Edward Eager

1 universe Last reviewed 2026-10-06

Edward Eager (1911-1964) was an American playwright, lyricist and children's author, born in Toledo, Ohio, and educated at Harvard. He worked chiefly in the theatre and in radio and television, writing plays, lyrics and adaptations, and began writing for children only in 1951, when he went looking for books to read to his young son Fritz and found none he liked. His reading of E. Nesbit in that search made him her open disciple: his children read Nesbit, quote her and find their adventures measured against hers, and the seven Tales of Magic, from Half Magic (1954) to Seven-Day Magic (1962), transplant her formula of ordinary, squabbling children and capricious magic to the American Midwest and to Baltimore. Illustrated by N. M. Bodecker, the books have stayed continuously in print and are counted among the classics of American children's fantasy. Eager died of lung cancer in Connecticut in 1964, aged fifty-three.

Universe(s)

Books

• Half Magic (1954) · Tales of Magic Core Canon
• Knight's Castle (1956) · Tales of Magic Core Canon
• Magic by the Lake (1957) · Tales of Magic Core Canon
• The Time Garden (1958) · Tales of Magic Core Canon
• Magic or Not? (1959) · Tales of Magic Core Canon
• The Well-Wishers (1960) · Tales of Magic Core Canon
• Seven-Day Magic (1962) · Tales of Magic Core Canon

Aggregate across all universes

• Total Core Canon books across all universes: 7 books
• Award recognitions across all universes: 0 (None recorded)

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