Penner

Fred Penner

Frederick Ralph Cornelius Penner, is a Canadian children's entertainer who gives appearances throughout North America. His television show, Fred Penner's Place, aired on CBC in Canada from 1985 to 1997. It was co-produced by Nickelodeon in 1989 and 1990.Penner was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba...

, a children's entertainer from Winnipeg, included it on his 1990 recording for Christmas, entitled "The Season."

JUVENILE

• The Rainbow Cat and Other Stories, illustrations by Thelma Cudlipp Grosvenor, Methuen (London, England), 1922, Doran (New York, NY), 1923.
• Forty Good-Night Tales, illustrations by Thelma Cudlipp Grosvenor, Methuen (London, England), 1923, Doran (New York, NY), 1924.
• The Adventure Club, illustrations by A. H. Watson, Methuen (London, England), 1925, Doran (New York, NY), 1926.
• Letty: A Study of a Child, illustrations by Lisl Hummel, Methuen (London, England), 1926, Doran (New York, NY), 1927.
• Forty Good-Morning Tales, Methuen (London, England), 1926, Doran (New York, NY), 1929.
• Twenty Tea-Time Tales, Methuen (London, England), 1929, published as Tea Time Tales, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1930.
• The Dolls' House, illustrations by Margaret Tempest, Methuen (London, England), 1930, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1931.
• The Katy Kruse Play Book, illustrations by Katy Kruse, McKay (Philadelphia, PA), 1930.
• The Strange Adventures of Captain Marwhopple, illustrations by Gertrude Lindsay, Methuen (London, England), 1931, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1932.
• The Easter Hare, and Other Stories, illustrations by Decie Merwin, Methuen (London, England), 1932.
• Jeremy Quince, Lord Mayor of London, illustrations by Cecil Leslie, Cape (London, England), 1933.
• The Princess Dances, illustrations by Cecil Leslie, Dent (London, England), 1933.
  
• Timothy's Conjuror, Methuen (London, England), 1942.
  
• The Timothy Boy Trust, illustrations by Marjorie Wratten, Methuen (London, England), 1944.
• Hob and Bob: A Tale of Two Goblins, illustrations by Charles Stewart, Hollis & Carter (London, England), 1944.
• Adventures with Benghazi, illustrations by Peggy Fortnum, Eyre & Spottiswoode (London, England), 1946.
• The Smith Family at the Seaside, Arnold (Leeds, England), 1947.
• The Smith Family in the Country, Arnold (Leeds, England), 1947.
• The Smith Family in Town, Arnold (Leeds, England), 1947.
• Nursery Stories, Evans (London, England), 1949.
• Lucy the Lamb, Eyre & Spottiswoode (London, England), 1951.
• Neddy the Donkey, Eyre & Spottiswoode (London, England), 1951.
• The Sparrow and the Goat, Eyre & Spottiswoode (London, England), 1951.
• The Starling and the Fox, Eyre & Spottiswoode (London, England), 1951.
• White Flower, illustrations by M. E. Stewart, Arnold (Leeds, England), 1953.

POETRY; JUVENILE

• The Sunny Book, illustrations by Millicent Sowerby, Oxford University Press (London, England), 1918.
• Fairies and Chimneys, Methuen (London, England), 1918, Doran (New York, NY), 1920.
• The Fairy Green, Methuen (London, England), 1919, Doran (New York, NY), 1923.
• The Fairy Flute, Methuen (London, England), 1921, Doran (New York, NY), 1923.
• A Small Cruse, illustrations by Katy Kruse, Methuen (London, England), 1923.
• The Rose Fyleman Fairy Book, Doran (New York, NY), 1923.
• Fairies and Friends, Methuen (London, England), 1925, Doran (New York, NY), 1926.
• The Rose Fyleman Calendar, illustrations by Lisl Hummel, Methuen (London, England), 1927.
• (With others) Joy Street Poems, Blackwell (Oxford, England), 1927.
• A Princess Comes to Our Town, illustrations by Gertrude Lindsay, Methuen (London, England), 1927, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1928.
• (Editor) Round the Mulberry Bush: Being a Book of Stories and Verses for Children, Dodd, Mead (New York, NY), 1928.
• Old-Fashioned Girls, and Other Poems, illustrations by Ethel Everett, Methuen (London, England), 1928.
• A Garland of Rose's: Collected Poems of Rose Fyleman, illustrations by René Bull, Methuen (London, England), 1928.
• Gay Go Up, illustrations by Decie Merwin, Methuen (London, England), 1929, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1930.
• Fifty-one New Nursery Rhymes, illustrations by Dorothy Burroughes, Methuen (London, England), 1931, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1932.
• (With Thomas F. Dunhill) The Blue Rhyme Book (text by Fyleman; music by Dunhill), Boosey-Methuen (London, England), 1933.
• (Editor) Sugar and Spice: A Collection of Nursery Rhymes, New and Old, illustrations by Janet Laura Scott, Whitman (Racine, WI), 1935.
• (Editor) A'Piping Again, illustrations by Irene Mountfort, Blackwell (Oxford, England), 1936, Stokes (New York, NY), 1938.
• (Editor) Here We Come A'Piping, illustrations by Irene Mountfort, four volumes, Blackwell (Oxford, England), 1936-37, one-volume edition, Stokes (New York, NY), 1937.
• (Editor) Bells Ringing: An Anthology of Verse for Young Children, illustrations by Irene Mountfort, Blackwell (Oxford, England), 1938, Stokes (New York, NY), 1939.
• (Editor) Pipe and Drum: An Anthology of Verse for Young Children, illustrations by Irene Mountfort, Blackwell (Oxford, England), 1939, Stokes (New York, NY), 1940.
• Runabout Rhymes, illustrations by Margaret Tempest, Methuen (London, England), 1941.
• Number Rhymes, Arnold (Leeds, England), 1946.
• Rhyme Book for Adam, Methuen (London, England), 1949.
• (Editor) Over the Tree Tops: Nursery Rhymes from Many Lands, Blackwell (Oxford, England), 1949.
• A Fairy Went A-Marketing, illustrations by Jamichael Henterly, Dutton (New York, NY), 1986.

