R.I.P. Lloyd Alexander
Lloyd Alexander, a National Book Award-winning author of fantasy novels for young people whose work was noted for its romantic locales, complex characters and barely concealed allegorical depictions of the struggle against tyranny, died on Thursday at his home in Drexel Hill, Pa. He was 83…
…For Mr. Alexander, the uses of enchantment were clear: fantasy, he often said, was a powerful way of talking about real-world injustice.
“In whatever guise — our own daily nightmares of war, intolerance, inhumanity; or the struggles of an Assistant Pig-Keeper against the Lord of Death — the problems are agonizingly familiar,” he said in his Newbery acceptance speech in 1969. “And an openness to compassion, love and mercy is as essential to us here and now as it is to any inhabitant of an imaginary kingdom.”
