Editing Children's literature (section)

====Adventure fiction====

[[File:Treasure-island01.png|thumb|upright|Illustration from Robert Louis Stevenson's 1883 pirate adventure ''[[Treasure Island]]'']]
While [[Daniel Defoe]] wrote ''[[Robinson Crusoe]]'' in 1719 (spawning so many imitations it defined a genre, [[Robinsonade]]), adventure stories written specifically for children began in the nineteenth century. Early examples from British authors include [[Frederick Marryat]]'s ''[[The Children of the New Forest]]'' (1847) and [[Harriet Martineau]]'s ''The Peasant and the Prince'' (1856).<ref>[[Peter Hunt (literary critic)|Hunt, Peter]]. (Editor). ''Children's literature: an illustrated history''. Oxford University Press, 1995. {{ISBN|0-19-212320-3}} (pp. 98–100)</ref>

The Victorian era saw the development of the genre, with [[William Henry Giles Kingston|W. H. G. Kingston]], [[R. M. Ballantyne]] and [[G. A. Henty]] specializing in the production of adventure fiction for boys.<ref name="oxford">Butts, Dennis,"Adventure Books" in [[Jack Zipes|Zipes, Jack]], ''The Oxford Encyclopedia of Children's Literature''. Volume One. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2006. {{ISBN|978-0-19-514656-1}} (pp.&nbsp;12–16).</ref> This inspired writers who normally catered to adult audiences to write for children, a notable example being [[Robert Louis Stevenson]]'s classic [[Piracy|pirate]] story ''[[Treasure Island]]'' (1883).<ref name="oxford" />

In the years after the First World War, writers such as [[Arthur Ransome]] developed the adventure genre by setting the adventure in Britain rather than distant countries. In the 1930s he began publishing his [[Swallows and Amazons series]] of children's books about the school-holiday adventures of children, mostly in the English [[Lake District]] and the [[Norfolk Broads]]. Many of them involve sailing; fishing and camping are other common subjects.<ref>Hugh Brogan, ''The Life of Arthur Ransome''. Jonathan Cape, 1984</ref> [[Biggles]] was a popular series of [[adventure book]]s for young boys, about James Bigglesworth, a fictional pilot and [[adventurer]], by [[W. E. Johns]]. Between 1941 and 1961 there were 60 issues with stories about Biggles,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.boysown.info/|title=Boys Own Paper featuring the work of Captain W E Johns|last=rogerharris@biggles.info|website=www.boysown.info|access-date=2017-06-07|archive-date=2017-06-09|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170609164007/http://boysown.info/|url-status=live}}</ref> and in the 1960s occasional contributors included the BBC astronomer [[Patrick Moore]]. Between 1940 and 1947, W. E. Johns contributed sixty stories featuring the female pilot [[Worrals]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.girlsown.info/ |title=Girls Own Paper featuring the work of Captain W E Johns |last=rogerharris@biggles.info |website=www.girlsown.info |access-date=2017-06-07 |archive-date=2017-05-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170520160249/http://girlsown.info/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Evoking epic themes, [[Richard Adams]]'s 1972 survival and adventure novel ''[[Watership Down]]'' follows a small group of rabbits who escape the destruction of their warren and seek to establish a new home.

[[Geoffrey Trease]] and [[Rosemary Sutcliff]] brought a new sophistication to the historical adventure novel.<ref name="oxford" /><ref>Hunt, 1995, (p. 208–209)</ref> [[Philip Pullman]] in the [[Sally Lockhart]] novels and [[Julia Golding]] in the [[Cat Royal]] series have continued the tradition of the historical adventure.<ref name="oxford" />