PLAYS; JUVENILE

• Eight Little Plays for Children (includes Darby and Joan, The Fairy Riddle, Noughts and Crosses, The Weather Clerk, The Fairy and the Doll, Cabbages and Kings, In Arcady, and Father Christmas), Methuen (London, England), 1924, Doran (New York, NY), 1925.
• Seven Little Plays for Children (includes The Princess and the Pirate, The Mermaid, Peter Coffin, The Arm-Chair, Mother Goose's Party, The Coming of Father Christmas, and The Butcher, the Baker, the Candlestick Maker), Methuen (London, England), 1928.
• Nine New Plays for Children (includes The Whisker, The Moon, Cinderella "At Home," The Sampler, Three Naughty Imps, The Test, Sleeping Beauty, Father Christmas Comes to Supper, and Surprise, the Imp), illustrations by Eleanor L. Halsey, Nelson (New York, NY), 1934.
• Six Longer Plays for Children (includes Snow-White, Porridge, Pork-Pie Night, The Beat, The Gus-Plug, and The Angry Brownies), illustrations by Eleanor L. Halsey, Nelson (London, England), 1936.
• The Magic Pencil, and Other Plays from My Tales (includes The Carpet of Truth, Captain Marwhopple, The Rhyming Prince, The Magic Pencil, The Chestnut Man, The Three Princesses, Troodle, and A Legend of St. Nicholas), Methuen (London, England), 1938.
• The Spanish Cloak, Methuen (London, England), 1939.
• (Adaptor; with Will Grant) Red-Riding Hood, music by Grant, Oxford University Press (Oxford, England), 1949.

TRANSLATIONS; JUVENILE

• Karin Michaëlis, Bibi, illustrations by Hedvig Collin, Allen & Unwin (London, England), 1933.
• Karin Michaëlis, Bibi Goes Travelling, illustrations by Hedvig Collin, Allen & Unwin (London, England), 1934.
• Widdy-Widdy-Wurkey: Nursery Rhymes from Many Lands, illustrations by Valerie Carrick, Blackwell (Oxford, England), 1934, published as Picture Rhymes from Foreign Lands, Stokes (New York, NY), 1935, published as Nursery Rhymes from Many Lands, Dover (New York, NY), 1971.
• Karin Michaëlis, Green Island, illustrations by Hedvig Collin, Allen & Unwin (London, England), 1936.
• Lida, Père Castor's Wild Animal Books, eight volumes, illustrations by Rojan, Allen & Unwin, 1937-42.
• Jan Karafiat, Fireflies, illustrations by Emil Weiss, Allen & Unwin (London, England), 1942.
• Alfred Flueckiger, Tuck: The Story of a Snow Hare, illustrations by Grace Huxtable, Lane (London, England), 1949.
• Marie-Louise Ventteclaye, Simone and the Lilywhites, Museum Press (London, England), 1949.
• Lillian Miozzi, The Adventures of Tommy, the Cat Who Went to Sea, illustrations by Charlotte Hough, Lane (London, England), 1950.
• Lily Martini, Peter and His Friend Toby, illustrations by Wolfgang Felten, Lane (London, England), 1955.

OTHER

• A Little Christmas Book, illustrations by Lisl Hummel, Methuen (London, England), 1926, Doran (New York, NY), 1927.
• The Katy Kruse Dolly Book, illustrations by Katy Kruse, Doran (New York, NY), 1927.
• (Translator) Songs, Curwen (London, England), 1927.
• The Second Katy Kruse Dolly Book, Harrap (London, England), 1930.
• Hey! Ding-a-Ding, University of London Press (London, England), 1931.
• The Rose Fyleman Birthday Book, illustrations by Muriel Dawson and Margaret Tarrant, Medici Society (London, England), 1932.
• (With Thomas F. Dunhill) Happy Families (opera; produced in 1933), music by Dunhill, Methuen (London, England), 1933.
• Bears, illustrations by Stuart Tresilian, Nelson (New York, NY), 1935.
• Monkeys, Nelson (New York, NY), 1936.
• (With E. M. D. Wilson) Billy Monkey: A True Tale of a Capuchin, illustrations by Cecil Leslie, Nelson (London, England), 1936, Nelson (New York, NY), 1937.
• A Book of Saints: Joan of Arc to St. Nicholas, illustrations by Gertrude Mittelman, Methuen (London, England), 1939.
• Folk-Tales from Many Lands, Methuen (London, England), 1939.
• (Translator) After All (play), Methuen (London, England), 1939.
• (Editor) Let's Play, Grout (London, England), 1943.
• (Editor) Punch and Judy, illustrations by Paul Henning, Methuen (London, England), 1944.
• Daphne and Dick: An Uncle from Canada, illustrations by Jeannetta Vise, Macdonald (London, England), 1952.
• Daphne and Dick: Round and About, illustrations by Jeannetta Vise, Macdonald (London, England), 1952.
• Founding editor, Merry-Go-Round, 1923-24.
• Contributor to periodicals, including Horn Book and Punch.

External links

• Rose Fyleman, Online Books page with links to editions of 3 of her works.
• The Other Pages, selected poems